Dia Venti Siena to Arezzo

The Duomo in the town of Arezzo.

This morning we leave our charming pied-a-terre in Siena that I am sure was designed for lovers’ trysts. It has a private entrance without going through the hotel. The door has lovely windows with shutters that close from the inside for privacy. It is all bed and bath and rug and charm and had Dennis and I been here 30 years ago, we may never have left the room! But last night we realized that we are both full up of cities, and hilltop towns, and churches and many things ancient. Our destinations are in danger of running together and we are in danger of forgetting what an adventure we are on, so we are glad that we are off to the country.

We consult many maps and the front desk for the best road out of town, toward Arezzo that will keep us in the country. It seems like it may be a bit of a zoo getting out of town, but it turns out to be very easy…keep your right side to the wall of the old city until you see the signs for Arezzo!

We make it on to a highway that promises to take us to our destination until we are detoured for roadwork. This has happened before, and it is a little unnerving because all the main highways have two lanes each direction that are always separated by a large divider. When roadwork occurs, they take down a piece of the barrier and route you into what are usually the oncoming lanes, so the divider is on your right, not your left. There are just little six-inch-high indicators to remind cars coming toward you that you are in their lanes, where you shouldn’t be. So, today we ran into this again, and to our chagrin, where we needed to turn off to Arezzo was in the middle of the detour and we could just watch it go by from the other side of the divided highway. Sh*t!

When we get back to “our’ side of the road, we get off at the first town. It is very small and residential and lovely. We pass little red brick homes with much loved gardens in front. Running into a supermarket, we top up with wine for the evening…love the frizzante, like drinking champagne every night. The store has hams that we have only seen in gourmet shops, and potato chips in Winnie the Pooh bags that Lucas would love, but would likely be against the law in Canada (that makes our country sound so anal retentive…perhaps we are!)

We find Arezzo and follow signs to the old city. We have learned that there are only Tourist Information places when you have already gotten to where you probably wanted to go, and they are likely to be closed for the Italian equivalent of siesta when you need information – this country is too funny sometimes.

Anyway we find the duomo in the old town and two “information points” on the sign. Dennis takes one, I take the other. His provides free maps, but he has to walk into someone’s office to get them. Mine charges for maps – the kind that every hotel concierge gives out free – and serves coffee. While we have a coffee, we take all the maps and figure out the way out of Arezzo and toward Castiglion Fibocchi to get the turn off to Laterina where it turns out our Travelzoo deal is taking us.

Just out of Arezzo we cross the Ponte a Buriano, famous because it is in the background of the Mona Lisa. Clearly, Leonardo was here. Actually, the bridge crosses a slow moving and picturesque river, so good on him!

We continue roaming our way through this fabulous country. It is lush and hilly and so very green in the May sun. It has a calming effect. Slow down, all is good.

We find what we think is near Laterina and I check the Travelzoo address for Toscana Verde where we are reserved for two nights and we are scanning for via Penna. We pass what we think was it so Dennis looks for a place to turn around and pulls into what turns out to be Toscanna Verde -- our reservation. No such thing as coincidence…

The place is a single large building. If we believe the photos, it was once a tobacco drying shed…perhaps it is true. We know we got a deal on a four star hotel on Travelzoo, paying less than half. Well, we also know that this comes with risks so we are pleasantly surprised when the room is huge. In fact a two-bedroom suite over two floors. On closer inspection, it is not well taken care of, and decorated in a, “I don’t need this at home, let’s take it to the cottage” décor. We are ok with it, but there are some spooky aspects. The long halls have lights that are on timers and delays, so it you don’t know where the switch is, you are trying to find your room in the dark! The plus is that it is so quiet! We hear birds and cicadas and it is clear we are in the country.

We wait impatiently for 7:30, which is the earliest we can have dinner. Finally we go down and there is no sign of life in what should be the dinning room. Dennis asks the front desk, and it turns out we have to go through what looks like an abandoned room before we get to the dining room!

We can only describe our meal as an episode in Fawlty Towers, with some food thrown in. There are wonderful characters who are supposed to be our waiters, but cannot add anything to the reading of the menu and less to our understanding of the meal. Courses are served; smiles are exchanged and we make our way back to our room. The sky is amazing from our deck. We stay here again tomorrow night, but we will eat elsewhere ;-)

Ed = D’s comments: This place has a Hacienda style and feel and for the first several hours we were two of it’s only guests – it had a spooky aura. The solitude and quiet immediately had an effect on us both but as Sh succumbed to a nap, I went for a walk around the property. There were what sounded like gun shots going off in the distance (probably a target/skeet range) and as I neared the swimming pool a furtive figure darted through the brushes carrying a large bag followed by a white setter. Very quickly, muffled non-stop barking drew me to the source which was the setter excitedly barking into a shed ½ buried in an embankment. The grounds man suddenly appeared and was apparently embarrassed by the dog’s noise. He tried to explain that the dog had cornered a snake in the shed. It all fell together and things were normal again. Funny how spooky sometimes just sets a tone that won’t let go.

PS: When we finished supper we got back to the lobby to discover a busload (literally) of Japanese tourists had just descended. This place is VERY normal now!