Okay, so where did we leave off? Oh yes, after leaving La Villa Miranda, we hopped back on the bike and headed south and east to the area around Monteriggioni. Monteriggioni is a small Medieval hillside town in the region of Siena. On a clear day you can even see the historic towers of San Gimignano in the distance. San Gimignano by car, or moto in this case, was about 25 minutes away. The place we had rented for nights number 2 and 3 was actually outside of Monteriggioni in una piccolissima little place called Strove. It was the Castel Bigozzi. However, before arriving, we decided to stop and eat something because obviously we were going to starve if we didn’t stuff our faces soon.
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| Monteriggioni |
We stopped at a little bar/restaurant/giant patio along the road leading into Monteriggioni. The place is called Bar del’Orso (Bar of the Bear) and it looked pretty inviting with its large patio tables and shady umbrellas. We grabbed a table and as usual the ordering was done for me. To start, some prosciutto obviously. Follow this by two different types of pici (pee-chee) pasta. If you can, try to find pici at a store near you. It’s a thick doughy noodle that I have now tried many different ways: with pesto, ragu, cinghiale, salt and pepper…, and it is always delicioso. It was during the third plate of…God only knows what that the skies opened up and it started pouring. But the umbrellas offered us a nice dry place to sit and drink some wine and limoncello.
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| Bar del'Orso |
We headed off to check out Castel Bigozzi, which I had found after hours of searching online. My criteria was pretty specific and this one fit the bill. It had to be within comfortable driving distance of Florence, have a pool, have a spa or at least the option to get a massage, be in the middle of nowhere and not cost and arm and a leg. Castel Bigozzi came through. It was beautiful with large, unadorned and normal, but very clean rooms, spacious gardens and green space, very nice people and a beautiful pool with a view to die for. I highly recommend Castel Bigozzi. The only downside is that breakfast costs extra and there is not the option of a restaurant on site for dinners. But they have 18 rooms and even the simplest one had a decent size kitchen.
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| This is actually their lawn... |
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| Old wall of Monteriggioni |
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| In the main piazza in Monteriggioni |
That night at Bar del’Orso there was a band from Bologna called… shoot I can’t find their card.. I’ll keep looking. But they played 70 rock n’ roll, bluegrass and country. I was DYING to get up and sing except that I looked like a drowned rat and didn’t want to offend my audience. Quindi, I sang at my table instead and earned a couple of shout outs to the “bionda” or blondie as I am affectionately referred to wherever I go.
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| They rocked |
The next morning we hung by the pool and took turns getting massages from some very nice man from the nearby terme.
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| La piscina at Castel Bigozzi |
That afternoon we hopped on the bike and tried to find the road to the historic center of Colle di Val d’Elsa. I say “tried” because the main road was closed and I was determined to navigate around it. Let’s just say we made it but only after taking the road MUCH less traveled. We spent the rest of the afternoon napping before heading out to find our restaurant as recommended by our very helpful masseuse. It was a country, home cooking kinda place that featured meat. Yes, meat. We arrived to find a drunken blonde woman yelling at some guy and threatening to punch him, which is when Piero said, “Sally, I imagine this to be much like Kansas.” To which, I had to admit, he wasn’t far off.
I felt like we were in Stroud’s or somewhere similar where the specialty is always good and covered in gravy. While the meat was good, I had to say that it was nothing like being in Kansas. Our meat is better. Period. Punto. Goodbye and goodnight. However, I must say that they have something that I have never before had in my life and now am trying desperately to recreate at home. Peas. Yes, peas. They were phenomenal. I am a pea-lover anyway (hehe), but these were out of this world. So much so that Piero ordered me another plate much to my embarrassment, but I ate them all with pleasure anyway. They are cooked stovetop in olive oil and some pancetta, or fat from pancetta, with a little honey, salt…and something else. Oh. So. Good.
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| Happy with the wine more than the meat. |
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| Happy with my peas more than the wine. I had my game face on. |
Sunday we packed our bags and very sadly said goodbye to Castel Bigozzi. We headed out in sunshine and stopped in San Gimignano basically only to carry our bags through the tourist-crazy city center, sweat a bit, and then return to the bike for some space and fresh air. We drove through the beautiful countryside in the middle of nowhere before stopping in the little town of Montaione for lunch. We were given the name of a good lunch spot by a local and headed to chow. We arrived to find a 60-person party for a 1st Communion and were pushed out to the patio. Not a bad deal though as we had a view.
It only took about 30 minutes before the rain started. Light and fresh at first, then like a tidal wave it came and we pushed our table back to the corner to avoid the mist. We ended up sitting for 3 hours enjoying antipastas of mixed crustini, me a plate of linguine and clams, him a baked pasta with fish, then together a plate of mixed fried fish. All this with a bottle of wine and a couple of limoncellos. Best and cheapest meal of the weekend by far. For me of course since he was driving. We saw a window of sunshine and rushed to the bike. We had just put our helmets on when the rain began again. We took our spots at a local café and talked to friends in Florence who gave reports of golf ball size hail and power outages. So what did we do? I drank more and Piero took pictures. It was a long day of waiting, but Montaione is now a favorite place of mine.
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| My backpack had a raincoat. |
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| The motorcycle did not have a raincoat. |
After a nice man at the café, Silvestri, offered me some rain pants for the ride home, we jumped back on the bike and headed for Firenze. Overall is was a nice, relaxing weekend of pure gluttony with plenty of wine and prosciutto. The end.
If you want information on booking at Castel Bigozzi or any of the places mentioned above, just email me at sally@sliceoftuscany.com and I’ll be happy to help with qualsiasi cosa!
Oh..and don't worry, I returned the rain pants to Silvestri at Foto Fantasy in Florence on Monday. Just in case you were wondering.
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