OUR 4 MONTH ITALIAN ADVENTURE ( LA NOSTRA AVENTURA) PITIGLIANO & MONTEMERANO, ITALY

March 28, 2016

Hi there,

Let me tell you that we are so happy with our decision of spending 4 months in Italy, sure we miss family and friends, but we wouldn’t change the experience. We start our day planning our adventures. If we decide to stay put in Follonica we generally go for our long walk it takes us between 1.5 to 2 hours – we have to get those 12,000 steps early in the day. We tend to explore by taking different streets to see what new place or stores we will discover. Somedays we are exhausted ( we are no young chickens anymore), and we just stay home and hang out writing my blog, watching a movie ( I am getting better at the Italian listening), or checking the pictures, or planning our next outing. If we have rented a car, we generally leave early in the morning and we don’t arrive home until late afternoon. If we decided to take the train to explore, we usually leave early in the morning and we don’t arrive home until late at night.

So, let’s get to the juicy stuff, we still have our rental (Fiat 500) for one more day. We wanted to use it wisely, so we asked around to the locals for a few suggestions of places to visit. As well as, we checked the internet for sites to visit in Tuscany. Well, one of the ones that came up highly rated was Pitigliano, which also happens to be close to Montemerano, and that became our plan for the day. We would be visiting both towns.

We left the house around 9.30 a.m. and on our way up to the town we passed by Manciano. To all of you “wine lovers”, Italian wine production is on its way. There are thousands of fields as this one, some of them have a mixed of olive trees and grapes. Other ones only grapes. I was able to capture the grape fields. I was surprised to see that the grapes are chopped basically to the roots.

As you drive you can see that the countryside and the landscape are so impressive, you can see green everywhere, It seems like one of those colour swatches that you get at a paint store with different shades of green all of them in perfect harmony, nothing seems out of place.

Manciano grape vineyards…

Let me tell you that all the driving and swirling around to get to Pitigliano was so worth it. We named our GPS “Maria”, she has a British accent and pronounces the Italian street names funny so I have to translate them (hahaha) to proper Italian to Raffaele. He has his arguments with her, as sometimes she has us going around in circles. After almost 2 hours of driving , Raffaele turns and there it was!!!! so impressive and beautiful, it felt that you were transported to medieval times with the surreal view. As I am not the greatest in remembering history, even though I love hearing it… I took the below info from Wikipedia, just for you to read…

PITIGLIANO

Is part of the Province of Grosseto, it is around 128 Km. from Follonica. The town is known as “little Jerusalem”, at one time they had a big Jewish community, As well, we were told that during the II World War the Christian Italians helped hide Jews from the Nazis.

History ( taken from Wikipedia)

Pitigliano and its area were inhabited in Etruscan times but the first extant written mention of it dates only to 1061. In the early 13th century it belonged to theAldobrandeschi family and by the middle of the century, it had become the capital of the surrounding county.

In 1293 the county passed to the Orsini family, signalling the start of 150 years of on-again/off-again wars with Siena, at the end of which, in 1455, a compromise of sorts was reached: Siena acknowledged the status of county to Pitigliano, which in exchange placed herself under the sovereignty of Siena.

From then onwards the history of Pitigliano resorbs into the gradually wider ambit first of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (1562) then of the united Kingdom of Italy.

This is a view of the city from our car. They do an amazing job at lighting it at night… I saw a few postcards taken at night… they are breathtaking.

Throughout the town, you will see the Etruscan walls and steps and you become amazed that everything you are seeing was built centuries ago, that some of the steps are from roman times… Also, we found out that beneath the ground there is a network of Etruscan paths and caves that linked Pitigliano to Rome.

The Etruscan walls of Pitigliano, you can see them as you walk the contorns of the city. As you walk the streets you realize there are no modern markets, they have their little stores (boutiques), but you feel transported to the past.

Here is a picture of Raffaele and Gigi “the traveller”, by the way, did I mention that she is an amazing traveller

One of Pitigliano’s streets – not that many people because it was “cold” and it was “siesta time”. As I mentioned before, due to the winter season the schedules are a little strange, but we were told that after Easter all business go back to normal schedules. We are looking forward to it, as we want to come back to this town, there were a few things that we didn’t do and would love to do them once the tourist season starts.

Here is another angle of the town

This fountain is close to the arch walls of the town

A view of the arches of the city with its beautiful fountain

The Orsini Palace the construction started in the XII century. They have a museum that shows artifcats from the era, but it was closed when we were there.

The Bronze statue of “Il Villano”. There is a plaque next to the sculpture with the words of a poem written by Italo Funghi. Here it goes for your delight:

Father, I want to know who is Il Villano

My son, if you think of a man praying

hat in hand , on his knees

calling God, while he thinks of someone whose crying, then swears,

then asks forgiveness wiping the sweat off his brow, stroking an ear of corn, that’s Villano.

If you see someone smiling while picking golden grapes or crying and despairing for the delusions of human beings

who takes his tools and with strong calloused hands or who sits in a field when tiredness torments the limbs

who re-find his strength that, my son is Villano

If you know a man who loves the smell of three leaf clover and the smell of hay

who loves producing perfumed fruit,

who loves tranquility and peace

who loves the purest stream

the dew of the morning sun then, my son you are in the presence of God and his favourite

you can shake his hand

because he has the noble title of Villano ( translation from Penelope Hart)

.Beautiful picture of the surroundings – it is magnificent

As we started walking the streets, Gigi found an admirer ( that is happening everywhere she goes!!!). This dog followed her all over the town. Raffaele kept telling him to go away, but there he was. At the end, his owner came looking for him… It was so funny.

Walking around the town

This was the perfect site, we were able to take a picture from here on the other side of the city.

We wanted to see the museum of the Orsini Palace, but it was closed for the winter…

Did I say I love “old” doors and the architecture details, here is another one, You can still appreciate the age of the walls that surround the door – the arch on top detailing the door. There is so much character.

There were a few things that we missed in our visit like The Jewish Synagogue and the Jewish Ghetto. This is worth seeing while visiting Pitigliano, on my next visit I will provide pictures of the sites especially with the Jewish influence that the town has. Do you know that you still can find Kosher food in the town.

It started to rain so bad that we found refuge on the Ristorante “Gustand”, the owner is Paola Ballerini. This is a family Restaurant, Paola is in the kitchen and her husband serves the guests. She took her love for food to the next level and went to cooking school to develop her cooking and presentation techniques. The dishes that we ordered were presented beautifully and they were delicious. I know that I should have taken pictures of the food… remember I am new to this “blogging” thing. I tried for the first time “wild boar” as a ragu and it was out of this world. Restaurant website : www.gustand.it By the time we left there was no more rain and the sky as you see it.

A couple of hours later we decided to leave Pitigliano – in a way sad that we were not able to see everything that it had to offer, but with the hope that we will return at a later date to know the city better. If you travel to Tuscany this visit is one that you shouldn’t miss… it is worth it.

Our next stop was Montemerano on our return to Follonica. Raffaele doesn’t like driving at night, the streets are very narrow, and the swirls coming down the mountains is not fun at all. We always hope to be on the highway before it gets dark instead of the towns.

MONTEMERANO

This town is one of the medieval top hills towns that are part of the Maremma (Tuscany). It is very close to Pitigliano, and I’ve been told it holds a title of being one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. This town is unpretentious, is simple but within that simplicity there is such a beauty – it’s like looking at a 20-year-old girl – she is beautiful without an ounce of make-up, that is how I saw it. I took pictures of the things that attracted me the most. I hope you enjoy them.

History ( taken from Wikipedia)

The existence of the town is documented since the 11th century. During Norman times, it was attacked by Ruggiero and completely destroyed. Later it became a fiefdom of Raona of Fragneto. Other important feudal families were the Caracciolo, the Della Leonessa and the Della Marra.

Montemarano was also the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese which was established in 1059 as a suffragan of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Salerno. [1] [2] Its first bishop, St. John of Montemarano [3], is honored with a statue in the town.

On 27 June 1818, it was suppressed and its territory merged into the Diocese of Nusco.

This is the entrance to the town, at the end can you see Raffaele and Gigi walking down the street

The narrow streets with their oval walls.

Some of the walkways are also curved and the old pattern pavers have so much character.

There is a mix of medieval and renaissance on the cute houses below. I can only imagine this full of flowers. ( remember that we are visiting when it’s winter).