Holiday in Tuscany: 9. What to remember

As a final post in this series about my recent trip to Tuscany, here’s a wrap-up in the form of a list of things that struck me, things I will remember, and things that will make me go back there at some point in the future.

Apart from a ‘conclusion’ to the Holiday in Tuscany series, this post can also be used as a kind of summary if you don’t want to wade through all the other posts, as it provides a more succinct overview of (most of) the main points made in the other posts .

In general, our trip to Tuscany was a great vacation and we enjoyed our (short) stay very much, but we had to get used to a few peculiar aspects of Italian life.

One surprise was the curtness and seeming ‘unfriendliness’ with which some people (in shops, bars, restaurants, etc) reacted to us. We had several occasions of waiters ‘throwing’ cutlery on the table, shopkeepers ‘throwing’ change on the counter, or service personnel reacting bluntly to our inquiries. ‘Throwing’ should of course not be understood here as in ‘throwing from a few meters away’, but rather as in ‘putting on the table by means of a technique which relies substantially on gravity’ .

It wasn’t like that all the time or with everyone, but it happened frequently enough to attribute it to more than chance. Maybe it’s a general cultural ‘nonchalance’ thing, maybe Italians don’t like tourists, or maybe we just ran in to the wrong people, I don’t know. Anyway, after a while we got used to it and sort of chuckled at it every time it happened.

Another thing to get used to is Italian driving habits. Our guidebook advised not to drive in Firenze unless you are positively confident behind the wheel. We found that to be true, and in some respects – although perhaps to a lesser degree – the same can be said about Tuscany (Italy?) in general. Driving can be a bit of a chaotic experience at times, and you have to get used to people driving pretty fast and not always respecting traffic lane boundaries. But on the other hand, if you’re a confident enough driver it can be real fun to blend in and just join in with the local driving style – although I’m sure J has a completely different opinion on that matter (sorry for the scary and nauseating moments I put you through darling! )

The greatest things about Tuscany for me were undoubtedly the landscape and the architecture. Although I knew roughly what to expect from the many photography books covering the region, being there in real life to admire the Crete Senesi landscape with my own eyes was still an overwhelming experience. I did find that our guidebook was a bit too poetic about it though, as it still remains a region inhabited by people going about there everyday lives, so there is a certain amount of ‘everyday-life ugliness’ to be found there as well (you know: apartment blocks, factories, …). But still, overall it is one of the more beautiful inhabited regions I have visited so far – although I’m still convinced that nothing beats mother nature left to her own ways.

And as a second caveat, high summer presents only one face of the Tuscan landscape, with mostly rather hazy conditions because of the heat, and with a predominant golden-yellow color of the harvested fields. While certainly beautiful, I suspect we did not witness Tuscany at its absolute best, and I will certainly return one day to see what it looks like in other seasons (spring and fall are prime candidates of course).

Next there is Tuscan architecture. To be clear I am talking here about historic buildings only, although some of the modern buildings styles are not too bad either – but unfortunately Tuscany has not been spared of the ugliness of modern-day functional architecture and so there are a lot of places I would abhor to live in even in Tuscany. Now I knew Tuscany had old buildings, but the sheer number of them really surprised me, and what blew me away was that so many town-centers were still full of them. Walking through the late-medieval town center of Siena is an experience all by itself. Really impressive, and something I did not expect when I was planning the trip.

And as that are only the ‘common’, ‘every-day’ medieval buildings, the ones that are not mentioned in travel guides, you can imagine what the ones that are mentioned are like: absolutely stunning – and that is putting it mildly. Although we didn’t visit the Duomo of Firenze because it had a few hundred tourists lined up in the blistering afternoon heat at every entrance and we were not in the mood to get fried or squashed, we did visit the Siena Duomo, and that one was certainly worth the visit. It is built using an alternating combination of black and white stone which gives it a unique character – a bit ‘lego’-like but on a grander scale . Inside it is so richly ornamented you would probably need more than one day to take in every detail. Here’s an impression of the inside.

Duomo of Siena - Interior view

Finally, I have to mention another great discovery I made in Tuscany: wine. Now I knew about Chianti, and I knew there were some really great wines there, but so far I had not yet encountered (don’t ask me why) the wines from Montalcino and Scansano. And after having been introduced to them, I am delighted to say that I can add another grape to my list of absolute favorites (next to Shiraz and Malbec): Sangiovese. A wonderful grape with a surprisingly soft pallet which is sublimely crafted in superb wines like Brunello di Montalcino and Morellino di Scansano. If you haven’t done so yet, you absolutely positively have to try them; they are such a magnificent glorification of the powers of mother nature they just might make you a deeply religious person .

So, after all this greatness, what is there left that I would want to return to Tuscany for (except of course to just do it all again)? One thing I didn’t get enough of is culture – their just wasn’t enough time to visit any museums, or to visit the undoubtedly beautiful interiors of the many historic buildings. On a next visit I will certainly try to put in more of that.

And I would like to return in a different, less hot season, as I already mentioned. Not just to see if the beautiful landscape can look even better than it did in summer, but also to be able to more comfortably visit a few cities, and especially Firenze. As I said in another post, Firenze was a bit of a let-down for us because we were there for only one day (afternoon really), and that happened to be one of the hottest of the year, and from the looks of it also one of the most crowded ones. So I definitely would like to visit Firenze in the off-season, when it is less hot and (hopefully) less filled with tourists. And not just for the architecture and the art, also for shopping, which we didn’t get around to do at all – shame on us! .

Anyway, as you can see, we had plenty of reasons to travel to Tuscany, and we came back with just as many reasons to return .

G

Explore posts in the same categories: Travel, Tuscany

Tags: Brunello, Duomo, Firenze, Montalcino, Morellino, Scansano, Siena, Travel, Tuscany, wine

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