Fattoria Poggio Alloro

Brandon and Arielle pose at the farm.

While I love our Garmin GPS device, when you don’t have a precise address for a destination, it makes things quite a bit more difficult than you ever imagined. Add to that the stress of the rental car and navigating crazy switchbacks and narrow alleyways through tiny villages. What should have taken us about 3 hours to drive from Rome to the Fattoria Poggio Alloro, took us about 5 hours. Five hours of frightful uphill stalls, stopping to ask directions from Italians in tiny villages that really don’t speak English, and Cathy quietly praying for us all from the back seat.

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San Gimignano

Brandon and Arielle atop the fort.

We visited the medieval town and fort of San Gimignano during our stay at the Aguritismo. The town is surrounded by high walls on all sides with two large gates at either end. It is mostly a tourist-driven town now, with many shops in which we girls enjoyed discovering wonderful little souvenirs. The town also boasts a Gelato World Champion gelateria! As if some of the world’s best gelato wasn’t a big enough achievement for this little town, I think our entire group would agree there is a little, unassuming pizzeria on the north side of the town square that has the best pizza we’ve ever had. It was both thin and chewy (not thin and crispy) and the flavors were absolutely delicious! The pizzeria is take out only and they give you a wonderful, ingenious cardboard holder for your slice so you can easily eat your pizza as you continue to walk through the town.

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Colle Val D'Elsa

The entrance to Colle Val D'Elsa

Another small village town we stopped at was Colle Val D’Elsa. This one was like the other little medieval villages that pop out of the top of hills in the Tuscan countryside, but unlike San Gimignano, it was geared for residents of the town, not tourists. Although people were friendly and seemed happy enough to have us wandering through their town with their teeny-tiny streets (we had to jump into doorways a number of times to avoid getting hit by vehicles), the shopping was negligible.

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Castiglione della Pescaia

Brandon and Arielle

After a “farewell and see you soon” to my parents, the four of us made our way to Castiglione della Pescaia to spend our last day on the coast. Wow, that sounded so easy, didn’t it? To be honest, Garmin did deliver us right to the front door of our hotel, it also took us through the most twisty-turny switchbacks and mountains we’d ever experienced in a manual car. By this time, my wonderful husband was a semi-pro at stick shift; he threw it into third and made sure we didn’t drive off any cliffs.

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Giant Tomato.....PLANT!!

I can no longer reach the top of him! Over 6'6", three tomatoes currently growing, and many more flowers appearing. Craziness!

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