Sunday, October 17, 2010

Following on....












On the left is a typical photo of Venice and on the right, one of the chandelier which hangs in the lobby of the Giorgione--it's enormous and very intricate. When we (reluctantly) left Venice, we travelled by water taxi along the Grand Canal to the landing where our coach was waiting. Our driver was Elio, who spoke about as much English as I did Italian, but we managed to understand each other. He was a very capable, safe driver.

Our next overnight stop was in Anghiari, a medieval-walled village, where we stayed for five nights. We were met by Mark (an old friend) and Weston who showed us to our apartments. Later, we met at Garibaldi's, a local bar, coffee house and general gathering place in the main square of the village. Giuseppe Dini was there. He is the author of An Adventure in Tuscany, a charming description of both Giuseppe's life both growing up in Anghiari and with suggested travel information and itineraries in the area. The book is attractively illustrated with watercolours by English artist, Dawn Angela.

It is hard to describe Anghiari--a special place which is tucked away in the Tuscan hills. (The village isn't even mentioned in Rick Steves' book, Florence & Tuscany and selfishly, I hope it never becomes too well known.) We had a refreshing 'aperitif' and then walked to our first dinner in the area. I won't go into the details of the delicious meals we had in Anghiari, the surrounding towns and in fact, wherever we travelled. Trust me, no one left hungry or thirsty! Our restaurants were usually small venues, with freshly prepared local food and frequently we were the only ones who weren't Italian.

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