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Tuscany, Italy

By Ellen

August 17^th, 2014

Agriturismo Odina

Odina is a small hamlet perched on a natural balcony overlooking the Chianti Valley. In the garden you can pick fruit, vegetables and herbs. We stayed in apartment Edera in the main farmhouse.

Florence

Porcini Mushrooms at Merkato Centrale, Florence’s oldest and largest food market. Piazza del Duomo. Gelato at Perché no! One of the historical ice-cream shops in Florence, founded in 1939. A copy of Michelangelo’s David on Piazza della Signoria. The original, now in the Galleria dell’Accademia, stood here until 1873. The Ponte Vecchio has twinkled with the glittering wares of jewellers since the 16th century when Ferdinando I de ’Medici (Grand Duke of Tuscany) ordered them here to replace the often malodorous presence of the town butchers, who were wont to toss unwanted leftovers into the river. The bridge as it stands was built in 1345 and was the only one in Florence saved from destruction from the retreating Germans in 1944. We had lunch at Gusto Pizza.

Montefioralle

A cozy little village. A narrow and very steep road leads from Greve up to the medieval village of Montefioralle, the ancestral home of Amerigo Vespucci (1415-1512). An explorer, navigator and cartographer who made two early voyages to America following the route charted by Columbus.

Southern Tuscany

We took a little road trip through the rolling hills of southern Tuscany. Paid a visit to Montepulciano, a medieval and Renaissance hill town. And came across the much photographed Cappella della Madonna di Vitaleta.