When we have travelled to Italy previously, October was the perfect weather. Perhaps that was true of the coastal areas that we had toured. Essentially on this trip, we experienced a week of rain commencing with this particular morning.

Undaunted, D was willing to tackle the Italian Autostrata in spite of the rain. The beauty of Siena was evident even with rain splatters on my camera lens.

We wandered for a bit to get our bearings and then towards the piazza for a mid-morning cappuccino.

I sat my umbrella out to drip dry as we snuggled together under an awning.

I was unimpressed with the cheesy smile adhered to this beautiful landmark in the piazza.

 

So I circumvented the smile by taking close ups of the gorgeous building.

Even though we weren’t in the market for fresh produce, I couldn’t resist photographing the casual displays.

Since it was raining anyway, we decided to purchase tickets to visit the 13th century Siena Cathedral.

Here too, I was captured by the little details.

Even Wikipedia refer to the marble of the Cathedral of being black and white. Black and white are the symbolic colors of Siena, linked to black and white horses of the legendary city’s founders, Senius and Aschius.

We learned from the audio accompaniment while on the tour that the marble is actual white and green and upon close inspection we could see that this was correct.

The marble itself was beautiful but so too were the stained glass windows and the carved columns.

You cannot help but be awed by the magnitude of the architectural feat with ceilings that soared to a seemingly impossible height.

The domes too were absolutely exquisite. One could easily imagine souls soaring heavenward.

I was particularly enamoured with the black angels which adorned the altar.

Being a former art history student, I recognized the work of Bernini, reminding me of the Ecstasy of St. Theresa that I had pleasure of seeing in the Vatican years before.

Gazing upon Michelangelo’s amazing sculptures were memorable too.

Once again, the details were what I was continually drawn to.

The side chapels were not to be missed either. The cathedral was a glorious way to cope with a rainy Tuscan morning.

Kath’s quote: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free“. -Michelangelo

Love never fails.

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Our first glance of the blue Tuscan sky through our bathroom “window”

and a view of our terrace in the daylight.

After breakfast in our hotel we took the same route that we had walked in the dark the previous evening

arriving at the town square.

This is the handsome man with whom I spent the time of my life in Tuscany.

One of our first stops was the wine store in case we needed a night cap in our room.

After depositing the wine safely in our room, we wandered down Viale G. Verde passed the various spas by which the community became famous.

We knew from our research that Montecatini was divided into two communities-Montecatini Ferme where we were staying and Montecatini Alto that we could see high above us. We guessed that there was a route by road but we were tourists and opted to do tackle the journey by the vintage Funicular which was kind of like a slanted trolley car.

This as the gorgeous view of Montecatini Ferme from Montecatini Alto.

Almost upon disembarking we spotted this tribute to a loved one. Did someone have a funicular accident?

We had to climb straight up to the town square.

This lovely spot awaited us.

Before we decided which restaurant to have lunch in, we had a little snoop around.

There were flowers everywhere.

As well as historic buildings.

We were most fascinated with the every day life of the residents.

I would have dearly loved to have purchased something here but we waited until near the end of our stay to decide what to buy once we had a chance to window shop.

The restaurants put out baskets of their ingredients to lure you in.

This lady sat all by herself at one restaurant, never ate or drank anything and her expression never changed. I think that she might have been ordered to sit there and to not make any (more?) trouble.

My first taste of house wine-I was in heaven. We drank the house wine at each and every place we stopped-it was about being economical but also to compare and contrast tastes and flavour profiles.

I choose this unappetizing looking lunch as my selection-Tuscan Crostini sounds innocent enough but had a pungent, heavy taste. I had struck out at my first time at to bat.

D on the other hand loved his grilled cheese sandwich.

All the patrons sat outside that day but I peaked in to see what the interior was like.

I would have loved to have visited again on a rainy or chilly day but we still had so many restaurant meals ahead of us.

Kath’s quote: “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck

Love never fails.

I found this little bus shelter the square.

We wandered down to Hotel Puccini’s dining room with a number of other travelers that we suspected were on the same Gate One package as us. Not a particularly chummy group, we all nodded hellos but pretty much stuck to ourselves. We picked a particular table and then had breakfast at the same one all week long.

Having travelled to Italy previously, we knew that “breakfast” was more like a Canadian “brunch” with a wide selection of pastries, cheeses, meats, egg dishes and dessert! Omelets were sliced into pinwheels as illustrated above. There were always hard boiled eggs to enjoy as well.

We were partial to the Italian cheeses and fresh tomatoes.

Although untested, the coffee cakes and fruit galettes looked tasty and plentiful.

On most days I repeated my favourites-a café au lait, cheeses, meats and the crustiest brown bread ever. Fresh fruit was not plentiful but juices and preserved fruit was. On our final day, the delightful server who took care of us all week, made a “real” café au lait from the machine in the bar rather than the automatic dispenser in the dining room. It was a little gesture but an indication of how willing the Italians were to share their hospitality and make us feel very special.

This was how the hotel management persuaded you from lugging your key with you when you were sight-seeing. We left ours at the front desk and provided a daily opportunity to chat with the warm front desk staff.

Kath’s quote: “Amor non conosce travaglio – Love never tires”. -Unknown

Love never fails.

 

Before we headed to Tuscany, I did some research and had seen that a local recommended a couple of his favourite restaurants in the town of Montecatini where we were staying. La Cantina del Toscano DOC was one of the two. We then found out from Patrizia the owner of Hotel Puccini that La Cantina was within walking distance of our hotel. Little did we know at that time that we would fall instantly in love with the food and our server Francesco and that we would return almost every evening of our stay.

Dinner that evening started with a bread basket and plenty of good quality olive oil for dipping.

I was over the moon with my selection of pasta with seafood, tomatoes and fresh basil.

D was delighted with his choice of noodles with clams and mint.

I am not sure why it struck us to also order pizzas to go, but we did. Mine was this gorgeous creation with thinly sliced eggplant and cheese.

D’s was even tastier topped with sausage, ham, oregano and stracchino cheese. There was a fridge in our room so we repackaged them and placed them in there.

Kath’s quotes: “Five tender apricots in a blue bowl, a brief and exact promise of things to come.” ― Frances Mayes, In Tuscany    

Love never fails.

We left New York at approximately 10 pm. I settled in fairly quickly, took a sleeping pill and woke up as we were landing in Milan. The process of renting our car was a hassle as everyone arrived at the same time and they only had one clerk on. With patience though we were on our way. Navigating ourselves out of the airport and Milan was a fete in itself. I spotted the first of many Lambergenis on the Autostrada. In fact, D’s constant exclamation whenever we were on the highway was “don’t look now but there is a Mercedes up my ass”!

We stopped along the way at one of the many Autogrill Rest Stops along the highway and ordered delicious sandwiches for the road. I mean seriously fabulous-fresh bread, succulent meats and cheeses. It suddenly dawned on us-we were in Italy again!

When the scenery started to change and we spotted rolling hills and mountains, we knew that the Tuscan countryside was near.

The sun was starting to sink as we got more and more excited that our home for the week in the town of Montecatini would soon be in sight.

Upon check in at Hotel Puccini we were delighted that Patrizia, the owner of the hotel was able to keep her promise and put us in a room with a terrace. This was our view from the terrace

and this was the view of the terrace from inside our room.

We were hungry for some supper. I had done some advance research and had seen that a local recommended a couple of his favourite restaurants. We found out from Patrizia that La Cantina del Toscano was within walking distance of our hotel. Little did we know at that time that we would fall instantly in love with the food and our server Francesco and that we would return almost every evening of our stay.

Later we took a short stroll up and down the main street where our hotel was located to get our bearings.

We understood that we were actually staying at a different hotel closer to the town square but decided that we quite liked that we were on a quieter portion of the street.

This was a glimpse of our hotel lobby from the sidewalk.

This was the covered sidewalk patio outside our hotel. We were too pooped to stop for a drink that evening but did so a couple of nights later. Our bed was exceedingly comfotable and we had a good sleep to start our Tuscan adventure the next morning.

Kath’s quote: “Life offers you a thousand chances… all you have to do is take one.” ― Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun    

Love never fails.