Vacations diary part I: Italy

Having just returned home after three weeks of traveling with my wife through Europe, I thought of sharing with you some impressions and pictures from this unique experience. Our trip started in Italy, continued in Spaind and ended in France. Our means of transportation was our little jeep, and we used the internet to find agritourist places to stay. The itinerary simple: form Igoumenitsa by boat to Ancona and from there to Tuscany for one week. Then, via southern France we reached Spain for a stay of one week in Catalonia - after 20 hours of non-stop driving from Tuscany with Barcelona as our final destination - and in particular Penedès, a wine-producing area near Barcelona. After Spain our last week was spent in southern France, in the French Riviera. This as an introduction. Part I then: Italy - Tuscany. Let me start with the postitive things, which means the food - I loved the pizzas - and the excellent wine, especially in the Chianti region at the heart of Tuscany. Also, there was a great variety of agritourist places to stay. We stayed in a spacious old house with two bedrooms and a fully equipped kitchen, for the VERY reasonable price of 70 euros per night. Compared with Spain and France, Italy was by far the best in the number and variety of agritourist guest houses. The best part was of course the Tuscany countryside, with the vineyards and the characteristic sunflowers, the picturesque small villages and the old towns, some of which you can see in the pictures that follow. As regards the negative things, I must mention the fact that Italians seem to drive their cars to their limits like crazy, and with the lights turned on all day long - so I wouldn't dare drive in the fast lane in the autostrada, not with our little jeep. Also, unleaded petrol was very expensive compared to its price in Greece - around 1.30 euros per litre in Italy - and the tolls were so expensive - in France, too - that we started trying to find provincial roads in order to avoid paying what seemed like wasted money. Where we stayed: Castiglion Fiorentino near Arezzo. San Gimignano. Let me say here that even in the smallest Italian village parking was fully controlled, which I think is a good thing financially for the place and also saves it form the parking anarchy that one encounters in Greece. The Tuscany countryside: in the heart of the Chianti area. Tasting and buying wine in Castellina in Chianti. Palazzo del Campo in Siena. A beautiful house in the countryside. The sunflowers, plenty of them in Tuscany. Montepulciano, with the good red wine. Florence. Pienza, homeland of the best pecorino cheese.
The view from Cortona, a little after sunset.
Arezzo.


After all the driving in Italy I was leaning a bit, like the famous tower.