Travels to the Other Side of Nowhere

Italy 2005
Day 2 - Sunday, March 27

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Daylight saving time starts earlier in Europe. Easter Sunday we arose with one hour less sleep that we had anticipated. We ate breakfast downstairs again, checked out, and headed off to rent a car. We rented a SmartCar from Hertz. The SmartCar is the most adorable car you will ever see. They are everywhere in Italy, and now available in the United States! Our favorite is the SmartCar for two, but at the airport, the rental agency assumes all customers will have lots of luggage, so they only rent the SmartCar for four. "For Four" is actually the name of the model.

We hopped in our smart little two-tone ride, and headed north towards Tuscany in search of roads with no names, numbers, or center lines. True to form, most of the roads we found fit the bill... and very few were even on our map, which covered the entire country!

Out of Rome, we took the beltway around the city. There was a lot of road construction to expand and widen the narrow roads. Lane changes to accommodate construction are very abrupt. There are concrete barricades on either side with no shoulder or median. Oh, and did I mention that Italian drivers don't seem very concerned about staying in their own lane?

We aimed towards Viterbo on the Cassia. Most roads in this vicinity were relatively populated, with homes and small businesses throughout. After Viterbo, we found secondary routes by simply following the signs towards towns that were on our map. Italian roads boast great signage. Each intersection has 5-10 signs pointed towards towns along the route. We passed amazing towns from centuries gone by, built on incredible rock walls. Sutri was the first walled city that we passed, then Pitigliano. High canyon walls suddenly become part of the walled city. The structures just seem to cling to the cliffs, perched in the clouds.

We stopped in Sorano to check out the vistas. The walled city is built on the cliffs, There are narrow, REALLY NARROW, streets with stone arches that open up onto acres of nothingness. The town looks as though it has been abandoned for centuries, but people still live here. What they do for a living is an unsolved mystery. Life seems very primitivo... we love this pace of life!

One restaurant was quite busy in the pouring rain on Easter Sunday. The whole porch was lined with umbrellas. One other small restaurant was buried inside a maze of cobblestone walkways that they call streets. There were no signs of groceries, industry, or any type of commercial activity.

We found our way to the top of a turret where a very old man with no teeth collected € 2 per persone to see the view. It was so worth it!

We continued to wander over hill and dale. The roads were amazing even though rain, fog, and heavy downpours at times limited our horizon. Every time we crossed a ridgeline (of which there were many), the rains came down.

The vistas seemed obvious... we knew they were there, but the clouds obscured any views we might have. We stopped at several hilltop turnouts, shrouded in clouds and rain. Finally we made it back down to the flats, and the weather cleared a little. Even without completely clear skies, the views were so expansive, it's really hard to explain.

Around 5:00pm, we checked into the Hotel al Brunello di Montalcino. The hotel (€ 110 per 2 persone) was fairly empty, even though it was Easter weekend. Easter is a major holiday in Italy. Most businesses are closed on Easter Sunday and the following Monday.

We checked into our room at the Hotel al Brunello. The proprietor did not speak any English, nor did he seem interested in trying to communicate. We managed to check into a cold, dark, and very simply furnished room in the basement of the hotel. There was a queen bed, a small TV, and a tiny bathroom that somehow housed both a toilet and a bidet.

We took a short nap, and then went to dinner around 7:30pm at the attached ristorante. The restaurant was very big, very cold, and fully set up for a crowd that didn't exist. We were offered the one table next to the heater, and we gratefully accepted. It was like a scene right out of the film noir Mulholland Drive... a dining room the size of the Colosseum, a hundred tables set for the Queen's Coronation, and absolute utter silence. We were the only customers in the restaurant. No hay banda!

Roberto, our waiter, started out very gruff and stiff, but finally loosened up. By the end of our meal, we had him smiling, laughing, and even trying a few English words. When we tried to get him to speak Spanish too, he really laughed. All of Roberto's children speak English because they learned it in school. It seems to be fairly common that the children learn English in school, even though the parents speak only Italian. The parents seem to make no effort to learn the language from their children.

To start the meal, we ordered vino da tavola (house wine). It arrived in a very large pitcher, filled to the brim. If there is one thing we learned about wine in Italy... pay attention to what the locals order and forget the fancy bottles. Roberto brought bread to the table, but we also ordered bruschetta. The bruschetta was simple. And perfect. The bread was brushed with olive oil, rubbed with garlic, and then toasted. It was served on a white plate, garnished with shredded lettuce and a sundried tomato. It was delicious! So good, in fact, that we ordered a second. Toasted to golden perfection, ultra crispy, and heavy on the garlic.

For dinner we ordered Pappardelle with Cinghiale (wild boar) and Pinci Fantasia. Pinci is like spaghetti, only thicker. It is only called pinci in Montalcino. Elsewhere, it is called pici. We also ordered a side of verdura ripassata. This was some kind of sauteed greens called bietole. Roberto said it was like spinach, but not. He could not translate it. As it turned out, bietole is chard. It was delicious. We passed on dessert and walked back to our room to turn in. Total bill, € 66.