A Siena Promise

In May, 2004, DW and I were enjoying a warm, sunny spring afternoon in the Tuscan city of Siena, Italy. We had just climbed the tower of the town hall and were sitting on the cobbled stones of the clamshell-shaped square, soaking in the sun and watching people.

Nearby, a family caught our eye: they had young children—maybe five years older than our own kids were, at the time—and these kids were running around Piazza del Campo, chasing pigeons. We suddenly felt homesick, wanting to be with our own wee ones.

"In five years," I promised DW, "we'll be back here, sitting where we are, watching our own kids chase pigeons."

On Wednesday, September 30, 2009, we pulled the CR-V into an underground parking garage that was built into the hillside on the northern edge of the city and worked our way into my second-favourite city in Tuscany. Our first stop: the Duomo di Siena.

Before going inside this beautiful church, we decided to first check out a tourist attraction that I discovered while we were researching our vacation, where I thought would be a great place to capture images of Siena: Facciatone, an incomplete section of the Duomo, where only a wall stood. You could climb a set of stairs that led to the top of the wall, high above the neighbouring buildings.

Going up so early in the day, we were also hoping to beat the masses who would surely try to get up later in the day.

With two young kids—especially a rambunctious six year old—DW's and my hearts were pounding as each of us tried to keep the kids close while I took photos. I snapped shots as quickly as possible and we headed back down.

Around the corner from the town hall is a narrow street. A couple of doors to the left was an unassuming door. We entered and found a small restaurant with a low, arched brick ceiling. Freshly made pasta of various colours and shapes lay on a table next to a small, open kitchen where cooks were busy at work. The restaurant was crowded but the owner managed to find a table that fit all four of us.

It was clear that the owner didn't speak English and there was no menu. With basic Italian, we conveyed that DW and I wanted pasta with a meat sauce and that our youngest wanted as basic a dish as possible--maybe just butter and Parmesan cheese. Our eldest just wanted a plain tomato sauce.

The meal was perfect. Everyone was satisfied.

From here, we moved to Il Campo, where we stopped to pick up some pastries for dessert and, of course, to watch the kids chase pigeons around the square. We hadn't prompted the girls. We merely said that DW and I were going to sit in the square for a moment to rest and eat our treats, and that the girls could explore Il Campo on their own as long as they didn't stray out of view.

They were drawn to the pigeons on their own.

"Promise made, promise kept," I said to DW.

We explored some of the streets around the heart of the city but then decided that we wanted to visit the interiour of the Duomo. Even though none of us is religious, there's something about the history and fabulous architecture of these Medieval churches that draws even our kids to enjoy these visits.

From the Duomo, we decided to head back to our villa. Once again, we wanted a swim and a nap before we would make dinner and eat it on the patio as we watched the sun set over San Gimignano.

The next day would take us through the wine towns of Chianti.

Stay tuned...

Pisa and Volterra

We were in for a day with a lot of driving. And, if all went well, we could avoid an Italian rush hour.

We woke the girls early on Tuesday, September 29, 2009, and hopped into the Honda CR-V that our friend had generously let us borrow, and got on the highway heading northwest, and eventually to the city of Pisa. This was a destination, had it not been that the kids wanted to see the leaning tower, we would have omitted from this trip.

In 2004, DW and I were celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary, and we met up with our friend from Korea, Brad, and his bride as they celebrated their honeymoon. The four of us, in an Alfa Romeo, were driving from La Spezia to Sienna, and had decided to make a stop in Pisa. We quickly wandered the grounds of the Piazza del Duomo, took pictures of the Torre Pisa, grabbed some coffee, and then hopped back in the car within a half hour. We all agreed that that was long enough.

With kids, however, DW and I found that their fascination made us appreciate the grounds all the more. We parked a few blocks to the west and entered through the Porta Nuova. Right away, the girls wanted me to take a photo that so many tourists have captured. Only, I added a twist that defined our kids: the younger one, adventurous and mischievous, trying to push the tower over; our quieter, reserved older one, trying to prevent her sister from achieving her task.

The picture didn't turn out perfectly but is still one of my favourites.

We wandered the grounds and had planned to climbed the Torre, but the lines were already long and we decided, instead, to go through the cathedral. Inside, it was beautiful.

We wanted to get to our next destination, Volterra, in time for lunch, so we left after a little over an hour. All of us agreed that this was the most time we'd want to spend here, anyway.

We had a GPS system in the CR-V, but some construction had changed the layout of the highway, and it caused the system to show that we were not driving on any sort of roadway. A couple of times, I made some wrong turns, but in almost an hour and a half later, we reached the old Etruscan hill town of Volterra.

This Tuscan hill town dates back to the eight century BC and evidence of Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval civilizations still exist today. We wandered the streets and checked out the shops, and visited the remains of the Roman amphitheatre and some of the Etruscan gates to the walled city.

Medieval architecture was everywhere.

For lunch, we sat on the patio of a restaurant that looked out onto a beautiful square. At the restaurant in San Gimignano, we had seen pigeon on the menu, and though I had my heart settled on the lasagna, I promised our oldest daughter that the next time I saw it on a menu, I'd try it. She was the first one to find pigeon on this menu.

If you've ever had quail, it's a bit like that. It was tasty—even our youngest daughter, forever adventurous, gave it a try. Our other daughter, cautious, could not be convinced, even as I held a tiny bite in front of her. DW was satisfied with her wild boar ragout.

After lunch, we wandered more streets and then decided that we wanted to make our way back to our villa for another nap and swim before we would think of dinner.

It was becoming a wonderful ritual. Once more, the sky was clear but hazy, making the sun and horizon a fiery end to the day. We sat on the patio, eating dinner and enjoying the sunset over San Gimignano.

The next day, DW and I were going to realize a promise that I had made to her, five years earlier. Stay tuned...

Exploring Tuscany

We were going to rent a car but our friend in Rome insisted that we borrow her vehicle. "I only use it when I have to travel outside the city, and I'm not going anywhere for a while. Please, take it."

For the days that we visited with her, we noticed that she walked to work. When we went out together, we piled into taxis (parking in Rome, apparently, was a nightmare). So we gratefully accepted her generous offer.

On Saturday, September 26, 2009, DW, the kids, and I packed up our things and headed north. Our destination was a small villa near the town of Poggibonsi, in Tuscany. Along the way, we made a stop for lunch in the hill town of Assisi, in Perugia. Of course, we had to check out the famous Basilica of St. Francis.

By the time we were back on the road, we realized that we were going to be late for our meeting with Antonio, the owner of our villa, so we had to find a place where we could establish a WiFi connection, get a message to him, continue northward to the next town, and find another connection to get his response (this was in the days before we had smartphones and data plans).

We reached our villa, which bordered on the Chianti region, just after sunset. Having stopped at a grocery store along the way, we had enough supplies to make a simple pasta dinner and have the necessities to make breakfast, the next morning. We were all tired from our long drive, so we decided to turn in and explore the villa the next morning.

On Sunday, we jumped back in our friend's car and headed further north, to Florence. While researching our trip, DW had discovered that there are two days out of the year when museums, galleries, and other sites in Florence offered free admission: this was one of those two days.

We also learned that a parking lot, Piazzale Michelangelo, at the south end of the city, was free. It also offered one of the best views of Florence.

We decided, since we were on the same side of the Arno and not far a walk, to visit the Pitti Palace. When DW and I were last in Florence, in 2004, we had wanted to visit this Renaissance gallery, but given the choice between the Pitti Palace and the Uffizi Gallery, we had chosen the latter.

The highlight was the grotto.

For lunch, DW and I wanted to return to a place we had visited in 2004, but the kids were getting to a stage where their moods could quickly turn sour, so we made a stop at a place between the Pitti Palace and the Ponte Vecchio, where we could grab a couple of square slices of pizza to satisfy them.

Once they were fed and happy again, we crossed the Ponte Vecchio, passed by the Piazza della Signoria, and up two blocks to a narrow street, where we stopped at one of the smallest sandwich shops I've ever seen.

I Fratellini has been around since 1875, offering deli sandwiches and wine to the hungry masses. It's essentially a counter with no sitting space. You order your sandwich, grab a glass of wine, and stand in the street. A shelf on the wall, next to the counter, conveniently lets you rest your glass while you bite into your meal. It's cheap, it's delicious, and definitely worth a visit or two.

For dessert, we ventured to a place that we discovered in 2004 and that (in my humble opinion) offers the best gelato in the world. Back toward the Ponte Vecchio, at a window next to the Hotel Hermitage, is the Gelateria Artigianale Caffè delle Carrozze. I measure the quality of a gelateria by its pistachio gelato, and this one is the creamiest and most flavourful that I've ever had (Stella Luna, in Ottawa, comes third).

After lunch, DW and I decided to split up. She took our youngest daughter to Galleria dell'Accademia, to see David and other works by Michelangelo. I took our eldest daughter to climb Campanile di Giotto, next to the Duomo, the famous Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.

In 2004, DW and I climbed to the top of the Cupola di Brunelleschi, the dome of the cathedral. As we stood at the top, looking around the city, I told DW that if we were ever back in Florence, I wanted to climb the neighbouring tower. In 2009, neither she nor our youngest wanted to do that, but our other child did.

When we reached the top, I apologized to our daughter for not having the forethought of bringing water. I was parched and imagined her to be, too.

"I have a bottle in my backpack," she said, producing it. We sat and sipped as we took in the views. 

God love her.

The four of us met at our predetermined meeting spot, at the Bargello National Museum. A quick tour and then it was time to head back to the car.

But first, before we crossed the Ponte Vecchio again, we stopped for another round of gelato at my favourite spot (it was hot and we had walked a lot, so we deserved it!).

After another grocery stop, where we stocked up enough to last us for a few days, we returned to our villa and a swim in an infinity pool that looked out to vineyards, olive groves, and the medieval hill town of San Gimignano. We dined outside, watching the sun set over this town, which is my favourite of all the Tuscan hill towns, and planned our next day.

Monday, September 28, 2009, was a relatively relaxing day. We drove to the neighbouring town of Colle di Val d'Elsa, where we wandered the narrow streets, visited the quaint shops, and rode an elevator that rose up the hill to an incredible vista. We stopped for a light snack (pizza squares) for the kids and then moved on to the next town.

As I said, San Gimignano is my favourite Tuscan hill town. A lot of this town hasn't changed much over the past 400 years or so, and is distinguished by its many towers. San Gimignano is known as the Manhattan of Italy, with seeming skyscrapers (they aren't that tall). At one point, there were more than 100 of these towers, but feuds between families saw many of them knocked down.

We roamed the streets and found what I consider the second-best gelato place in the world. Our eldest daughter discovered the best banana gelato we've ever had, and paired it with some lovely chocolate.

DW and I showed the girls a spot, where in 2004 we called my parents to check in and to possibly say hi to the kids. Our oldest daughter, who was about to go to bed, spoke to us. "I miss you, Daddy. When are you coming home?" I was so choked up that I almost couldn't answer right away.

"Soon, honey. Soon." After our phone call, DW and I were more homesick than ever.

It was about mid-afternoon, and we were all hungry, so we found a small restaurant and feasted. Because we had a place where we could make breakfast and dinner, we had planned to eat out when we were exploring the countryside. But this meal was so filling that we knew we would only be having a light supper, this evening.

We left San Gimignano and returned back to our villa, with plenty of time for a nap and a swim before we gathered on the patio to watch the sun set over what was now the whole family's favourite town.

For the next day, we were going to get up early. We were heading on a day trip that would take us the furthest from our villa.

Stay tuned...