Montalcino, Italy

While you’re in the Siena area, you’ll want to make a side trip to Montalcino. Montalcino is a walled hilltop town in Tuscany that has wonderful views of the surrounding valleys.

Located 27 miles south of Siena, Montalcino is where the famous Brunello di Montalcino and Rosso di Montalcino wines are made. It’s a small town and you can get there from Siena by bus. It takes 60 to 90 minutes on the bus and costs only about four Euros one way.

Montalcino is located to the west of Pienza, close to the Crete Senesi in Val d’Orcia. It is 42 km from Siena, 110 km from Florence and 150 km from Pisa. The Monte Amiata is located nearby.

I first learned about Montalcino from the delightful and informative book Vanilla Beans & Brodo: Real Life in the Hills of Tuscany. When I finally got to visit Montalcino in person, it was a real thrill to see the streets and restaurants that author Isabella Dusi described so evocatively in her memoir.

When you’re in Montalcino, make sure you see the 14th Century fortezza, and drop in to the Enoteca la Fortezza wine-tasting shop which is located under the fort. The Enoteca is a great place to sample the local Brunello and Rosso wines (phone 0577-849211). You can get a variety of Tuscan wines by the glass for about four Euros each. Since you’re there, you’ve got to sample the regional Brunello, which is about seven or eight Euros for a glass. They’ll serve it with plates of savory local cheeses so you can have lunch there.

Another great place in Montalcino for wine tasting is the Piazza del Popolo (phone 0577-849043). When you get to the Piazza del Popolo, find the Caffe Fiaschetteria Italiana No. 6. Check out the days. It can be closed on Monday and Tuesday, I’ve heard. You can get a wine tasting there with three or four varieties of Brunello to choose from, ranging from about four Euros on up to well over ten Euros a glass.

Ariel view of Montalcino

Also in Montalcino, check out the small civic museum, which has a really nice collection of Sienese paintings ranging from the 1400’s to the Renaissance. A few years ago the  Civic Museum moved its collection to a new home at the former St. Augustine Monastery on Via Ricasoli 31 (phone 0577-846014). It’ll cost you about five Euros and it’s open Tuesday through Sunday.

Another thing to see in Montalcino is the 12th Century Cistercian Abbey of Sant’Antimo, which is about ten kilometers south of Montalcino. It’s one of Tuscany’s most beautiful, intact Romanesque churches. An extra special experience is if you time your visit to coincide with the Gregorian chants that are performed daily by the monks that still live there.

There’s a tourist office in Montalcino that you can check with for the hours the chants are going to be performed.

Vaporetto on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy

When you visit Venice you’ll quickly notice that it’s a very expensive city, even by European standards. However, there are some tips and tricks you can learn in order to save money in Venice.

One of the best ways to keep your Venice travel costs down is to make use of public transportion rather than private water taxi rides. The Venetian form of public transit is called a vaporetto, or water bus.

It’s important to understand the difference between water bus (vaporetto) and water taxi. The water bus is inexpensive public transportation costing just a couple of euros a ride; whereas the water taxi is an expensive private-hire form of transportation. It typically costs 100 euros or more to hire a water taxi.

You can save even more money on the vaporetto by purchasing a multiday pass. It’s a great deal that many tourists aren’t aware of or aren’t confident enough to use. Buying a pass allows you to get on and off whenever and wherever you want, without having to purchase another ticket. That saves you money and time, and also offers you a lot of freedom.

The traditional gondola, with fancy decoration.

Here’s another money saving tip for Venice. If you want to experience riding in a traditional Venetian gondola, but you don’t want to pay the 100+ euros that a private gondola ride costs, try a traghetto ride. A traghetto is a public transport gondola that takes you in a straight line from one side of the Grand Canal to the other side.

Taking a traghetto will save having to spend much of your walking time looking for bridges to cross the canal, and it’s also a great way to participate in an authentic Venetian experience with the locals.  A traghetto ride will cost you less than a dollar, which you hand to an oarsman as you get on. It’s the best transportation bargain (and the cheapest gondola ride) in Venice.

What are traghetti? They are old gondolas stripped of their fancy decoration. They are rowed by two oarsmen: one who stands in the back like a traditional gondolier, the other closer to the bow. Passengers generally stand for the short trip, although you can sit down as well.

Be sure to get your terminology correct: don’t confuse traghetto with vaporetto. A vaporetto is a motorized water bus that runs the length of the Grand Canal. In contrast, a traghetto (or traghetti, plural) is a gondola that is rowed by oarsmen and crosses the Grand Canal from side to side.

There are various traghetti operating at seven convenient spots on the Grand Canal. Just look for the striped pole that marks the spots. Oh, and be aware that most of the traghetti only operate until about lunchtime each day.

So there you have it: save money in Venice by using the water bus instead of the water taxi, and take a traghetto ride instead of a private gondola ride.

The view from our canal-facing room at guesthouse Ponte Chiodo, Venice Italy

A reader asked the following questions about Ponte Chiodo, my favorite Venice accommodation.

Good morning.  I hope all is well.  My wife and I are taking her mom to Italy in February, March 2012 for her 60th birthday.  I am in love with Ponte Chiodo.  It seems like a very nice place, and it really seems the views of the canal will help make Venice a truly memorable experience for her. It also seems that there are plenty of Venice things to do close by. I have a few questions if I may:

1. Mattia recommended the double superior room on the first floor for my mother-in-law.  Which room would you recommend for my wife and I?  Size doesn’t necessarily matter for us, so we were drawn to the garden view you recommended.  Which floor was this on?  Does it have a double bed?  Was the bathroom en suite?

2. Speaking of beds, how are the beds?  Are they comfortable?  Are they comparable to what we consider Queen size here in the States?

3. My mom-in-law has MS.  She is still able to get around, but she has her days where she has a little less energy and may be a litle more inclined to take it easy one day (all the more reason for staying here; when she wants to sit and relax, she still has a wonderful view).  I noticed that Ponte Chiodo may be a little further away from the sites.  In your opinion, is Ponte Chiodo still a good option for us?

The window and view from garden-facing room at guesthouse Ponte Chiodo, Venice Italy

Let me know your thoughts if you are willing and able.

Thanks so much!
Brad

********************

Nice bathroom with natural light in garden facing room

You will love Ponte Chiodo. My husband and I can’t wait to go back.

1. The garden view room we stayed in was on what we would call the third floor (Italians call it the second floor because they don’t count the ground floor).

I really liked the room because for 30 euros a night less than the canal facing room you still got a room that is bright, nicely decorated, high ceilings, nice view, and the nicest ensuite bathroom of all the rooms at Ponte Chiodo (the bathroom was bigger than others, and also had a nice big window. The bathrooms in the canal facing rooms are interior to the building, so do not have natural light).

Only about 3 feet from foot of bed to dresser in our garden-facing room

Having said that, be aware that it is a very narrow room. I would estimate that it is 7 feet wide by 12 feet long (not including the ensuite bathroom). Once you put your luggage on the floor you have very little space to walk around.

The width of the queen size bed takes up nearly the entire width of the room (you have just a sliver of space to get off the bed). And from the foot of the bed to the bureau at the other end of the room there is only about three feet of walking space (see photo).

Mattia warned me that it was a very small room. I was expecting a dark garret or closet, so was pleasantly surprised and delighted with the charm of the room.

I would have no problem choosing the garden facing room again, since I have already had the experience of staying in a canal facing room.

By the way, in case you were wondering…canal facing rooms are just as quiet as garden facing rooms.

Our canal-facing room at Ponte Chiodo Guesthouse, Venice Italy (second floor superior room)

MY ADVICE: Since this is your mother-in-law’s 60th birthday and you don’t know if she’ll ever get to Venice again, my advice would be to choose a canal facing room, because it is the ultimate Venice experience to open your shutters in the morning and look down at the canal and all the local life that happens around it.

2. The beds are extremely comfortable. In Europe they push two twin beds together to make a queen. Very strange but that’s just how they do it. We slept very well at Ponte Chiodo.

3. Your mother-in-law will have plenty to do even if she doesn’t want to venture far from Ponte Chiodo. Within a three minute walk is a neighbourhood shopping street, with a beautiful array of shops, restaurants, bakeries, etc. The only thing that may be a problem for her is the little bridge that she will have to cross to get there. It has about 5 steps up and then down. She could also walk in the other direction which, as I recall, is completely level right out to the sea. Everything is beautiful and charming and she will love it!

As far as getting to the major sights, you are a 5 minute walk from the Ca’Doro vaporetto (water bus) stop. You just hop on it and then get off at any of the major sights.

There is a restaurant very near Ponte Chiodo (maybe 3 minute walk) that served the very best pasta that we have ever had. I think it is called Restaurant Ca’Doro but the locals know it by another name. I can look it up if you like.

For more information or to make a booking enquiry, go to Guesthouse Ponte Chiodo.

Approaching the inn where we had lunch

My husband and I are normally independent travelers who do not like group tours. But the Best of Tuscany tour was so well managed that we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Our tour guide for the day was Becky, a young English woman who married an Italian. She was perfectly fluent in both English and Italian (at least to our ears) and gave us many interesting insights about life in Italy. Becky was also very hard-working and professional: being a tour guide for 40+ people is a demanding task, but she never wavered in her warmth and courtesy for the entire day.

Other highlights of the day included a tour by an excellent local guide in Siena, a bountiful lunch and wine tasting at an organic farm inn, and seeing the leaning tower of Pisa in the moonlight (we were there in November, hence the shorter daylight).

Charming dining room where we had lunch

This tour is excellent and very good value. My only caution would be that it is a long day (about 12 hours starting at 8:30 a.m.), so depending on your age and stamina you might be quite tired towards the end. Although there is opportunity to snooze on the bus between stops, it is a long day with a fair amount of walking. There was one family with small children on our tour and although the kids were real little troopers, they found it too much.

We thoroughly enjoyed the tour and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a fun, informative and high quality tour. It is a great choice particularly if you have limited days in Tuscany and wish to see Siena, San Gimignano and Pisa in one day.

Guest post by Judy Toth

Room at Cassafrassi Hotel in Tuscany (photo: tripadvisor-tinatot76)

Tuscany…oh, where to start?  We absolutely adored Tuscany.  We stayed at a rural agriturisomo called CasaFrassi Hotel near the town of Castellina in Chianti. Our accommodation was gorgeous, with a view of vineyards and olive trees and lots of relaxing amenities such as tennis, swimming, and gardens to sit in.

We did our grocery shopping in the town of Castellina in Chianti, which was about 10 minutes north of where we were staying. The beautiful medieval town of Siena was only 20 minutes away. Siena is much like Lucca (walled town) but bigger.  It was a place you could wander around forever looking at churches, stores, restaurants etc.  We also went to Monterrigioni (very small version of the walled town) and San Gimignano (very old, very beautiful walled town).

Lucca

Lucca was very nice.  Like many of the old towns it is encircled by a huge stone wall.  It is best to park at one of the many parking areas outside the wall and walk in.  Great shops, plazas, and churches (of course).  Lucca was one of our favorite Tuscan towns.

Florence

While we loved Florence, we didn’t get to see much.  The primary aim here was to go to the Accademia to see the statue of David and to go to the Uffizi Gallery.  Unfortunately, we got there on a Saturday that happened to be a holiday (May 1 is May Day) and the galleries were closed.  The next day was Sunday.  On Sunday we learned two new words in Italian:  chiuso (closed) and sciopero (strike).  The gallery workers went on a one day strike.  Our last day in Florence was Monday and galleries are always closed on Monday.  (We hoped that since there was strike the day before that they would consider opening on Monday.  Funny, funny Americans!)

We did see the Duomo in Florence (church, baptistery, and campanile) which was gorgeous (do pace yourself, however.  I looked at only a few of the churches and by the end of the trip I wasn’t sure which was which!).  We also saw the Medici Chapel (small but interesting), Piazza della Signoria (great plaza with fantastic fountains and statues, just a cool place to hang out), and, of course, Ponte Vecchio (the old bridge).  Ponte Vecchio crosses the Arno river at its narrowest point.  The bridge is lined with leather shops, jewelers, and goldsmiths. We also enjoyed walking around the Boboli
Gardens—very pretty and relaxing.

Pisa

Pisa is a pretty small, cramped (as opposed to cozy) city.  We were told that once you have seen the leaning tower and the church etc, there is not much else to see or do.  That’s accurate. In our opinion, you could easily see and experience enough of Pisa in one day.  We stayed there for 3 nights because we used Pisa as a jumping off point for other visits.  We spent one day seeing all we wanted to see and explore in Pisa, one day to go west and visit some coastal towns, and one day to go north to see Lucca.

Coastal towns in Tuscany

The coastal towns that we saw (on the Tyrrenian Sea) were Livorno (the northern part of Livorno was pretty ugly—just a shipping port, we didn’t venture deeper into Livorno), Tirrenia (just a small beach town for locals, the most interesting part to us was exploring a golf course),  Marina di Pisa (would probably be a nice place to visit and walk along the ocean in better weather: it was gray, cold, and stormy the day we were there) and Viareggio (looked like it had even nicer beaches and cottages to stay in).

Hidden gem in Tuscany

Our serendipitous find was a town called Colle di Valle d’Este. It is a tiny town, not yet on the tourist maps (although it looks like they are doing work to get prepared to attract tourists).  We were there on a Saturday.  We wandered around the town (not much to see at this point) and enjoyed seeing a typical Italian town enjoy their Saturday.  The best part was sitting and watching the men playing bocce.  They really took the game seriously (and are not used to having a ‘gallery’ so they were really hamming it up).  Their wives were sitting off to the side in a circle talking.  It was wonderful.

Other itineraries

We talked to many people before we left as well as  people that we met on the trip.  It seems unanimous that Venice and Lake Como are “must sees”.  The only variation I heard on that is that some people said that Venice is the most unique place they’ve ever been and could have spent forever there.  Other people said that it was the most unique place they’ve ever seen but once they saw it, a couple of days was more than enough.

We hope to hit northern Italy on a trip that we combine with either Switzerland or the south of France. Hope this helped give you some ideas of what might work for you!

Guest post by Judy Toth

My husband and I love to walk, both for the exercise and because we see so much more).  So in each city or town we visited in Italy, we walked everywhere.  In Rome we did check out the subway just in case we had inclement weather or got very tired but we never used it.

To get from Rome to Florence and back to Rome, we took the train.  Great trip!  We went first class so that we had a reserved train as well as a reserved seat.  The direct train is fast (1 ½ hours) and pretty economical (even in first class).

After we finished our visit in Florence, we rented a car to drive to Pisa, around Tuscany, and back to Florence to pick up the train back to Rome.  In general, it was not difficult to find our way around driving. The most difficult part was making sure that we were on the right road to get in and out of Florence.  Street signs are not always readily visible, directional signs are somewhat unclear, and intersections are complex. However, once you are on the highway or in the small towns it is much easier.

If you do decide to rent a car:  check the hours of the car rental location (they probably close from 1 to 3 in the afternoon), the hours they tell you are only guidelines not gospel (they may decide to close at 12:30 or not reopen until 4), and you may have to wait a while for a car.

We were very lucky when we picked up our car, but not so lucky when we dropped it off. At that time there was a long line of people waiting for cars because they had “run out” of cars and were waiting for returns.  In fact, one man, who had apparently been waiting quite some time, saw that we were returning a car and came up to us and tried to cut a deal to just take our car.  We were not going to let THAT happen!

Guest post by Judy Toth

There are a million and one beautiful, awe-inspiring historical sites to see in Rome.  However, after three days we couldn’t wait to get out of there!

Now remember, this is all personal preference.  Neither my husband or myself are big-city people.  The noise, crowds, and traffic began to get to us a bit.  But, even more than that, we were tired of being on our guard 24/7 against taxi scams and other forms of ‘being taken’.  You must check your restaurant bill very closely to ensure that they do not charge you for something that you didn’t order.  As in most large cities, you should dress for comfort as well as safety and watch your jewelry, handbag, wallet, etc.

In talking with many other people, a lot of them agreed with us.  We met one couple who had been in Italy for two weeks and spent their last couple of days in Rome (just the opposite of what we did).  They LOVED everything except Rome (that gave us hope that it would get better).  And then, we spoke to some people who couldn’t get enough of Rome:  ‘the excitement, history, pace, diversity of restaurants’ etc.  If we go back, we might spend a day in Rome to see things we didn’t see this time….but then again, maybe not.

Spanish Steps, Rome

On the first day we went to the Spanish steps (beautiful), Trevi fountain (very neat), walked through the Borghese gardens, and other areas that didn’t require a lot of time but gave us a good feel for the city.

On day two we saw the Roman Forum and the Colesseum.  Fabulous.  Although there were a lot of people there, you could go at your own pace, stay as long as you liked.

The third day we went to St Peter’s and the Vatican.  We got there early and went to St Peter’s first, which was good because it wasn’t too crowded so we could wander around wherever we wanted inside the basilica.

Then we went to the Vatican Museums.  We should have gone there first.  There was a long line to get in.  We were in line for 45-60 minutes (and this is for two people who normally don’t wait in a line longer than three people even to go to the bathroom!).  We overheard people say that the line wasn’t very long compared to when they were there before (yikes!).

Piazza San Pietro, Vatican City

The other disappointing thing about the Vatican Museum was that there was a prescribed route for where you are allowed to go. I wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, the Raphael rooms, and the Borgia apartment, anything else was gravy.

While you could stay in any one area as long as you wanted, there was prescribed route of where you could go next and, although you could skip an area to get to another one, once you moved on you could not go back and re-visit areas.

It took us over an hour to get to the Sistine Chapel and that meant motoring through some areas and skipping the Raphael rooms and the Borgia Apartment (I was getting claustrophobia from the crowds and I was sure I could figure out a way to go back, but I couldn’t).  However, other people who have visited the Vatican said that they could go in and wander around wherever they wanted.  I don’t know if we would have had a different experience if we would have gone to the Vatican Museums earlier in the day.

Photo credits:

Spanish Steps – http://www.adventurouswench.com

With my next trip to Italy only five weeks away,  maybe it’s time for me to buy an iPod Touch. I’ve been resisting the purchase because I don’t like having too many electronic gadgets to fiddle with on holiday. But the more I think about it the more I realize that having an iPod Touch would certainly enhance my travel experience. Not only would the maps and translation functions be helpful, it would also be nice to have all that practical information about the museums right at my fingertips.

For example, the ArtFirstGuide “Uffizi” is an  iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad application for touring the Uffizi Gallery, and the only one authorized by the Uffizi Gallery.

According to the Polo Museale Fiorentino :: Official Website, you can use the Uffizi app to discover the great masterpieces of Italian and European art, find your way around the rooms of the gallery and plan your trip to Florence. OK, I’m persuaded.  Off to the store to get one now.

Here’s a tip for budget travel in Rome: several companies offer two hour walking tours of Rome, absolutely free. The guides work for tips, so they do their best to make sure that you enjoy your tour.  One of the companies is RomeFreeTour.com and the other is New Rome Free Tour. The latter is rated higher on TripAdvisor.com (#11 of 612 attractions in Rome vs. #56 for RomeFreeTour).

Rome is an expensive city for a hotel room; even a double room in a moderately-priced hotel in Rome can be expensive. Although pensioni are less expensive, by far the best accomodation value are convents which take in paying guests.

Convents are located all around central Rome and many are found near Vatican City. Convents accept women, men and families with children, but be aware that most convents have a nightly curfew. Here are some of our recommendations for Rome…via Santa Susanna.