The Pitti palace was originally built by a wealthy banker named Pitti in 1458. Almost 100 years later, Medici family moved in and expansion began. The family’s official residence was The Palazzo Vecchio and the Pitti Palace was used mostly for guests and private functions. They could walk indoors from the both residences though a series of covered walkways that crossed the river on the Ponte Vecchio.

In the 1700’s Napoleon took it over as his base. It was also the home of the Italian royal family for a short time before Italy became a republic. The king donated the palace and its contents to the state in 1919.

We arrived through the Boboli Gardens behind the palace. They are acres of ornate, manicured gardens connected to the palace. We didn’t spend much time in the gardens as we wanted to get too tired before the museum tour.

As we got to the front of the building, we saw that a ceremony of sorts was happening.

The ceremony celebrated an economic pact between Italy and Germany.

We started our tour and did our obligatory climb up six long flights of stone stairs. It was worth the climb.

The walls and ceilings were covered in paintings. The rooms were richly decorated and there was a lot to see. There was also a great number of statues. This one was original to the entrance to the Boboli Gardens and has recently been restored.

The top floor of the palace was “modern art” which really meant anything from the 1800-present era.

We had lunch in town and then headed back to our villa for a swim. It’s been the great having the fun of the big city and the comfort of a small town. Our bus ride in was 30 minutes and our bus stop was just outside a grocery store.

We are now transitioning from holiday mode to conference going. We are taking the train from Florence to Rome. I am looking forward to train ride.

The Medici’s in Florence had so much wealth, they needed a place to stash it. They created the Gallery we explored for over 3 hours in the early 1500’s. This place was way beyond incredible. There was art from all the renaissance artists you may or may not have heard of, including: Michelangelo

Da Vinci and, one of my favourites, Caravaggio

Of course we saw the “Venus on the half shell” by Botticelli. I was particularly struck by some of the portraits. Like this woman in a larger painting by Suttermanns,

Or this one by Bonacossi

There were also all sorts statues from all sorts of eras. This one seemed to be a classic poseand this one had all the talent and all the drama

We finished our tour with a relaxing lunch. There is nothing like the backache that arises from walking on centuries old stone floors.

We wandered a little through the leather market and headed back to the restorative swimming pool at our apartments.

I apologize if you’ve had lots of blog updates. For some reason the pictures wouldn’t load as usual. I think I got them now. It may have been that I was writing on my iPhone while on a bus careening through the Italian hills. Or, it may have been my inexperience with WordPress.

We started our journey to South Africa at the airstrip near our tented camp. It was 12 seater Cessna C208B. We got on the plane without confirming we had a ticket, giving anyone our names or showing any ID. It was somewhat tight but we all fit. It brought back nostalgic moments for Anne but she wasn’t inspired to start jumping again..

We arrived in Siena in time to check into our hotel and set out for a morning of wandering. We started with the home of the Dominicans. It was a lovely church that housed the head of St. Catherine, a patron saint of Italy (along with St Francis of Assisi). She looked peaceful, in a leering, I am a skeleton, way.

Our next goal was the shell -shaped Il Campo square in the centre of town. We started our walking tour here. Alice, our guide, told us that Siena is divided into 17 communities (Contrade) who compete in the Palio. This is a madcap horse race held twice every summer. It occurs in the square. They put down a sandy clay surface and let the bareback riders run the race. The horses matter more than the riders as it is the first horse across the finish line, without without rider. https://www.italyscapes.com/events/tuscany/siena/historical-reenactments/palio-di-siena-palio-di-provenzano-2019/

Each Contrade has an official colour and animal. We noticed plaques as we walked that told us which Contrade we were in.

This is the symbol of the forest Contrade. They changed their animal symbol from the wild boar to the Rhino in 1512 when the first drawings of this mighty beast started arriving in Siena. The horses come into town three days before the race to practice and our houses in these tiny stables hidden down what used to be totally covered alleys.

We continued past all sorts of touristic stores and restaurants as we walked through this old city. Siena was important in the Middle Ages as the stopping point from Rome north. The plague stopped in its tracks in 1348. It took several generations to recover and that showed in its loss of political/economic status and in its buildings. Recovery was seen by the time of the renascence.

We toured the Duomo and were impressed by both the internal and external decor.

One chapel was designed by Bernini, one of our favourite sculptors. Another altar was designed and started by Michelangelo. He carved 4 panels before ditching the project for the more lucrative commission to sculpt the David in Florence. The statue he did of St Paul is believed to be his first self-portrait. If you stripped away the beard you might also see the face of the David.

There was a fascinating library full of illuminated sacred music. The Dominican with us on our tour told us they were Gregorian chants she has sung. The colours of everything in the room were vibrant because the library was private until the 1970s.

After our tour we found food, wine and the need for a rest. We headed back to the hotel and had a lovely glass of “old style” chianti. One rule change in recent times is that no chianti Classico can include white wine. The old style wine was nice sipping on our patio and had a slight fizz to it. Superstore Liquor store never wraps our wine this well. Our next stop was the bus station to explore how to get back to Florence. Then off to Via del Capitan for dinner. This restaurant was in the Eagle Contrada and our pre-dinner entertainment was a display of flag waving.

The boys here start learning flag waving at 6 years old. The parade before the Palio involves costumed flag wavers doing advance techniques. the drummer was fantastic and an athlete in his own right.

Next stop Florence!

We decided to take a break from our hiking plans due to rain. The paths we’ve been hiking would be incredibly slippery in any kind of wet conditions. Instead, we spent the morning relaxing (ok I was stressing about my presentation in Rome and Dale snoozed). We decided wine tasting was in order.

The first stop was the I Selvatica vineyard in Montevarchi, Arezzo in Sienna where the third generation owner gave us our introduction to their wine. We were able to get squeezed in at the last moment because he went to elementary school with the tour company owner. Our host was a character. He spends 6 months of the year in the US skiing and schmoozing the rich and famous. Karen asked about the potential for a forth generation of winemaker but we learned that the next generation has not arrived yet.

We tasted incredible wine including a full body white, a classic Chianti, then a super Tuscan and finally a wine made from dried grapes. The super Tuscan sells for $179/bottle in the US. You can tell it was worth it considering we’ve been drinking great wines at €7-15/bottle and we bought 2 bottles @€35/bottle. The dessert wine was amazing. They usually get 65 bottles from 100 kg of grapes for the wine. They get 6 bottles/100kgs of grapes for the dessert wine. Needless to say, it was smooth and not sweet.There was one bottle of a dessert wine the grandfather cellared in 1958 that our host bottled in 1998 and recently sold a half bottle to Kenny Chesny last year for $1800US. Our taste of the dessert wine is sold exclusively at the Ritz Carlton for $65/glass.

Our second stop was back in Chianti proper at the Castello Monterinaldi. As we entered we noticed an important sign.

We were on the right track. We were told about the difference between wine that meets the Chianti official status (DGOC, i.e., minimum 80% Sangiovese grape, grown in the Chianti region, aged minimum 2 years and 56 other rules) and independent local wines. They do much of their aging in concrete vats. The rose was deliciously and the Classico reserva was smooth.

We really enjoyed the taste of balsamic vinegar offered at the end. They also gave us bread and olive oil to cleanse our palate between tastings. This vintner has 2000 trees for olives. It takes 1 tree worth of olives to make 1 litre of cold press oil.

The third stop of our adventure took us to the Casa Emma vineyard. this was an organic vineyard that uses this form of Organic fertilizers. Our view of the Emma Estate started with a view of their vines. The new vines in front of us were planted this year and will take 8 years to mature. There are no grapes produced in the 1st 4 years.

our host was passionate about his work and led a lively tour🤓. He described that olives were picked and pressed the same day. White trebbiano grapes were boiled for 10 hours and aged 7 years in 2 different barrels, the first 4 years in cherry then in chestnut barrels. It was delicious on the pecorino cheese he served us.

He introduced us to the Chianti Classico. He gave us a much more detailed perspective on the rules. For example, You have to keep every aspect of production in region. Central part of Chianti. They can blend Canaiolo, Malvasia Nero and Sangiovese grapes.

We also learned that the term “Super Tuscan” is a nick name for any wine from regional grapes outside made in a non-DOGC tradition- free expression & no rules. We had so much fun on this adventure and are now back in Radda getting ready to transfer to Sienna.

So, if there are any grammatical or typographical errors in today’s blog, please blame it on Chianti wine 😋

Our driver picked us up in Greve and deposited us on the side of the road of the “highest of the Chianti hills, Monte San Michel” so we could begin our trek into Radda. Our guidebook called this day an “easy” hike of 12km that should take 3 hours. It started with a delightful stroll through a forest. The path seemed to be the cut line for water and gas pipes. The path itself was small stones and sometime bedrock. The footing was challenging, especially going downhill, which was most of the initial trek.

We stopped for lunch in Volpaia. It is a small village focused on wine and olive oil. We chose The Bottega for our meal as it had a commanding view of the countryside. The restaurant was attached to the church on one side. There was a bakery attached to the church on the other. It was a very good use of very old buildings. Everything looked like it had been there a long time, likely, according to the sign on the castle on the square, since 1176. we appreciated the restaurant motto but required beer to quench hiking thirsts

We learned that many of the paths we needed to take were outlined by massive cedars lining the routes.

The walk away from Volpaia was through a farming community that teemed with butterflies and bees in lavender plants.

The sounds of these insects were soothing and a welcome change from the ever present cicadas. We continued through vineyards, around churches and through fields and had a pretty good day. The reality of how the end of our day would go began as we stood at the top of a vineyard and looked across the valley to the top of the next “hill” and realized it was Radda.

We were tired by this point and starting to be less enthusiastic about the remaining hike. I noticed the vineyard building at the bottom of the path and started to fantasize about it being a winery that did wine tastings and after we stopped for that tasting we could get a cab to the top. Our luck ran out as we realized it was closed on Sundays. Our only option was to climb. And climb we did, taking the “shortcut” option from our book. It meant an almost 2 km vertical climb up the hill. We did it with tortoise like speed.

We all compared our various trackers and realized we had actually walked 19 km and had been on the path for approximately 5.5 hours (including lunch). We sipped gin on the patio outside our rooms and relaxed feeling very accomplished. Dinner occurred after brief naps on another patio with a beautiful view.

We had a bit of a leisurely day, hard to imagine that on a holiday😎. We hiked up to Montefioralle just before a wedding. The wedding singer was practising Ave María as we checked out the church just before the nuptials began. We continued to explore this ain’t village and came across a beautiful balcony. Of course we had to experience our first wine tasting.

while we relaxed we saw this hummingbird moth check out the flowers. We chose to hang out and enjoy a bottle of rose before heading back to our hotel for a relax. On the way down we got to hear the wedding singer again

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We strolled through a beautiful olive grove

Before having lunch in the midst of the Saturday market. We were amazed at the efficiency of the “tear down” of the market at the end of the morning. We were particularly mesmerized by the whole roast pig being deconstructed as the market progressed

It was almost gone by the time the market ended. We had a bit of nap time at the height of the day and missed the deluge of rain before Dale had a swim. More relaxing as we head into an evening of live music.

We transferred to the Aubergo in Greve, a town 30 minutes from Florence. We dropped off our suitcases and set out on our hike. The guidebook told us it was a 2.5 hour easy hike. We learned once again to not trust Italians about time and distance. It was a beautiful uphill climb for the first 2.5 hours.

We went through fields, olive groves, vineyards and forests – all uphill. Then with some relief we started our decent. It was steep on scree-filled roads originally built by the Romans. Going down was harder than going up. I managed to fall and tweak my knee on a particularly steep portion. We will see how it feels tomorrow. We eventually came to a vineyard where we stopped for lunch.

I noticed the family next to us was speaking Swedish, so of course I had to say hello and practice. They were kind. Then our waiter told us the whole vineyard/hotel was owned by Swedes. We had a great time. The food and wine were 😋 delicious. We geared up for the last 2 km of our 11.4km journeys day made it back to our hotel minutes before the skies opened up. Dale got in a swim before the real deluge began. It was over quickly and we had a lovely meal in the Greve town square.

We arrived in Florence with little difficulty and made our way to the Park Hotel. This was a relatively new hotel, just 125 years old and home to the Swiss and Luxembourg consulates. It was comfy and the pool was welcome. We left a cold and rainy Edmonton for a lovely 30 degrees in Italy.

Our first day of hiking took us through olive groves and forest on our way to Fiesole, an upper crust neighbourhood of Florence. The hike was mostly uphill but fun. We were serenaded by the sound of cicadas chirping at each other, hoping to mate. It was amazing sound. every time we stopped we had a better view of Florence. We had a great lunch and took a bus back to the centre of Florence. That’s when we learned not to trust Italians when they tell you how long of a walk it will be. The 15 – 20 minutes they said it would take ended up being much longer. After 30 minutes we sat down and had wine. Then we set off in Ernest for another 30 minute uphill walk. All told we had done 10 miles of walking in our first day. It was great. Food and wine have been fantastic, as expected. Our next adventure is in the heart of Chianti country