Hill towns of Tuscany

Chapter – 4

The Tuscan hill towns of central Italy

San Gimignano, Volterra, Montalcino, Pienza, Montepulciano, Cortona, Urbino, Orvieto, Civita Di Bagnoregio, Siena, Assisi

     Centuries ago, the hill towns of Tuscany were built on top of large hills. That's why they call them hill towns. It was a defensive position. Early hill town residents worried little from invading barbaric hordes.   

     It was their neighbors who gave them fits.

     The hill towns fought among themselves mostly, each trying to subdue one another, enlarging their city-state sphere of influence.

     It's a tradition which lingers today. You may have seen the travel films of the twice a year horse races in the campo (field) of Siena in the center of town. There are no rules. Just win.. Each rider represents his neighborhood. The rivalry is intense and severe. Losing the race brings disgrace and ridicule upon your neighborhood. The winner basks in bragging rights for one year while losers discover the miseries of defeat.

     Our hostess at Cretaiole, Isabella told us this personal rivalry story.

     Her husband, Carlo, grew up on the family farm in Pienza. One day, she related, a car with two tourists stopped to ask directions to the next town, San Quirico d'Orcia.

Carlo told them, “never heard of it.” Carlo was involved in his youthful years in town-to-town rivalries.        

     Each year, a contest was held, and the loser got to pour huge amounts of salt on the loser's town square. There were other insensitivities too.

So when the tourists asked directions, pointing to a map which showed the town they were seeking, 10 kilometers away, Carlo said, “no, the map is wrong, it's not there.”

     “I couldn't believe he did that,” said Isabella relating the story.

     If you are in Tuscany, you will visit the hill towns. Beware. They are hilly. Bigtime.

     Before you leave home, get yourself in good physical condition. As you walk the streets, you will either be going up or going down. We did not physically prepare ourselves before leaving home, and we never made it to the town square at the very top of Montepulciano. (mohn-tay-pull-chee-ah-no)

     But we did find a good wine shop, noted for its Vino Noblie wine.

     In tourist season, which we were in, these little towns like Montepulciano, get really crowded. Parking lots are at the bottom of the hill. Parking meters are pricey. Parking spaces are premium. Then once you find a spot and feed the meter, it's all uphill from there. You are headed for Piazza Grande, on the top of the ill, if you can get there..

     Then there's the traffic..

     The hill towns have tiny streets, no sidewalks. As you now are heavily breathing, headed for the Piazza, comes from behind another nuisance, a little Italian car, small enough to negotiate the walkway-streets but big enough to be annoying..

     Hill towns are clean and tidy. No trash. Parks and plazzas are bright and cheerful, beautifully landscaped and eye-pleasing.

     Flowers abound. Lots of flowers. Townspeople are of modest means. But they decorate their windows and entrances with brightly colored flowers, their way of saying to the thousands of tourists who climb their streets each year – Welcome.

     Montalcino (mohn-tahl-chee-no) is famous for the brunello grape, growing in vineyards surrounding the town. The grape makes the famous brunello wine.

     The young man in the wine shop told us that the bottle of brunello that I was holding, came from the very grapes grown on his family vineyards. How could we refuse.

     Anyway, before we vacated the wine shop, and there are oodles of them here, we dropped 70 euro. Some brunello wine, which we brought home, a bottle of vin santo and a bottle of lemoncello.

     Vin santo is a sweet wine favored by Italian ladies as an afternoon pick-me-up (or pick-me-down). It is highly alcoholic.

     Lemoncello is an after dinner wine. Be sure you have a full stomach before sampling. This stuff has a real kick. compare it to flavored moonshine.

     Early in our visit, we sat down for lunch at an out-door table. We had heard of Lemoncello from one of the Italian cooking shows and wanted to taste it. “We'll have lemoncello with lunch,” we told the young lady.. The waitress asked if we ever drank lemoncello. We said “no.”

     “ It's an after-dinner drink,” she said. “ Very powerful.”

We changed our choice to fizz water. When our meal came, she gave us a small complimentary sample glass of lemoncello, just enough for a taste for two. She was right. It was powerful.

     We gave her a nice tip.

http://www.sangimignano.com/ www.prolocomontalcino.it

http://www.prolocomontepulciano.it/

Please visit my other website which helps pay my bills:

http://www.jamesellistonsmith.com/

Thanks.  Chapter 5 on Tuesday

Chater 3 --- Castelmuzio

Chapter 3 -- Castelmuzio 

A journey to a Tuscan villa

     This week we will visit the small hilltop town of Castelmuzio in the heart of Tuscany.

     You can be there in all its glory too, because I will give you a website and Google links where you can visit this 13^th Century town of 200 people, and luxuriate in a newly restored villa opened this spring, the highlight of this visit.

     There are more than 30 professional photographs for you to visit on the villa. Read the history of the villa, the town, and the region, visit with the husband and wife team who labored for seven years to offer a real Tuscan experience in unquestionable beauty. After clicking on the website, be sure you scroll down for full information.

     In our trip to Italy covering most of June, we visited Castelmuzio three times, wandering its narrow streets, nodding to the locals, viewing the farms of the valley from a high overlook. Each time, we were the only tourists in this Tuscan Medieval town.

     Part of our one week Tuscan stay was in the Agritorismo called Cretaiole near Pienza. It was , managed by the same family who restored the villa in Castelmuzio, only a few miles away. Part of our stay included participation in an evening with a professional Italian chef, demonstrating his skills and explaining the food while he prepared for us a seven-course meal.

     My daughter Tricia and I participated in this event.

     The chef prepared the meal at the restored villa in Castelmuzio.

     As you go through the website, which I will give you before we leave here today, notice the photos of the kitchen. The chef cooked on a magnificent red gas stove. See the table in the center of the room. Tricia and I and eight others gathered around this table, sampling wines, and discussing the menu as the chef and his teenage daughter prepared the meal. We also were supplied with a printout of all the recipes he prepared that evening. We dined outside on the patio.

     At the website you also will meet your hosts, Carlo and Isabella Moricciani, and come into the villa they restored, Casa Moricciani. The villa is designed with two apartments, one up and one down. Each apartment can accommodate 2-4 people, and each rents for a minimum one week. Through the website, you can request the rates, but be prepared.

     Interiors were designed by an award winning Italian company blending antique and modern Tuscan furniture with draperies, fabrics, marble, stone, lighting fixtures and large modern baths. You will see a living room chair restored to its 300 year old splendor.

     Isabella and Carlo award all their guests in each of their other accommodations with a basketful of products they produce on their farms which includes white and red wines, extra virgin olive oil, pecorino cheese. It means they are jamming corks on more than 5000 bottles a year for their guests.

If you stay in the newly restored villa, they will do the grocery shopping for you plus add fresh seasonal fruits, pastries, fresh butter and bread, locally produced red Orcia Rosso doc wine and Proseco sparkling wine.

     How good is that?

     To arrive at this small hamlet, you will drive through Tuscan landscapes and farms, through winding and meandering roads, past olive groves and vineyards and unfenced fields of wheat and grains.

     You will NOT see old rusting abandoned cars in yards, mobile homes new or old, trash along the roadsides, ramshackle buildings or shacks of any kind

     You will come to Castelmuzio high on upon a volcanic hilltop, a mesmerizing medieval hamlet with most of its buildings dating back to the 1200s.

     OK. Here's your links: http://www.casamoricciani.com/

      Also, Google Castelmuzio for more about this village. For a photo slide show, click on: villagio di castelmuzio—youtube.

    Enjoy your trip.

    NEXT – Next, chapter four, we travel the hill towns of Tuscany

And now the commercial – Help my income by visiting my personal website: http://www.jamesellistonsmith.com/ Perhaps we can help each other.

Chapter 2. See chapter 3 on Tuesday, July 25.

Chapter 2

Pienza

     We have discussed the small town of Pienza, a few miles from Cretaiole, our agriturismo for the week in June 2011.

     Let's talk about eating.

     I am not sure if these pastas are specifically native to this area, but it was here that we were introduced to pici and calamarata shapes of pasta.

Pici is like a regular spaghetti but fatter. Amateur spaghetti eaters would either slurp the long strands, or chop them into tiny pieces.

     Cowards.

     Those of us of Italian heritage twist the long strands on a fork. Pici is a spaghetti, but its strands are quite thick. Back at Cretaiole, our agriturismo, one Wednesday afternoon we all helped make pici pasta, then Isabella's sauce made it into a fine meal.

So far, I haven't found pici anywhere in Tallahassee, although I admit, I haven' been looking too diligently for it.

     The other pasta, introduced into some of the dishes we ordered in Pienza restaurants, was calamarata. I haven't found it in supermarkets, but you can get it at Fresh Market in Killearn area. Other places specialty may have it too.

The calamarata makes a good dish. Its oval, and of medium thickness, and only about an inch or so in length. It takes forever to get al dente. But once there, it's really good.

One thing you have to remember about pasta. Pasta is pasta. It comes in a variety of sizes and forms, but in the end, it's still pasta.

     Pienza is part of the Siena Provence, part of the Val d' Orcia, an area which rigidly preserves its ancient and artistic heritage. We call it Tuscany.

    Our hostess at Cretaiole, Isabella, told us they wished to make a small renovation in their farmhouse, to make a door from a window in one of the apartments. It would have been in the back of the structure, on the edge of the hill, beyond public view.

But the local architectural review committee said no, even that slight modification of the 1400s farmhouse would not be in keeping with historic preservation.

     Pienza is a renaissance town and traces its history to the 7^th century. In the 1400s, it was called Corsignano. In 1405, Silvio Piccolomini was born there who became Pope Pius II in 1458. It was he who transformed the city into the Pienza we visit today. The new pope continued to make his home here.      He commission architect Bernado Rossellino to build the Duomo (church) a city hall and papal palace. All three buildings remain in use today. All buildings face the Pallazzo Piccolomini.

     As most cities do across our planet, when something historically significant occurs in your town, you want to carry on the name and the tradition. So today, to honor Bernado Rossellino, you can now get a pizza at Rossellino's restaurant, plus other fine Italian cuisine on the menu..

     You can visit the palace, see the pope's bedroom and library. Descendents lived here until 1968.

     Wander the renaissance streets and alleys of Pienza. Grab a patio table, order a glass of wine at the tavern and watch the tourists wander Pallazzo Piccolomini. The commercial area has the usual shops – bakery, meats, souvenirs, restaurants, shoes, hats. Don't miss Mr. Zazzeri's grocery shop where you sample the famous pecorino sheep cheese. Mr. Zazzeri dips the cheese from a giant terracotta jar

     Visit the Duomo and marvel at the interior décor and renaissance art works. Its interior is divided into three aisles with clustered pilars, arches and cross vaults, its facade of travertine stone. Travel the roads leading into town, see Pienza as it sits high upon a hill, surrounded by green fields.

     If you are in one of the apartments in town or out, and have the desire to cook, there is a small chain of grocery stores throughout Italy. These little stores are about the size of an American convenience store, with tight isles and stuffed shelves. You go one way up and down the aisles, too narrow for two carts to pass. Shelves are stacked high. Each store has a resident butcher to cut meat to order. Don't handle the vegetables without sanitary gloves, weigh your pickings on the electronic scale, place the price label on your bag. If you don't, the cashier will send you back. You won't need a translation.

     Beware, many Italians observe Siesta. Many shops close for the afternoon, usually 1-4 p.m., then reopen until about 8 p.m.

     Here's your website: http://www.pienza.com/

     Also google Pienza restaurants. You'll get a list of 24 entries. Click on each one, read their reviews, drool over the photos of their dishes. Good stuff.

     Also, Pienze is part of the five towns of the Val d'Orcia which also includes the towns of Quirico d'Orcia, Montecino, Castiglione d'Orcia and Radicofani. Interesting reading about this area during WWII is War in the Val d'Orcia 1943-1944 by Iris Origo, who kept a diary during this time. Purchase the book through http://www.abebooks.com/ for less than $10.

     My livelihood depends on you visiting my personal website: http://www.jamesellistonsmith.com/ (james elliston smith) Click on the blue words, then click on the link, which takes you to it.Thanks.

Jim

Chapter 1 -- Cretaiole

                                      Prosciotto ham, pepper sausage, pecorino cheese


Chapter 1 Come Fly With Me

Agriturismo Cretaiole near Pienza, Italia in the heart of Tuscany

     Rick Steves was here, took pictures and notes, was photographed with the owners, then left.  We came, did the same, but stayed.

     Cretaiole is a Tuscan farmhouse a few miles from Pienza, a smaller town compared to the size of Thomasville.. We spent a week there, Saturday to Saturday, the first full week of our Italian three-week vacation in June of 2011.
      With our rented vehicle, we drove the country-farm roads visiting historic and  famous hill towns of Tuscany, breathing it in, taking it in, experiencing it.

     Cretaiole is an agriturismo, an ancient Tuscan farmhouse, dating back to the 1400s, converted into guest rooms and apartments, featuring private entrances, small equipped kitchens, private baths, terracotta floors, beamed ceilings, a fireplace and the ever-present Bialetti Moka Espresso coffee brewer. (Which we acquired first thing after returning home).

     Outside is a fresh vegetable garden from which you have picking privileges. On your kitchen table are complimentary bottles of Orca DOC San Giovese homemade white wines plus a homemade bottle of olive oil.

     The farmhouse is high on a hill, so you can take your morning coffee or evening glass of wine, sit on the swing and enjoy the view of the Tuscan landscape. (World War II was fought here).

     See golden fields of grain, light green orchards of olive trees, bright green landscapes of grapes of the vine. It's the home of Brunello di Montalcino wines, vino Nobile di Montepulciano, bright green grassy tasting olive oil and Pecorino Pienza cheese, among some of the local delicacies.

     As you drive the countryside, and driving the countryside is a challenge, because there are no straight lines from point A to point B. In America, if road builders encounter a hill, they level it.. In Italy, if the landscape goes up a hill or dips below the hill, so goes the road. So you are constantly twisting and turning, going up or down, around and around, dipping and dodging. Behind you is the ever-present Italian driver, on your bumper, indicating you driving too slow.

Always.

     Also, on the farm roads, here's what you will NOT find: Fences designating individual farm sites, roadside trash, tumbledown shacks or shabby rundown houses, junk cars in the yards, weeds along the road edges, road shoulders. You will see homes and farm houses of similar construction, built with native adobe. Add the traditional tile roof.

     Isabella Moricciani is your hostess. She is fluent in English plus speaks other languages too. In your room, wander through a local thick guidebook that she has assembled. Whatever you want to do, where ever you want to go, it's all there including minute directions there and back.

     Isabella and her husband Carlo along with her father-in-law, Luciano, manage their farm in Pienza, Cretaiole, and a villa in Castelmuzio.

     Sunday morning finds you and other guests at the family farmhouse in Pienza, where Isabella lectures on local history while Luciano pours their homemade wines, carves pecorino cheese, with slices of homemade Italian sausage and aged prosciutto ham on hard crusted Italian bread drizzled with their farmhouse olive oil..

     It doesn't get any better than this.
     Their home-made wine is the finest, making 500 bottles a year for guests and sale – 5 euros.

With your rental car and a place to stay, you are close to Siena, Florence, Pisa, Orvieto, Assisi, Perugia, Volterr, San Gimignana, to name a few.

     Now, if you want to spend some bucks, Isabella and Carlo several years ago purchased a sagging house in the small town of Castelmuzio. It's a town a few miles from Pienza, unrecognized by tourists. We had dinner there one evening prepared by a talented chef serving non-traditional Italian dishes. Go to: http://www.casamorcciani.com/

Easiest way to Cretaiole is to “google it.” You will get more than enough information.

Details:

Address: Agriturismo Cretaiole, Via San Gregorio, 14—53026, Pienza (Siena), Italia.

Phone 39+0578-748083.

Website: http://www.cretaiole.it/

email: info@cretaiole.it

Please visit the website of my income; http://www.jamesellistonsmith.com/ Click to open the hyperlink then click the hyperlink to the website. Thanks for visiting.

Lucciano trims pecorino cheese in his wineceller in Pienza

T

This photo illustrates part of Chapter 1 in this report.  The slide presentation which goes along with Chapter 1 is entitled "Scrapbook," and in an attempt to get it to be part of this blog, the photos were scrambled, and I have not been able to unscramble them.  So they may not make a lot of sense.  Try it anyway.  Jim...

A lively street corner discussion

Could this be a meeting of the Rotary Club in Reggio Emilia held at their usual spot in front of the bank?

Isabella serves pici pasta

At Cretaiole, Isabella serves up a helping of pici pasta, a large round streed, bigger than regular spaghetti.  It was an afternoon in the patio room, making pasta and rolling the dough, cooking, serving and eating.  Really good.