Tuscany & Rome

A trip of daredevils, truffles and Chianti.

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All uncredited images by @matsrennstam.

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Clichés and expectations.

Being an Italy virgin, I arrived with my wife at Leonardo da Vinci airport with a lifetime of built up clichéd expectations. Top of the agenda was photographing colourful landscapes and enjoying tastings at vineyards but to experience this, I had prepared myself to put up with a cuisine I’d always found a bit.. boring. Not as sophisticated as say the French. This based on numerous uninspiring visits to Italian restaurants around western Europe, with bland food and “romantic” paraphernalia. You know the stuff, patterned tablecloths, candles in bottles and old crooner classics playing in the background on tinny speakers.

Luckily, it only took an hour after arriving at the medieval town of Montepulciano to put this fear to rest. A tagliatelle with wild boar ragu and a bottle of Vino Nobile were both sensational. There were a lot of paraphernalia here as well but for example in the form of surely the prettiest wine list in the world. And instead of classics from speakers, the opera singer owner belted them out live. We were off to a good start.

Many of these hilltop towns are packed with tourists but this doesn't give them too much of a Disney feel as the buildings are so old and impressive that they rise above anything around them, including busloads of Scandinavians, Americans and British hungry for cobblestoned streets and cathedrals.

In San Gimignano we spoke to the local photographer Duccio Nacci (Instagram: @duccionacci) about this and the challenges to shoot Tuscany without baseball caps and selfie sticks getting in the way. He said “I agree it’s a challenge but you can get around it by either coming in December to February, or getting up early or staying until after the buses have left. That’s when you get the best pictures anyway.” And Duccio knows what he’s talking about, having shot some of the most beautiful images of the towns in the area and the stunning iconic landscapes of Val d’Orcia.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, back to those clichés. I’d also heard about the Italians being disorganised and terrible drivers, but having lived in Paris I thought how bad can it be? Very bad as it turned out. The rental car company Centauro didn’t have the car they’d guaranteed us, told us we couldn’t take the car on a ferry (there went the planned Elba island weekend) and, gave us a sat nav with a cable not compatible with the car. The annoyance over this quickly gave away to sheer fear though as we navigated our way north from Rome, where opposing traffic constantly veered over the middle white line and cars behind us overtook with centimetres between their cars and ours. We hung on in there though and a few hours later, the Tuscany countryside opened up dazzling us, and the number of cars on the road halved.

THE ROUTE

Which highlights to include on your road trip is a matter of taste but for us Pisa didn't attract, and the rolling hills of Val d'Orcia and Florence were musts.

A suggestion is to write down your favourites and then calculate the driving time. A consideration for us was the length of each drive not being more than 2-4 hours, ruling out towns not fitting in with that.

In hindsight, one night in Florence should have been two. And parking the car outside of Florence and taking a taxi in would have been kinder on the heart. We opted for six Tuscany nights in the end plus four in Rome (the Ryder Cup eating up 2 of them). Elba was beautiful but because of us not being allowed to bring the rental car over, we probably should have skipped it and increased the number of nights in our other destinations.

Top tip: Use Google map’s function to download maps offline. Mobile reception is sketchy along the way and you may not want to use too much mobile data.

Our route & drive times:

Rome airport to Montepulciano: 2 hours.
(Pienza and Montalcino are nearby)
Montepulciano to San Gimignano: 1.5 hours.
(via Siena)
San Gimignano to Florence: 1 hour.
(Volterra is nearby)
Florence to Elba ferry: 2 hours.
Elba ferry to Rome: 3 hours

Montepulciano

Arriving at our first stop Montepulciano and the quirky seventeenth century Residenza Fabroni, a bottle of Vino Nobile for sale in reception was perfect to calm our nerves and accompany the stunning views from the room. Part of a three storey (plus rooftop) old family residence, not much has changed in the last 100 years. Which of course meant no TV, lift or other modern facilities, but with views and wine that good, who cares.

A study nook at Residenza Fabroni.

You can easily spend a day walking Montepulciano's narrow streets, stopping for a tour of the cathedral, wine tasting (several places offer free flights if you buy a bottle) or climb to the top of the clock tower on Palazzo Comunale. The aforementioned wild boar ragu we had was at Ristorante degli Archi, but also don't miss out on pasta dishes with local truffle, mamma mia! When you see something you like the look of in the day, book a table for the evening or you might miss out.

The best time to visit is during spring (April to May) and early autumn (September to October) but it gets busy. August is best avoided both due to heat and the droves of tourists.

A final tip for Montepulciano is to pack a small overnight bag (if it's for a short stay) as the parking can be 10 mins from your hotel, up hilly cobblestoned streets and as mentioned, rarely any lifts at your accommodation.

Val d'Orcia

Think back to the scene in Gladiator where Maximus drags his hand along the wheat with cypress trees in the background and you get a good idea of the beauty of Val d'Orcia. Just driving around is lovely but these stops were our highlights:

Capella Vitaleta

A classic Tuscany image, this chapel is situated between San Quirico and Pienza. It was built on the spot where legend says the Virgin Mary appeared to a shepherdess. It has a good restaurant next to it and you can park 10 mins walk away.

San Quirico d'Orcia

Small (2,500 inhabitants) but cutesy town with a couple of decent restaurants to stop for lunch at.

Public parking on Via Dante Alighieri. Watch out for minimum stay fees.

Pienza

Renaissance Pienza will charm you with its stone architecture, romantic lanes, famous cheese and local cuisine, and panoramas of the surrounding landscapes.

Very difficult to find parking, arrive early or late.

San Gimignano

While laughing with (at?) my wife trying to pronounce this lovely town's name, the local award winning gelato maker passed us and smiled back as we walked in to the UNESCO world heritage centre. There are fourteen towers dominating the skyline that were built due to affluent families of the town trying to trump each other in showing off their wealth. The saffron, ham and pecorino cheese from here are all famous and, nota bene, its white wine; Vernaccia di San Gimignano! Produced from the ancient variety of Vernaccia grape, it's grown on the sandstone hillsides of the area. Do give it a try as we were pleasantly surprised by its nice floral, citrusy and crisp quality.

The Duomo cathedral is beautiful and you can pick up great Tuscany prints at local photographer Duccio Nacci's store. Both at Piazza del Duomo.

FLORENCE

We arrived in this delightful city knowing from the guidebook that it had around 380,000 inhabitants. However we hadn't quite expected them all to be out on the very narrow roads at the same time. When going back, and we will because one night here wasn't enough, we'll probably go to Pisa and train it from there instead of driving ourselves. September was very busy with tourists but speaking to the locals they said it's pretty crazy year round. Somehow the evenings felt less so and it wasn't a struggle to get a table reservation. The Duomo and famous gallerias Uffizi and dell'Accademia aside, we loved just walking around and taking in the beautiful architecture, and finishing the day with cocktails at the Grand Hotel Cavour's roof top bar overlooking the Duomo and half of Florence. Over Gin & Tonics here we agreed on the funniest Italian word so far (from being handed a luggage ticket at the Uffizi); bagaglio biglietto. Maybe it was the generous measures.

ROME

As with Florence, Rome of course doesn't need much of an introduction. But for first time visitors like we were, wondering if it's worth going or not, go! An absolutely beautiful city to walk around in and those wings of history are flapping constantly. We chose a hotel in the Trastevere district which is packed with restaurants, charming streets and within half an hour walking distance to the Collosseum, Spanish steps, Fontana di Trevi, Pantheon etc. If you only have a day I would personally book a Collosseum tour in advance, and then spend the rest just walking around, stopping for the occasional Peroni or espresso.

The traffic daredevils were out in full force here so it was a huge relief to have returned the rental car before heading in to central Rome. Apart from that, and restaurants not having any toilet seats (what's that all about?), our balmy summer evenings here were one of the highlights of the trip. As for the famous mouth of truth, which bites your hand off if you're lying, I said I love you to my wife when doing it and came away intact. When it was her turn she "forgot" to say the same because she was focusing on posing for the picture. Oh well, it was still one of my most romantic stays.

La bocca della verità.

Trastevere

Pantheon

Arrivederci e buon viaggio!

Mats Rennstam

Hotels we stayed in.

Residenza Fabroni, Montepulciano.

After struggling to find it (look for a small sign on the outside wall) and carrying luggage up two floors (no lift), this was a pleasant quirky surprise. Very old building with no modern facilities, but a unique stay, family house feeling with great views. Do buy the wine they sell in reception, very nice (wine glasses in the communal kitchen). And do take advantage of their parking, worked well for us.

Villa San Paolo, San Gimignano.

A bit outside San Gimignano but we liked the tranquillity and the hotel restaurant was good so no need to go in to town. If you do go it's a quick drive or taxi ride. The view from our room was great and beds comfortable. A bit pricey perhaps but quality a notch above the other Tuscany places we stayed at.

Grand Hotel Cavour, Florence.

Had a lovely stay at this hotel right next door to the Duomo. Super friendly staff and two top selling points for us: 1. Fab roof top bar. Do book a time as soon as you arrive though as it fills up. 2. "Valet parking". Sort of, they have two spots in front of the hotel where you can have your car picked up if you've booked parking with them. Florence is insane to drive in so any help you can get..

Relais le Clarisse, Rome

A simple but lovely small courtyard hotel right in the buzzy Trastevere district with its many restaurants. All the key sights of Rome are within 30 minutes walking distance just across the Garibaldi bridge. We didn't have any wine glasses in our room but just asked the friendly receptionist and they sorted this straight away. Our room had a giant terrace but this differs from room to room, some have balconies, some lead straight out to the patio. For your leaving day they have a spare room you can use after check-out.