Drive to Tuscany
Today was a travel day. We left Sorrento at 9:00am (after another amazing breakfast by Fabio). Traffic heading north (our direction) was good. But, there was a ton of traffic and busses heading towards the Amalfi Coast. (Bumper to bumper!). There was also a large number of bicycles heading south on these busy roads as well. I am so glad we are heading out and got to do the drive on these Amalfi Coast without all this!
It is a four hour drive to Tuscany. We by passed Roma and took the toll road. It was about $20 in tolls, but well worth it. It was a ticket style toll, where you take a ticket when you enter, then pay when you exit based on how long you were on the road. We were on it for about 200 miles, hence the large toll fee.
Montepulciano
We are staying in a medieval renaissance hill town called Montepulciano. Cars are not allowed in the city center, so we had to find a parking lot outside the walls and walk in with our baggage. The first lot was full, the next lot had plenty of parking, but the machine to pay for parking was not working. The machine at the first lot was working, so we went over there to print our paid parking stub and put it in our window. I later found out from our Airbnb host, that there is an app we could have used.
The “roads” in Montepulciano are narrow, steep and all cobblestones stone. Making pulling a suitcase a bit of a challenge. Luckily, we had anticipated this and combined what we needed for the next three nights into one suitcase. The rest was left in the car.
Streets of Montepulciano
We could not get into our Airbnb until 4:00, so we found a wine bar with a great view and took a moment to relax and enjoy. The views are spectacular. It almost seems surreal. The people here are so friendly, we chatted up everyone around us and sat in the warm sun enjoying our wine.
Wine with a view.
We got checked into our Airbnb. It is a nice apartment with a full kitchen, bath, living room and bedroom. It also has a nice balcony overlooking town. We had packed light, so we had dirty laundry to do. I started it right away. As is usual, they have a washer, but no dryer. I expected this, which is why I started this process early. They had a drying rack and drying lines on the balcony. I was able to hang our laundry out to dry, then head into town for dinner.
Our balcony view.
Even though the restaraunts did not look busy, you needed reservations. We had none. I found a small market near our place nad pick up some ravioli and Ragu Toscana sauce. (The brand is Maggie Sapori, made locally). It was better than what I have had in restaurants. The pantry in the Airbnb was pretty well stocked. I was able to make some simple sugar for our Lemon Cello Spritz. (We already had the lemon cello and prosecco ). This Airbnb even had ice!
The sun was down and we were ready to curl up for the night. Day Lights Saving starts tomorrow in Italy, so we will need to “spring forward” one hour tomorrow.
