This summer 2024 we returned to Italy for a short trip, 10 days, and explored three of its central regions, Tuscany, Abruzzo and Emilia Romagna. We flew into Milano Malpensa, rented a car — a clunky and temperamental Fiat Tipo— and drove south towards Florence.

Chianti Rufina and Val di Sieve

We stayed for two nights in an agriturismo in the Chianti Rufina region in Val di Sieve, half hour drive from Florence. We booked a room in Tenuta Risalpiano, a family-run establishment with excellent breakfast and stunning views of the surrounding hills in a serene setting. During our stay, unfortunately, the weather was capricious. It rained intermittently and the fog covered the hills in the morning, though it did go away slowly during the day, just like the fog does in San Francisco. But the owner of the agriturismo assured us that such a weather was unusual for the summer. So, because of the cold temperature, we could not enjoy the agriturismo’s luxurious pool in the woods.

Our two days in Tuscany were still packed with activities.

Early in the morning we went for a long walk along a local road from Risalpiano to Falgano and discovered a little church. We wanted to explore the trails in the forest, but they were too muddy because of the heavy rainfall of the previous days. Back to Risalpiano, after a good breakfast, we walked through the vineyards around Castello di Nipozzano owned by the Frescobaldi family. They have been making wine for over 500 years. We entered the wine store and bought a few bottles. Laura, the store manager, was so kind, knowledgeable and passionate, and helped us put together a selection of six bottles from different regions in Tuscany.

In the early afternoon, we had wine tasting at Villa Travignoli, which is just a few minute drive from Nipozzano. Travignoli is another old winery with a distinguished history. We visited its cellars and learned that mould has an essential function in keeping temperature and humidity at the right level. Who knew!

Florence

To end the day, we took the train from Pontassieve to Florence and walked around the city. We saw some of the popular sights: ponte vecchio, now filled with jewelry shops but used to house butchers some time back; the intricately detailed (and controversial!) facade of the Duomo and the baptistery; the Uffizi gallery; Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza della Signoria with a copy of Michelangelo’s David.

Admittedly, this visit was too rushed for us to enjoy the city in full, but getting an even superficial glimpse of Florence was still worth the trip. We had dinner at Antico Ristoro dei Cambi, a place to eat the famous Florentine steak (which we did not order, though, and instead had a less impressive tagliata).

Vallombrosa

The next day we visited Abazzia di Vallombrosa. The road we took to the abbey was SP 85 from Pelago via Tosi, a mountain windy road. We bought a liquor and some medicinal oils at the Abbey’s pharmacy, and then walked up to the terrace “Paradisino” via the Circuits of the Chapels. The abbey’s buildings, the surrounding forest, the waterfalls and creeks inspire calm, peace and serenity.

The British poet John Milton visited the place and wrote about it in Paradise Lost. Milton compared the fallen angels who sided with Satan with the thick autumn leaves in Vallombrosa:

His Legions, Angel Forms, who lay intrans’t
Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the Brooks
In Vallombrosa, where th’ Etrurian shades
High overarch’t imbowr

You can read more about it in this lecture by Yale professor and Milton scholar John Rogers. Indeed, the trees around Vallombrosa are thick and tall, home to the tallest tree in Italy.

It was time to leave Tuscany and reach Abruzzo. We drove through Umbria and Assisi, but did not have time to stop. Another time!

Gran Sasso from Prati di Tivo

While in Abruzzo for a few days — we have been here many times already! — we decided to hike Gran Sasso for the second time, but taking a different route. Gran Sasso is the tallest peak in central Italy, almost 3,000 meters tall or 10,000 feet. The first time we hiked it from Campo Imperatore, but this time we hiked it from Prati di Tivo, a more demanding and adventurous hike. The trail we took can be divided in five parts:

1. Prati di Tivo to Madonnina (1hr) (for those who want to save time, there is a cable car that goes up to Madonnina, but we hiked instead, much better and more rewarding)
2. Madonnina to rifugio Franchetti through Valle delle Cornacchie (1.5hrs)
3. Rifugio Franchetti to Sella dei due Corni (30min)
4. Sella dei due Corni to Passo del Cannone via an easy via ferrata (45 min)
5. Via normale to the peak (“Vetta Occidentale“) (45 min)

We returned to Prati di Tivo by the same route but we could also have done a loop. A good, detailed description of the loop can be found here.

The day we hiked Gran Sasso was very windy, and as we approached Sella dei due Corni, we were about to give up. But we saw a large group coming up the trail, waited for them to pass, and hiked behind them for a bit. They gave us courage we could do it despite the strong winds. The iron cables at Passo del Cannone were the most exciting part of the trail.

Ocre, Celano, Aielli and Grotte di Stiffe

Our other Abruzzo adventure was a two-day trip from L’Aquila to Celano and back to L’Aquila with a stop at Grotte di Stiffe. The first day we drove to Ocre along SS5bis and followed a sign to Monastero Fortezza Santo Spirito. It is now a beautifully renovated hotel and restaurant, but the manager was kind enough to let us in and enjoy the space. Then, we drove to Fossa and from there to Convento Sant’Angelo d’Ocre (currently closed, alas) sitting on a vertical cliff. Just before getting to the monastery, we found that the road was closed. So we had to drive back to Ocre and retrace our steps.

We continued driving along SS5bis and stopped at Rocca di Cambio, a small mountain town, heavily damaged by the 2009 earthquake. There were construction and renovation works underway everywhere, and most churches were closed. A local tourist complained about the rampant corruption and dysfunctional handling by public officials of the post-earthquake reconstruction efforts.

Our next stop was Ovindoli, a ski town in central Italy, until we reached in the afternoon the town of Celano, dominated by the imposing Castello Picolomini (more on it soon).

Our plan for the afternoon was to visit the nearby village of Aielli and its murals. We read about the murals on-line. The heat was unrelenting but we managed to walk through the city’s narrow streets and see its murals. Many of them were abstract and symbolic. Some were made up of thousands of words, neatly written on an extended wall, such as Dante’s Divine Comedy and Manifesto di Ventotene by Spinelli and Rossi, a founding document of the European Union.

Painting the walls of houses with bright colors — we thought — was a beautiful way to revive a little village, which like many others in Italy is dying out because of population decline. Watching old people chatting in the main square, while we ate gelato, was charming yet also saddening. But not too far away we run into a group of unruly teenagers. They were running around, jumping and arguing. As it happens, they caused a street sign to fell down from a pole. The sign said no less than “Costituzione Italiana” and was pointing in the direction of another mural which contained the text of the entire Italian constitution. They looked guilty for what they did and hurried to put the sign back in place, a sweet and heartwarming gesture.

Both Aielli and Celano overlook the Fucino plain, which used to be a lake. It was artificially drained in the 19th century and turned into fertile agricultural land (the history is complicated). The Italian writer Ignazio Silone wrote the novel Fontamara about the peasants (“cafoni”) who lived in one of the mountain villages above the Fucino plain during Mussolini’s Fascist regime. They worked hard, but remained at the bottom of the social hierarchy and were excluded from everything. In fact, the novel starts describing how their village is left without electricity in the 1920ies. And one of the peasants, cafoni, in the novel notes:

At the head of everything is God, the Lord of Heaven. Everyone knows that. Then comes Prince Torlonia, lord of the earth.
Then come Prince Torlonia’s guards
Then come Prince Torlonia’s guard’s dogs
Then, nothing at all.
Then, nothing at all.
Then, nothing at all.
Then come the cafoni. And that’s all

It is a beautiful, heartbreaking choral novel about fascism from the unusual and unexpected perspectives of the cafoni. Many of the interactions between them and the public officials are paradoxical hilarious angering.

Back in Celano for the night, we had dinner at a restaurant by the Castel called “Locanda Madonna delle Vigne”. We had an excellent selection of local cold cuts and handmade pasta dishes.

The next morning we visited Castello Piccolomi. It is filled with archeological pieces and beautiful religious artwork. The views onto the Fucino plain from its external walkways are expansive.

It was getting late so we drove to Grotte di Stiffe in San Demetrio dei Visentini via SS262. As our guide to the caves repeated many times, these are recent caves because a river still flows inside. Most caves are dead, so to speak, since the river that created them has dried out. Stiffe’s Caves are unique in this regard. The trail inside is well marked and almost always accompanied by the sound of the river and its cool, pristine waters. We encountered several waterfalls, a unique experience as waterfalls are rarely if ever seen inside caves!

The last stop before returning to L’Aquila was the small church Santa Maria ad Cryptam in Fossa. The Latin “ad Cryptam” simply means “nearby the caves”. This is a place of incredible, simple beauty. Colorful frescos cover the interior walls and ceilings with scenes from the old and new testament.

Trabocchi Coast

Our time in Abruzzo was running out, but we wanted to make a last stop in Costa dei Trabocchi. We visited it last year (see our post then), but we could not eat one of the trabocchi, these unique fisherman wooden structures stretching into the sea. Well, as it turned out, they were closed for lunch or fully booked for the day. Who would have thought we needed to make a reservation like in NYC or San Francisco on a weekday! We will have to back another time…

We visited the San Giovanni in Venere Abbey in Fossacesia. The monastery has a peaceful adjacent cloister with a via crucis (which, idiotically, we walked backwards) and a wonderful crypta with frescoes underneath the altar. The setting is beautiful as well, as the monastery is surrounded by olive trees and sits on top of a hill overlooking the blue Adriatic coast.

Modena and Rubbiara

We drove back from Abruzzo to Milano Malpensa along the A14 Adriatic highway and stopped in Modena for the night and some sightseeing. We booked a visit to the tower adjacent to the duomo. It is a solid, tall structure one can walk all the way up via 200 steps or so. Looks like it does not stand perfectly straight, though it is not as leaning as the more famous Tower of Pisa. At the base of the tower, there is a room with a mysterious bucket hanging from the ceiling. Legend has it that Modena stole it from Bologna and kept it as a sign of pride. During the Middle Ages, the two cities were rivals, and the tower in Modena was built to compete with the towers in Bologna. The Cathedral, the Tower and the Piazza are now a UNESCO monument.

It is said that Emilia Romagna has some of the best food in Italy, but not its best wine. We had dinner at Osteria di Rubbiara, a family-run business part of Acetaia Pedroni specialized in balsamic vinegar production. Their menu was simple, with just a few dishes. We had gnocco fritto (fried dough) served with Parma prosciutto on top; pasta (“strichetti”, similar to “farfalle”, butterfly) al ragu’ and tortellini in chicken broth; chicken with Lambrusco wine and pork chops in balsamic vinegar. To end the meal, we had ice cream with balsamic vineguard and a selection of digestives and liquors made by the Pedroni family, including their nocino. People in Modena put balsamic vinegar on everything, and it tastes good!

This was our favorite meal out during our trip. The food was tasty, prepared from scratch with simple ingredients. The pasta was light and fresh and the ragu’ was exquisite. The chicken was tender and moist, though a bit salty. The Parma prosciutto melted in your mouth accompanied by the warm gnocco fritto. Perhaps it is true that Emilia Romagna has some of the best food. Their wine, though, might be another story. The Tuscan winemakers warned us that wine from Emilia Romagna isn’t great, and well, Lambrusco wine has a controversial history. Let’s leave it at that!

The next day we drove back to Malpensa, surviving the heavy traffic around Milan.