September 7 Tuesday
Today is scheduled to be a super serious day of sightseeing. We had on our plans to go the city of Sienna and then to the mountain fortress town of San Gemignano. Our B&B host aid that it would be possible to also fit in a lesser known mountain town of Monteregiano. That had the additional benefit of being a location of a noted outlet store for leather goods which 2B was interested in shopping for.
We headed out of Pisa by going around in a few circles, getting a number of Italian drivers to make quaint arm and hand gestures at us, then get on the Autostrada toward Sienna. It was around a two hour drive. We were fortunate to arrive and get a very nice parking spot. We didn’t realize how lucky we were. Sienna is very famous because it is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Italy having avoided bombardment in WWII. Its cathedral and square are justified in their beauty and impact. However, it is also a tourist Mecca and even September is prime time for visiting. The place was crawling with people – never a situation I enjoy nor did 2B. And we had other places to go.
So we went on to Monteregiano were things were much calmer. 2 and 2B did their shopping and came away with some great bargains on shoes and a leather jacket. Then we went on to San Gemignano. This was Sienna on tourist numbers overload. Every parking lot was full. We did a couple of circuits of the town trying to find something. These were not just idle circuits but circuits on narrow roads crowded with other drivers equally frustrated as we. Numerous entries into parking lots, backing up because they were full, going down blind roads, backing up because they were only one lane wide later, we bailed and said we were going back to Pisa.
We started driving back the way that we had come. Our Tim Tom insisted that the only way to Pisa was to go through San Gemignano! No way we were going back there. So we get on with the Tom part of Tim Tom insisting every few minutes that we turnaround. I must have hit a setting when recalculating the route that said avoid toll roads because suddenly we were routed off the highway and onto a series of back roads until we finally hit another Autostrada. Actually this turned out to be quite a nice road and we enjoyed it a lot.
Some words on our experience with the Italian Autostrada – I suspect that once all the work that could possibly done with the Inquisition in Spain, Southern France, and Italy in the late Middle Ages, that there were a lot of unemployed torturers around. I suspect these people must have designed plans that eventually became the basis for the Autostrada. These are the most unpleasant highways I’ve ever driven. 2B and I were both stressed and nuts dealing with them. We only covered a small portion of Italy so we may be unfair in our assessment. But everyone we went on was very narrow with tiny or no shoulders at all and large safety barriers on both sides of the road that kept you from seeing anything off of the road. So you’re in effect driving at 70 mph down these tubes with lots of other drivers – oh and they’re almost never straight. We developed a real distaste for them.
Ok back to the story. We got back to Pisa at around 5 PM so we had plenty of time to walk across town and see the leaning tower and the cathedral. We’d read that tourists mostly come for day trips on the tour buses and by the late afternoon most were gone and this turned out to be true so it was very nice. We also learned from our B&B host that Pisa is a University town with at least two. One is the Ecole Superior Normale which is for the brightest science types. It has been in existence for centuries and boasts such graduates as Galileo, Marconi, and Fermi. The city more than doubles in size when school is in session. At night walking home from our restaurant there are tons of young people in the piazzas, on the bridges, on along the river.
September 8 Wednesday
We are next heading on to Alba, a small town in the middle of the wine growing area of Piedmonte south of Turin. We’ve got plenty of time to get there and after our enjoyable unplanned drive in the country the day before, we decide to just pick out a location off the Autostrada and head there. The town is Castelnuevo and it’s not on tourist agenda. But was very nice, old, filled its own history, and pretty much all to ourselves. It was also fairly high in the hills. The ride up was OK but the ride down was crazy. Actually Wife and I have done more than a few of these kinds of mountain descents in our travels so it wasn’t really that bad. But evidently 2 was pretty much terrified all the way down. And it took a long time. So we ended up with another long hard drive on the Autostrada to get to Alba.
We’d booked another great B&B. This one is associated with a vineyard so they give you a nice bottle of wine something to nosh on while you’re checking in. Our host told us that we could easily walk to Alba for dinner and made us a reservation. Dinner was lovely, however, she failed to mention that there were not sidewalks on the twisting road up the hill back to the B&B which in the dark after having drunk a lot and with much traffic was a bit of a challenge.
September 9, Thursday
We are determined to have a more relaxing day today. The main event will be wine tasting and purchasing. This region is know for some of Italy’s best wines; Barolo, Barbera, Barbaresco. It is the end of season and all the wineries are gearing up for harvest. Our host tells us that the folks in the Barbaresco region are friendlier and more likely to set up visits to wineries. Wrong, they won’t even give us the time of day other than a map – and the first three we go to are not giving tastings. We’re getting frustrated. However, we hit pay dirt with number four. They’re open, friendly, more than happy to show us all they have, at a beautiful location overlooking the valley, on a beautiful day, and they have some really nice wine. We both end up buying six bottles and bottle of their own grappa.
We then headed to town of a nice long lunch. We went back to the B&B where we lounged the afternoon and evening away on their grounds.
September 10, Friday
We’re doing a day trip to Genoa today. There’s no way we’re driving all the way there and trying to drive in that city. So we get up early and go to the nearby town of Asti to catch a train. Of course there’s the usual miss turns getting out. There’s suppose to be this big free parking lot right near the station but there’s some big ole festival being set up in it so the parking is only 10th the size and its full. We figured this out after about 4 passes around it. We send the girls to get the tickets and we finally found a pay place to park right near the station – and can’t find out how to pay for the place. Solve that problem. Meet up with girls. Get on the train. I’m looking for the little validation stamp machines that you need in France when you take the train. Don’t see one. Of course we get shook down by the conductor. ‘Oh this should be a 50 Euro fine, but since you’re Americans, I will only charge you 5 – which is promptly put into his pocket.
We’ve misplaced our guidebook for Genoa. Well there will be a tourism office at the train station. Yes, but it’s closed for renovations. We’ve decided to split up as couples for the day. So after buying a map Wife and I head out down to the harbor area and on to the main piazza where there’s suppose to be another tourism office. Venice gets all the publicity but Genoa was its equal in power and influence and Venice’s great rival during the Middle Ages. And while Venice is no longer a viable city other than for tourism, Genoa is still a thriving port city with the fourth largest economy in Italy. The combination is one of a vibrant international community with an underpinning of history that you can more vividly imagine because it was based on the same activities as the city is based on today.
Walking along the long covered walkway that parallels the harbor you see North Africans, Sub-Saharan Africans, Asians, just all sorts of nationalities. And you pass shops and restaurants catering to each. We found a place with fresh fish in the window. Go in. No other tourists. Local families, business people and great food. Wander through the warrens of small streets and alleys, coming out into small piazzas with lovely buildings. Toward the end of the day we were going down Via Garibaldi also called the Strada Nuevo (New Street) because it was build just outside the city walls in the 16th century. The rich families built palaces there which are now bank buildings, offices and museums. We go into courtyard after courtyard. In one sounds of a classical music presentation are wafting down from the upper stories.
As we come out we see 2 and 2B. We join up with them and share our stories of the day. We’re footsore and start heading back to the train station. There is a church along the way that our Tourism Office map says is arguably one of the nicest in Genoa. Seems a bit non-descript on the outside. But we go in. Oh my goodness! The paintings…the decoration. Seems the same time the Strada Nuevo the great families were competing to see who could be the greater benefactor of the church. There was almost no one else there. All I could think is I wish my mother (who was an art museum docent) were alive and with me help me understand all that art.
After a stop in a café near the station we made our way back to the train and them to the B&B.
Scenes from Torino's Grand Piazza
Sienna
The ruins of Montereggio
