I just haven’ had time to write up everything about our days Tuscany, so I am putting this post in here as a placeholder to remind myself to do it.
But just know it was absolutely wonderful, so beautiful.
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We are staying at a medieval castle just outside of Siena. This place is so cool. It is situated on a hill, so it can be seen from far away, and really stands out because of the design. It is shaped as a square, and each corner has a tall tower with crenelations on top. It is surrounded by tall cypress trees, olive groves, and flower gardens.
The castle is owned and occupied by two sisters who have had the castle in their family since the 1800s. Niccola, son of Laura, speaks English and helps run the operation. They rent two rooms as a bed and breakfast, and also a separate apartment on the lower floor off the courtyard. One of the two rooms is inside one of the castle towers. It requires about 100 steps to get to the bedroom, including two narrow spiral staircases – quite a workout! You definitely need to be healthy, have good knees, and pack light to stay here. But it is soooo worth it, as you have the entire tower to yourself. This includes big windows on all four sides with long distance views. You can see Siena on the hilltop on one side, and awesome views of the rolling hills lined with vineyards, olive groves, wheat fields, and spotted with cypress trees and big stone farmhouses. Molto benne!
However, there are also some not-so-good things. The bed is extra firm, as in extra hard. The pillows are flat. It’s somewhat clean, but not really clean, as they don’t seem to have a dedicated cleaning crew. And there are workers trimming the olive trees with chainsaws staring at 8am everyday. Since there is no A/C, we sleep with the windows open so everything outside can be clearly heard. This didn’t wake us up, as we awoke around sunrise each morning anyway.
Love this place, would definitely stay here again.
We were so reluctant to leave our wonderful Florence apartment that we didn’t even pack until the last minute. We left right at 11:00, the stated check-out time. At check-out we met Robert, who is half owner of the building, and let him know how much we loved the place. In return for the compliment he let us keep our network cable for free - haha! Robert also called a taxi for us to go pick up our rental car.
As the taxi whisked us away, we had a last look at the Palazzo Vecchio and hoped it wouldn’t be another ten years before we go back.
Our rental car is from Avis. Again, we didn’t get the car we expected, although this time it turned out better. We had expected a Fiat Grande Punto, but instead got an Alfa Romeo 147 - a sporty little hatchback. It is a turbo diesel, so although the gas mileage probably isn’t so good, Kevin is having fun driving it. And it is more comfortable than the Mercedes was, go figure.
I almost forgot to mention the (elevator) lift incident. On the night we arrived in Florence, we went out to walk around and have dinner. When we returned to the Relais Piazza Signoria, we called the lift to take us up to the 4th floor. When we got in and punched the floor number, it was slow to get going. It started up, then just stopped and the lights all went off. We were stuck, and it was pitch black. I happened to be holding my camera, so I turned it on to let the lcd give us some light. We could hear people moving around in the building and figured the electricity was off for everyone. Kevin pried open the lift door and we were between floors, no way at all to get out. We sounded the alarm bell a few times just to make sure someone knew we were in there. It seemed like a long time, but it was probably just five minutes until the lights came on and the elevator started moving - back down. At the bottom floor the doors opened and there was Rosa the manager. She convinced us to stay in the elevator for the ride back up - it was safe now, she said - and old us that the circuit breaker for the whole building had tripped. She had run down to the basement from her sixth floor office to reset the breaker. She thought it was because they were fully booked for the first time, and it was a warm day meaning that people were turning on air conditioning all at the same time causing the circuit to overload. Anyway, she was very apologetic, and it was kind of funny.
By the way, Kevin refused to ride the lift for the rest of our stay. He took the stairs, I took the lift.
We planned to have a really lazy day for our anniversary, and in the morning/early afternoon we succeeded. We slept in late, laid in bed watching Discovery channel on satellite TV on the plasma screen, and just lazed around until almost 3pm. The apartment at the Relais Piazza Signoria was just awesome. By then we were starving, so we went downstairs to the sidewalk cafe for lunch. It was OK food, nothing special, but it was the place where we had lunch with the Spielberg’s after our wedding 10 years ago.
Then we really started moving and walked around the city non-stop until we had dinner at 9:30pm. We visited the Palazzo Vecchio and were able to get all the way into the ante-room to the Sala Rossa, aka Salon Matrimonio, where the huge carved wood bench is that we sat on while waiting to get married. After the Palazzo, we walked all over, taking pictures as we went.
One bit of advice for future visits: When you want gelato, just because the waffles smell and look so good, don’t get it. They take two large waffles, put some gelato in the middle, and just give it to you on a piece of wax paper. It is a complete mess, very difficult to eat as you can’t possibly bite through two thicknesses of waffles, and the gelato melts everywhere. The little piece of wax paper can’t hold the melting gelato, so it runs all over you. Big mistake.
I had planned for us to have dinner at Acqua al Due, where we had dinner on our wedding night, but at the advice of Rosa the apartment manager, we had not made reservations. Well, that was a mistake as the place was completely packed. We waited for a bit, but gave up and left. We ended up eating at the same place we ate the night before and had enjoyed. It was good the second time too. Everything is so fresh tasting.
Tomorrow we leave Florence for the Tuscan countryside. Have to pack up tonight, although we really don’t want to leave this awesome place.
We finally have a hotel with internet access, even if it is slow - woo-hoo! Don’t know if I’ll get pictures up, this connection is slow like dial-up.
But the best thing is that we are in Florence and our hotel rocks. It s directly on the Piazza Signoria with a view of the Palazzo Vecchio, and it is a gorgeous high quality apartment. Very modern and clean, separate bedroom, kitchenette, large bathroom, wood floors, and Salvatore Ferraggamo bath products. We’re very impressed.
I’ll write more about Florence later, just know that we had an uneventful train ride here from Lugano, and we’re thankful we decided to take a taxi to the hotel instead of walking since the city is PACKED with tourists right now. Just unbelievable how many people are here. Oh, and we had gelato tonight 
Monday was Lake Como day. After the hotel breakfast (nearly the same as at Hotel Staubbach), we started the drive out to Mennagio. I know Kevin really enjoyed the drive on tiny twisty-turning roads on the side of a mountain, while I was a bit more nervous in the passenger seat with no control. We had intended to take the ferry over to Bellagio from Menaggio, but we somehow missed the ferry station in town. Before we knew it we were already in Griante, which also has ferry service, so we drove on board for the short trip across the lake. Lots of great photo ops from the ferry, as there are so many scenic little towns lining the shores of the lake with the great big green mountains behind them. Sure hope those pictures all look great. We parked the car and explored Bellagio for a few hours. It really is a beautiful place, flowers growing everywhere, cute shops, and that typical Italian look to the buildings. After trudging up at least 150 steps up the mountain lined with shops, we found a gallery selling glass artworks and restrained ourselves from buying the 11,000euro vase. Instead Kevin bought me a beautiful heart-shaped artglass pendant and ring. Love them, I have them on now. I hope to find a new gold or silver chain in Florence to put the pendant on, it is on a black cord now. When we were tired of snapping pictures and shopping, we bought slices of pizza to-go and went back down the mountain. At the lakeside there are benches facing the lake perfect for picnicking. How idyllic, we are feeling no stress at all. Wish that pictures could do this place justice. When we ran out of euro coins for the parking meter it was time to go.
Back on the road, we started our drive around the lake. Again, little tiny roads passing through villages and winding through the mountainsides. We had a couple of close calls where fast drivers in larger cars took more than their share of the road. And there was the bus which really should not be allowed on those roads. Scary stuff, Kevin couldn’t enjoy the scenery much because it was too hard to drive without paying constant attention. I would just let him know when we should pull over at a turnout to take pictures. Late in the day, almost back to Lugano, Kevin prompted me to take video with my camera showing the roads and crazy drivers. I haven’t watched it back yet, but hope it’s good.
By the way, we were really mourning the “loss” of our convertible rental today. Was a perfect day for it, and would have been perfect for seeing the mountains and scenery above us. Grrrrr.
We were to drop off the car on Tuesday morning before hopping the train to Florence, but since we found the Hertz location on our way, we decided to drop it off immediately and walk the rest of the way back to our hotel. Good decision, it saved a lot of stress in the morning before catching the train. But the guy working at the Hertz location was a jerk. And the uphill walk with our stuff to the hotel sucked.
We decided to eat dinner at the hotel so we would have time to pack up and get to bed early. I washed a few items in the hotel sink using the liquid detergent I bought, and Kevin pulled the pictures of of our camera memory cards to the external hard drive I brought along. Kevin is using the Nikon D40 digital SLR and I’m using the Canon SD870IS digital point-n-shoot.
Sunday morning after breakfast, we checked out of Hotel Staubbach in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. We really liked it there and had a great time talking to Craig, the American owner originally from California. Should he put TVs in the rooms, or not because it could cause noise problems? Plus, how to wire a 120-yr old building for TV without major expense? How could he recoup costs if he offered wireless internet service? He gets asked about it a lot, but doesn’t know how to get it going. How has global warming affected the valley in the ten years he has been there? Not much that he can tell, but people who have been around all their lives notice the change in snow.
We had a nice, low-key drive from Lauterbrunnen to Bellinzona. Because all of the fun-to-drive mountain passes are still closed for snow, we had to stick to the A2 and A8 autostradas (major highways). But this strategy did allow us to drive through the Gotthard tunnel, which at 17km is the longest auto tunnel in the world. It goes under a mountain, basically linking German Switzerland with Italian Switzerland. It really plays havoc with the GPS, since there is no way to maintain a satellite link under a mountain - haha!
Bellinzona is famous for it’s three major castles which together are a UNESCO world heritage site. We stopped to visit Castlegrande, the largest of the three and most central location in the middle of town. It looks like a castle you imagined as a kid, with long turreted and ramparted walls that are a good ten feet wide, tall towers, and seeming to just grow up out of the rock. The castle is kind of a community gathering place, as there is no admission charge and there are big grassy courtyards inside where young people gather to play futbol and hang out. There are also a few different restaurants inside. We ate outside on a courtyard overlooking the mountains, it was mediocre food. I had planned a few hours here to explore, but unfortunately there didn’t see to be much to see beyond the courtyards and walls.
Lugano, only 20km from Bellinzona, was to be our home base for the next two nights. Our hotel was located near the train station, and using our GPS connected to my computer with the map software, I had good directions to get us to the train station. However, the navigation maps couldn’t seem to tell the difference between the road around the back of the train station and the road directly above it on the hill, which is of course where we needed to be. It was a very frustrating experience for both Kevin driving and me navigating to try to get to the hotel, which we could see, but not figure out how to get to. I finally got us there, but it was a rough few minutes.
Based on the journey, we were both in foul moods when we checked into the hotel. We had reserved a private room in the hotel side of the Motarina Hotel & Hostel, based on great reviews on TripAdvisor.com and the low prices compared to other places in this expensive city. But, it was not at all what we were expecting. First, no lift (elevator) to take our luggage upstairs. Second, no private bathroom, although there was no way to know that from the website. Third, just didn’t like the shabby look to the room. Fourth, breakfast was not included. After much ado and negotiating with the front desk, we were offered to move to their sister-hotel property next door, the Continental Parkhotel. Wow, what a difference! This was a very nice property that apparently caters to tour-bus groups. It was only a few dollars more that the Montarina, but at least a three-star upgrade. We were given a corner room, number 536, that had two balconies. One balcony faced Lake Lugano and the mountains, very good view. The second balcony could also see the lake, but also overlooked the elaborate gardens on the property. A very good choice to move to this location.
Sunday evening, our first night in Lugano, we took the funicular down the hillside to the downtown lakeside area. We walked a bit on the lake promenade, through a park with beautiful gardens, and choose not to go lose all our money at the Lugano Casino. Instead, we choose an outdoor table at a place called Olympia on a piazza and ate pizza for dinner.
We slept in a bit this morning, and didn’t get out of bed until 10:00 — it was wonderful! Breakfast is included at Hotel Staubbach, so we hurried down before it ended at 10:30 for ham, cheese, breads, cereal, yogurt, juice, and coffee. We were full and ready to face a day of exploring.
We put on our hiking clothes and headed out to see the waterfalls. Trummelbachfall is only about a 45 minute walk away, but with us stopping every few minutes to take pictures, greet cows/sheep/goats, pet cats, watch base jumpers and skydivers, it took us about 2 hours — ha!
Trummelbachfalls is a set of waterfalls that flow inside of the mountain. It is the only one accessible anywhere in Europe. There is a lift to take us about halfway up in the mountain, then the rest is done with stairs. It was pretty cool (literally, too), I recommend it. Except that there were a ton of tourist buses arriving, and it was crowded with these groups. I hate these groups, they move around like a herd and make it hard to get around or enjoy the beauty. And funny enough, I recognized a few people from a tour group we saw yesterday at Castle Chillon (dyed-bright-red-but-obvious-grey-hair lady is hard to miss).
Walking back from the falls, we saw some pretty amazing jumpers. A helicopter had dropped off a group on top of a cliff, and these guys just jumped off, free-falling right in front of us for about 10 secondes before pulling the parachute. You could really hear the “rip” sound when the chute caught the air. Then, moments later, we could hear shots ringing through the valley as locals practiced target shooting right in the valley next to the road. Very loud and a little startling as it echoed against the granite mountains, Kevin and I agreed that open shooting so close to tourists would not likely happen in the US. We joked that it was a good thing they didn’t start shooting one minute earlier, as the cliff jumpers might have also been startled and missed pulling their chutes in time.
We had dinner at Hotel Oberalp tonight. Again, a very good dinner, probably the best yet. Kevin had the ribeye, I had the mushroom tortellini. We both had green salads which are so good here, everything is so fresh, with homemade dressing. I finished off with the apple strudel - yum.
We are still unable to find a place to connect my USB drive to upload pictures. All the public computers, all over town, are locked in boxes so that you cannot reach them, and are coin operated. It is 5 CHF per 25 mins, so very expensive. I’ve spent about 13CHF so far just for writing these blog posts, and am getting the 3-minute warning right now.
Tomorrow we drive across Switzerland again, to Bellinzona to see the castles there, then on to Lugano for the night.
Note: I still don´t have free internet access or any way to connect my own laptop, so I still cannot upload pictures. We’re getting quite a backlog to upload… about 600 pictures so far. As soon as I get access I’ll link to the best ones here, I promise.
Since we were too wiped out to visit Chateux de Chillon on our first day, we saved it and went Friday morning. I have been before but Kevin has not, so it was a nice experience for him. It was a sunny day outside, and I assume that many Europeans had taken off work on Friday after the May Day holiday because the castle was packed.
We worked up an appetite walking all over the castle, including up to the top of the keep (pictures coming soon!), and walked accross the street to have lunch. It was surprisingly good for a place next to a tourist destination. As has become standard, lunch took about two hours, no one ever seems in a hurry. It was about 2:00 when we finally left Montreux.
Next, we hit the road to drive on Rt 11 through Switzerland to Lauterbrunnen. We passed through Chateau d’eax, Gstaad, Zweissman, Spiez, and Interlaken on our way. Rt 11 is a spectacular, two-lane road with plenty of switchbacks and altitude changes. We stopped a LOT to take pictures — there are lots of turnouts on the road, many close to the prime overlooks.
We got to Lauterbrunnen about 7:30p, just in time since the front desk at our hotel, Hotel Staubbach, closes at 8:00p. It is a wonderful place. Only two stars, but definitely our kind of laid-back place. Our room has french doors and a balcony overlooking the mountains, waterfalls, and valley. It is amazing, we just love it here. We walked down to Hotel Silberhorn for dinner, where I enjoyed the local classic dish of cheese fondue (heavy with wine), and Kevin had a pork steak with several sauces, fruit, and boiled potatoes. I had a local red wine from Aigle and it was very good.
Tomorrow we are hiking, so we’re going to bed early.