Tag Archives: summer

White Roads

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This was a phrase we had not heard before we started motoring around Tuscany. While it sounds quite exotic, it is simply the local name for dirt roads.

In Tuscany there are quite a few.

On a map you will see many roads criss-crossing Tuscany and the distance between places seems small by New Zealand standards. It’s only when you drive that you realise what sort of road it is and the trip time changes accordingly.

Clean me - please.

The road to the cottage is a white road 3kms long. As you can see by the back of the mighty Peugeot (which is a black car, honestly) in summer the roads can get quite dusty. Today, in honour of it’s impending trip to Positano, the Pug is getting it’s first serious clean.

I’ve even bought a sponge and some carwash from the local supermercato.

I’ll just wait until the temperature outside drops below 30 degrees before I start. Ah, that gives me time for a beer.

The day we got thrown out of the Palio

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Saturday 2 July is the day of the Palio in Siena. The day horses representing the various contrada or districts of Siena race around the Campo for glory. We are heading south to Positano that day but were in Siena on Thursday evening and got wrapped up in the rehearsal for the Palio where they test the race track (and presumably the other things that go with the race).

Because the track runs through the various bars and restaurants that ring the Campo (yes, actually through their outdoor seating areas) they were all shutting early so the track could be cleared. The stands for spectators are behind the bars/restaurants and temporary grandstands had been in place for a week.

We had taken the dogs in with us so they could have their summer hair cuts and we were sitting in our favourite Campo bar when things started happening around us. Tables and chairs were being put away and last orders called – all at 6:30pm.

We knew the rehearsal was due to start at 7pm so we moved into the stands directly behind the bar and made ourselves comfortable. By this time, there were quite large crowds in the Campo, with groups supporting their contrada with songs, chants and general noisiness. It soon became apparent that the stands were all reserved, in fact quite large sums of money are spent to ensure a good spot.

A nice man explained that we were in the seats they had reserved but that we could move to the centre of Campo where viewing was free. We took the hint and moved – us, the dogs and associated paraphernalia out of the stands, across the track and into the central area.

The view wasn’t quite as good but the crowd was friendly and the dogs were settling. Within minutes, two things happened. Firstly we felt the first few raindrops that can signal a Tuscan downpour and secondly some polite officials told us that dogs were not allowed at the Palio as they might scare the horses so we had to leave.

Clearly the god of the Palio wasn’t on our side.

We, once again, collected everything together and headed off. By this stage the crowd was huge and the exits were not easy to find. The track was close to being closed off and the rain had started to fall heavily. Also, did I mention the temperature was around 28 degrees and we were carrying the dogs so they didn’t get trampled underfoot?

We eventually found an exit and pushed, prodded, and poked our way through. We found a place to shelter from the rain but this was a token gesture as we were completely soaked – rain from outside and perspiration from within.

A soggy, hot walk to the car followed. It seemed we were the only people in Siena heading away from the Campo as we were passed by groups of laughing, happy and dry locals.

There is a second Palio in mid August and we are keen to attend – but we just need to get some tickets first. Sadly the girls get to stay home that day.

Visiting Buonconvento and other things

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In the last few days summer has really arrived in Tuscany. Temperatures have been around 30 degrees and the pace of life has slowed accordingly. Today we spent the middle of the day beside the pool and only when the temperature had dropped in the early evening did we venture out.

Jean and the girls at a cafe in Buonconvento

About 15 minutes down the road is the town of Buonconvento, a delightful place with an old town centre that has been developed over the years. We stayed in a villa only a couple of minutes from the town in 2004 and remember the town as utilitarian at best. Now it is a thriving tourist and artistic centre and definitely worth visiting if you are in the area.

The trip there and back is through farmland much of which is now planted in Sunflowers which are starting to bloom. When our visitors arrive in mid July, they should be looking great.

The girls

When we arrived back at the cottage the daily display that is the sunset was well underway. Although a camera can never do justice to this spectacle, here’s my best attempt.

Sunset over Siena - June 28

Early morning in Tuscany

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I would love to claim these early morning photographs of the area around our cottage as mine.  But those of you who know me well know that “early mornings” and I don’t mix.

Jean took these shots.  I think they are great.

Catching up with Kate

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Last night we caught up with Kate and her family who are spending 2 months travelling around Europe. Kate used to work with Jean at Clemenger but she is currently based in the UK with her partner.

Jean had put Kate in touch with our villa wizard friend Olga when their trip was being planned but made sure to recommended a villa we had stayed at previously. Villa Crognole is a beautiful villa tucked into the Chianti hills with a view down the valley towards Radda.

We called into Crognole yesterday afternoon for a drink or two along with Olga and her husband which meant the afternoon was spent sitting in the sun discussing travel, news from home, and any other subject that wandered into people’s minds, all in a mix of english, italian and kiwi.

We went to dinner with Kate and her family at Le Vigne restaurant just outside Radda. It was dining al fresco with a view over the vineyards that produce some of the great Chianti Classico wines.

Dinner was lovely and all done on Italian time. That simply means that the wine and various courses rolled out through the evening until we finally left the restaurant, just before midnight.

Good people, great company and truly la dolce vita.

Summer in Tuscany

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In an earlier post I bemoaned the fact that when we arrived in May, Tuscany was green – bright green – not the usual mix of faded summer colours that, for us, have always defined the area. What a difference 6 weeks makes.

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Jean and the girls in the Campo

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I thought I had posted this photograph before but looking back, I haven’t.  It’s the day the whole family went to Siena.  And in true form Jean is looking lovely, Poppie is looking cute and Daisy (partly obscured) is, well, see for yourself.

The Mowday family in the Campo, Siena.

Washday at our Pa

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Life in Tuscany isn’t all fine chianti and al dente pasta you know.  The washing still needs to be done and Tuesday is as good a day as any other.  A load of washing costs €3 for casual guests but is built into our weekly rent.  Given the rate at which we go through clothes that’s about $NZ500 which can be spent on fine chianti and al dente pasta.

Washing drying beside our cottage on a sunny summer morning.

Visitors from distant shores

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We are starting to plan for the arrival of summer visitors. Today we bought a small freezer which now holds pride of place in the kitchen (and the dining room and part of the lounge) so we can do ice cubes, gelato and actually store meat for more than a day or two. And get beer really cold in a hurry.

The barbecue is being specified at present. We are thinking charcoal as that seems to be the accepted norm. Around here gas seems to be for gattino – look it up. Also a slew of other home comforts are being put in place because it’s the beginning of the visitor season.

In the next month and a half we have visitors galore.

Villa Crognole outside Radda in Chanti.

First up we catch up with Jean’s friend Kate Maclean who worked with Jean at Clemenger. Kate and her partner are working in the UK. Kate’s family are coming over from New Zealand for a holiday which involves a week in a villa in Chianti. It has been arranged through our villa wizard Olga and is the same one we stayed at in 2006. A fantastic place. We are popping up for drinks and dinner in mid June.

Next up is a flying weekend visit by Gill from the UK. We are thinking pool life combined with excellent meals in Siena. And the odd bottle of New Zealand Chardonnay mixed in.

At the start of July the Mowday family packs the car and leaves Tuscany heading for Positano where we have rented an apartment off the lovely family who own and run Eden Roc Hotel. The really good news is we get full hotel privileges (pool, bar tab, meals on the terrace, Tony’s cappuccino for breakfast, etc) but stay off site so the dogs don’t disturb the hotel’s peace and quiet. We are there for two weeks and Jean’s sister Charmaine, brother-in-law Mike and their baby James arrive towards the end of the stay.

Jean, Josh, Andre, Gill and Jordan around the pool in 2010 while the dolphin watches on.

Back to Toscana with Charmaine, Mike and Jimmy for a week and then Gill, Josh and Jordan arrive from London with Andre following after his pilgrimage to the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. We are still looking for large, slightly disturbing, inflatable animals to go in the pool prior to their arrival.

We are also expecting a mate from work, Danny Malone, to put in an appearance at the end of July on his 2011 European trip to round things out. An excellent month at our place.

We then head south to Rome for a weekend at the end of July with Charmaine, Mike and James before aiming the Peugeot at Nice for a car swap in early August – and a week at the delightful Hotel Welcome in Villefranche sur mer. See an earlier post for rave reviews.

After that we are ready to welcome other kiwi visitors – you know who you are – through August and September as the summer crawls to an end and our thoughts turn to autumn.

Excitingly it looks like our old friend Isabel and Charlie will be visiting in late September/early October as well. I think I can call Isabel an “old” friend as we both have had very significant birthdays this year.

Let the fun commence.

Bugs and other thingies

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Something for our visitors to remember – Tuscany has bugs and crawlies. As well as endowing Tuscany with beautiful countryside and light that artists would die for, God also provided Tuscany with its fair share of things that crawl, fly, jump and hop.

Those of you who know Jean know she’s not great with things that crawl, fly, jump or hop. In fact it’s not unknown for her to do a funny little dance accompanied by a high pitched scream when some poor creature makes an appearance on the floor or stupidly flies in the door. And that was in relatively bug free New Zealand.

Here things are much more exciting. By category:

Flying things

Apart from the usual pesky flies, we have humming birds (which look like giant wasps) and hornets which actually are giant wasps and make a sound not unlike a weed-eater when they approach the cottage. We have mosquitoess (only starting to appear) and sandflies (not dangerous to humans but they can carry some nasty dog diseases) and numerous other things that flit past the cottage each day.

Crawling things

This is a big category. We have millipedes and centipedes and the odd earwig. We have spiders of all shapes and sizes although Jean’s jandal is doing an excellent job of keeping the local population under control.

Two Geckos meet on our terrace.

Geckos are everywhere at present and find the brick terrace ideal for sunning themselves. We have one particular gecko which seems to spend the most time sunning himself on our terrace and who seems to call our place home. He has lost half his tail and defends our front door heroically from any other geckos that dare to show up.

There is another class of crawling thing which we’ll call “don’t know what it is but crickey it runs fast” and there are a lot of these.

A passing Gecko poses for a photo.

We haven’t seen any scorpions yet but it’s early days.

Jumping things

We have a resident cottage frog which traverses the verandah each evening going from somewhere to somewhere else. Although he is classed under “jumping things” he seems to spend most of his time walking.

Hopping things

To be honest we haven’t spotted any hopping things as yet but I’m sure they are out there.

Fighting back

Never let it be said we are quitters. We have armed ourselves with the latest in bug protection to fight back. We have a bug zapper for the verandah, mosquito deterrents for inside and out, magic stickers for the windows that kill flies, an old fashioned fly swap and, of course, Jean’s deadly jandal.

Bring it on I say.

Ten minutes down the road

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Having explored as far afield as Radda in Chianti north of Siena and Buonconvento in the south, yesterday we strayed closer to home in Monteroni D’Arbia. This small hamlet is only 10 minutes from the cottage and is the centre of our small district.

We first visited on market day about 3 weeks ago when the main shopping area was filled with stalls selling everything from clothes to meat to household appliances. Every day of the week there is a market in another local town and, rather than them just being a tourist attraction, they are an important part of local life both economically and socially.

We attracted quite a bit of attention walking around, possibly because of our inherent elegance, but more likely because we had the girls with us. Daisy will, as you know gentle reader, take on any dog she sees be it Doberman or Chihuahua so our walk through the market involved a ballet of side steps and distractions as we spotted any oncoming dogs.

Without the market Monteroni D’Arbia is still a delightful place to walk and browse the local shops. It’s not a picture postcard Tuscan village but rather a good honest working town. We stopped for a drink in the cafe on the main road and Jean shopped for plants and containers for our front verandah over the summer. Once again our mix of bad Italian, sign language and the good nature of the locals triumphed and we returned home with everything we wanted – including takeout pizza and beer for dinner.

All up, a good day.

Rainy afternoon in Siena

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Yesterday we had our third language lesson in Siena. The day started out sunny but with thunderstorms rumbling around the hills in the distance. By 4pm our lesson had finished and we adjourned to a bar in the Campo for a well earned drink or two. The thunder was closer and the sun had been replaced by clouds although the temperature remained in the low 20s. Clearly the locals expected unsettled weather as the awnings and umbrellas that protect the bars and restaurants around the Campo from the sun had been kept in place.

Rain falling in the Campo.

At 5pm the heavens opened and the rain came down. Big, fat drops and unusually for someone from Wellington who expects rain to fall horizontally, they came straight down.

The crowded Campo emptied immediately as tourists rushed for shelter, some in shops but the majority straight to the nearest bar – all forced to buy drinks they didn’t really want at Campo prices. The Sinese locals produced umbrellas and continued going about their business as if nothing had happened. After 10 minutes the rain eased, the skies lightened and tourists flooded back into the Campo. All about €10 poorer for their drink.

More rain.

We took this opportunity to make our way back to the Peugeot congratulating ourselves on our timing. Not so fast, about halfway to the car the rain started again and, like everyone else we headed for the nearest shelter. In our case it was a bag shop in one of Siena’s small side streets. But for the period of the rain it sold umbrellas – as did every other shop in Siena. Bins of brightly colored umbrellas had appeared from nowhere and were prominently displayed just inside the shop doors. We took two – €16, Grazie.

Yet more rain.

However Siena is described it is, above all, a city of merchant traders.

Please note: photographs used have been digitally enhanced to highlight moody weather.

What’s the travel accessory you should never leave home without?

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I used to think it was noise cancelling headphones.  But I was wrong.  Headphones might be good for the luxury traveller taking short jaunts to foreign climes but for us long term, hard core, down to earth travellers the perfect companion is a Leatherman Blast.

My "must have" travel accessory.

I was given the aforementioned tool for my 50th birthday – thank you Charmaine, Mike and James – and it has proved invaluable.  It can cut, screw, saw or slice pretty much anything.  Whether it’s mundane tasks like tightening a screw on a wobbly pot handle or more exotic uses like an ice pick to de-ice a dodgy fridge, it’s ideal.

Recently it was put to use erecting some temporary wire fencing around our terrace to give Daisy and Poppie some indoor/outdoor flow without the chance of them doing a runner.

Mission accomplished thanks largely to the Blast.

One warning, if you bring something like this on holiday don’t pack it in your hand luggage.  The 4 inch knife blade might be a bit tough to explain to those nice gentlemen from Homelands Security.

Poppie meets the new fence.

Wednesday Sunset

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Sunset from our cottage

Another of those no reason posts really – other than this was the sunset last night from the verandah of our cottage.

Be the first to read new posts.

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Regular readers of the blog may notice the addition of a “email subscription” button on the right of the page.  Subscribing means that you will receive an email every time there is a new post to the blog.

This would also be a great way to catch the posts that are put up and then suddenly removed for linguistic reasons (Jean says they don’t make sense) or social reasons (Jean says I really can’t say things like that).

I can assure you that subscribing will not lead to a sudden flurry of emails trying to sell you Viagra or offering you part of an obscure african country’s overseas funds. Well, certainly no more dodgy emails than you receive already.