Driving Miss Karen

A blog about our travel

Beautiful Tuscany Hill Towns

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We were in Tuscany in October 2011 but we’ve really enjoyed it so much more this time. Being hobbits at heart, we love rolling farmland with comforting hills that welcome rather than forbid.

Above is the hill town of Pienza, perhaps our favorite place so far this trip. It is just the right size and one of the few hill towns were you can park your car for free and not have to hike up steeply to the center of town. It has a true traffic free zone within the old walls and enough eateries and shops to make it lively (but not crowded).

This is snapshot of typical Tuscan countryside. No fancy camera or filters. It is just this beautiful!

I walked to the hill town of Monticchiello
It was ancient and lovely
but a little too small and sleepy
We visited Siena with its beautiful Duomo
With typical striped marble walls…
…and St. Someone’s skull. but Siena was too big and trafficky for our tastes
Pienza is truly traffic free and had great food like pasta with wild boar meat sauce
Chianina beef steak Florentine. We’ve done so much better finding great food this trip
We found a friendly taverna with great Pecorino cheeses. Each age of cheese paired with an amazing sauce
The Instagrammable Chapel Vitaleta. Underwhelming. The countryside needs no ornamentation
Pienza on our way home from our last dinner. Arrivederci Bella!

Jose

AKA Alfred

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