Alberi Tuscany, Garden of Eden



Pots of Lemon Trees

He peers through the patio window, smiling.  Tall, and lean with thick white hair and innumerable smile lines - the gardener wants our attention.  "Come, see my garden.  See what I am planting today."  I have no Italian, he speaks no English but the pride shines from his sun-baked smile. I admire the pots of ivy-geranium that he is planting.I show him a store-bought lemon and motion towards the five terracotta pots in the garden. "Are they lemon trees?" He nods in agreement. "Si, si."

 

In the garden surrounding our rental house, in Alberti, a tiny Tuscan village, there is a wide variety of edibles. There are mature olive groves with small hard fruits taking shape.  There are fig trees drooping with green forms - just waiting for the summer sun heat to finish ripening the figs into dark lush fruits. 





Lawrie and his sister Linda Grierson

We freely clip chunks of fresh rosemary to include in our evening meals.  Still deeper in the garden are peach, apricot, cherry and kumquat trees; and artichoke plants with their spiny buds hiding a tasty tender heart.  It is the early part of June and everything is almost ripe, not quite.  Lavender shrubs scent the driveway and patios.  Rose bushes, hollyhocks, and jasmine spill over onto pathways.  In the evenings we sit on the patio sipping delicious local wines, enjoying the enticing smells that scent the air, reliving the day’s adventures.  Heaven!

 

Lawrie sipping wine in Montaione

Tuscany is everything we expected, and more.  Our three-bedroom rental house is situated only a few kilometres away from the little hilltop town of Montaione.   Lawrie and I discovered a wine store, with a few tables and chairs set out in the central plaza overlooking the church. 

Christine, one of the owners, helpfully recommended a local white wine to sip while we soak up the sunshine. 

It was so good we bought three more bottles to take back to the house to share with our travel partners.  They had been busy stocking up as well.  Perfect!  Now we have many different Italian wines to savour.

 

 



The 6 of us have been busy shopping for local wines.

Our rental house had a well-stocked kitchen, and a charcoal BBQ.  The willing chefs in our group created gourmet meals with the fresh ingredients available in the local stores.  We ate very well; morning coffee by the swimming pool, lunches at restaurants, and dinners at the house.  Using the house as our home base we spent the next week exploring the countryside, visiting ancient fortified towns such as San Gimignano, Certaldo, and Volterra. 

Our last night in Alberi we treated ourselves to a classy meal at the nearby Casa Masi Trattoria.  The location, the food, the wine, and the service were all fabulous; with an added bonus of being greeted by two extremely well-behaved Great White Pyrenees dogs, and one cute tabby cat. 

 

At Casa Masi Trattoria Italy.  Wonderful!



Here’s their website for more info:  http://www.casamasimontaione.it

 

We're not allowed inside, can you come out to play?

 

It’s an experience we’d happily share again – the week in Alberi and Montaione, and the dinner at Casa Masi Trattoria.  Heaven on earth.

 

Cinque Terre’s Crayon-Coloured Houses

A new box of crayons - freshly opened.  Bright Colours.  Tall sturdy houses that look like a box of crayons.

 

Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre, a colourful jumble of houses perched on a rugged coastline in the Italian Riviera, is composed of five small villages.  The villages are accessible primarily by foot path, bridges, and thousands of stone steps. 

Until the end of the 19^th Century walkways or boat were the only routes into the area.  The national railway now has service to Vernazza, Monterosso and Riomaggiore with a change to a local train required for the other two towns of Manarola and Corniglia. 

Vernazza harbour area

Once you get off the trains there are still innumerable stairs to climb in every direction.  Steps lead to the harbour front.  Steps lead up to the City Hall.  Steps, and bridges, and pathways lead to the other villages.  The walking can be very sweaty, and the pathways very steep.  The payoff is the fabulous ocean view. 

The residents who live in the Cinque Terre are likely very fit with the amount of walking and climbing required.  It’s not a bad way to work off the calories consumed during lunch.

 

Vernazza workers restoring church

We had originally booked a hotel in the heart of Vernazza for our three-night stay in June of 2012, but on October 25^th, 2011 a flash flood devastated the centre of the town, killing nine people.  The flood completely destroyed the hotel along with a number of other businesses, and homes.  Still wanting to visit the area we instead stayed at the very pleasant Hotel Crismar in the nearby city of La Spezia.  

 

La Spezia is an easy commute to the Cinque Terre.  There are the trains that run every 30 minutes, or if you are feeling more adventurous catch one of the passenger ferry boats that leave several times a day.  The boats have drop off areas in all of the towns, except landlocked Corniglia. 

Too rough - boat ride ended in Vernazza

We opted for the boat ride.  The views were unbelievable; terraced hillsides, vineyards, hundreds of stairs climbing up the steep spines of the rocky hills, and a multi-colourful muddle of houses jammed against each other.  The downside to riding on the boat is the surf can occasionally be too rough to land the passengers.  Our captain decided it was too dangerous to stop at either Riomaggiore or Manarola.  We had to off-load at the larger dock at Vernazza.  The boat service then shut down for the remainder of the day.   Ah well, the return portion of the ride is refundable at the dock-side office in La Spezia.   

Vernazza Harbour

While we were on the boat between La Spezia and Vernazza we met a local personality, Bea Newton.  She has published several photographic books, Colours of the World, depicting her varied travels.  Bea chatted with us, filling us in on local lore, gossip, and good places to visit while in the Cinque Terre.  As soon as I spotted one of her books in Monterosso - I bought it.  

The book is stuffed with gorgeous photographs of the Cinque Terre depicting in all four seasons, including an unusually snowy winter day. 

 

Every town in the Cinque Terre has its own personality.  The thirty-minute hike along the pathway between Riomaggiore and Manarola is called the Lover’s Walk.  Back in the day when these villages were isolated the young people walked between towns in search of suitable mates: as in someone not directly related to them.  The pathway is festooned with love-locks, or padlocks, that have been attached by recent visitors to railings and posts as an expression of their undying love.  

Reading amid the construction rubble

We were particularly intrigued with the rebuilding process underway in Vernazza.  The residents are still digging out, reconstructing, and getting on with their lives.  We watched workers heft a heavy wooden statue out of their truck, and slowly crab-walk it back into the church.  A young woman sitting amid the clutter of wheel barrows, fish nets and cement mixers - absentmindedly patted her dog while she enjoyed her book and the morning sunshine.  Temporary doors blocked entrances to buildings under repair.  In all the mess people still had time to chat with one another, discussing the repairs, or other neighbours, or what was being served for lunch. 

Temporary door for house

And for our lunch, we met up with our family members at a well-known restaurant in the historical area of Monterosso.   We stuffed ourselves with crusty breads dipped in deep green olive oil, crispy pan fried fish, freshly made pasta, succulent mussels and tasty local wines. 

Now we really should go for another hike up the stairs, through the alleys and streets of crayon-coloured houses, to wear off the calories.   But in reality, we caught the train back to our hotel in La Spezia for an afternoon nap. 

Cinque Terre with its crayon-coloured doll houses is definitely worth a repeat visit.



Cat, cat-napping in Monterosso!

Blois France “The Best Chicken Caesar Salad Ever” according to my best travel partner!

Lawrie enjoying the live music during dinner

I have been struggling for a few days searching for a starting point for this week’s European holiday blog. 

I wanted to write about Blois France, and I asked Lawrie what he remembered most about this beautiful city; “The best chicken Caesar salad that I’ve ever had.” 

 

Huh.  I can’t remember what I had for dinner that night, or most nights, only that outdoor restaurant was located in the centre of town, with musicians playing good tunes, and stars sparkling overhead.  It’s interesting how we occasionally have different memories of the same location. 



Entering Blois

The ancient city of Blois is located on the Loire River between two other gorgeous and well known French cities: Orleans and Tours. 

The famous French female warrior Jeanne d’ Arc, or Joan of Arc had a presence in this city as well as a few others that we have visited in France.  On April 29^th in 1429 she rode to Blois, to use the chateau as her base of operations. 

At age seventeen she successfully led a military campaign to rescue the nearby city of Orleans from a lengthy English siege. 



Inside the Royal Chateau of Blois

Perhaps it is our fascination with ancient walled cities that leads us to places with such rich history, or perhaps it is that France and most of Europe has been settled for so many centuries that a number of interesting personalities re-appear from place to place. 

  

Over the centuries the Royal Chateau of Blois has been home to seven kings, and ten queens of France.  Other famous people who at various times have called Blois home include Charles of Orleans in 1140, Marie de’ Medici 1617-19, Gaston Duke of Orleans 1660’s, and Marie Louise the wife of Napoleon I lived there for a few years in the early 1800’s.  

The King's Bedroom

We happened upon Blois while wandering through our favourite country on a three-week journey; no plans, no hotel reservations, just driving wherever the whim led us. 

The Royal Chateau of Blois takes up most of the centre of the city, rising vertically from the road that twists along its base.  The views from the upper walls are spectacular.  Inside the chateau is a stunning collection of furniture, paintings, china, and fabrics. 










I want some of these for our house!

But my all-time favourite things to see were the snarling gargoyles displayed at eye level.  For once I could actually look at, and appreciated the intricate carvings.  So often the gargoyles are forty or fifty feet up on the edges of a cathedral roof – functioning as rainspouts.  



Supposed to scare parishioners into behaving.

Eventually we located a hotel a short walk from the old centre of the city.  We ambled along enjoying the warm evening.  In the centre there were a number of open-air restaurants set under the cool shade trees.  And live music.  It’s a great spot to spend a few hours people-watching, enjoying the music – and apparently eating the “best chicken Caesar salad ever!” 

Royal Chateau of Blois - walking back to our hotel