And now a word from guest blogger, Lidia:

I’m up a little earlier than Scott this morning and it astounds me that he’s able to still be sleeping soundly in the bed that unfortunately has the softness level of a concrete slab! So, while he sleeps, I’ve taken the liberty to make a start on his next blog.

We spent our last day in Saturnia visiting a vineyard called Terenzi. We wandered through the vines with picnic basket in hand towards a platform under a huge tree and, with vines to one side of us and olive trees on the other, we unpacked our gourmet delights. After being suitably satiated by copious amounts of carbs and sweets we headed back to our stinky, but beautiful spa resort for a last soak in the algae filled thermal pools. We floated for a while watching the locals smearing the brown, poo shaped algae all over themselves. The woman beside me rubbed it all over her face and had black streaks across her lips. Mildly disgusted, we opted to change location from pool to poolside to enjoy a cocktail. An espresso martini in Italy somehow tastes so much better. Next level!

The next morning we left Saturnia for our next destination. We drove down serpentine, narrow, unmaintained roads with potholes which I’m sure could have led to alternate dimensions and at times were simply unavoidable. We circled up one mountain to circle down the next for 2 hours. Linda, my friend, no amount of kwells would have kept your breakfast down that morning!  The scenery however was breathtakingly beautiful with the ever so green undulating hills dotted with the most recognisable pencil pines with quaint little towns perched high on hilltops. We arrive at a winery called Avignonesi and enjoy a wine tasting and a platter full of delicious home-made antipasti. Beatrice took us through our wine tasting and Tigre the resident cat joined us for our lunch “under the Tuscan sun” speaking of which is where we were off to next! Cortona was the location for the film. It is a historical hilltop town which dates back to the Etruscans. The views from the town were simply spectacular and seem to go on forever.

Thanks Lidia, for your contribution!

Our next destination was a Tuscan villa in a tiny village called Rigutino. The property was beautiful: a massive Tuscan villa with a restaurant occupying what was originally a barn for drying tobacco. A huge, glass hothouse was used as a dining room. They were a little disorganized, however and there was no one there to check us in, so the head chef, Federico, came out of the restaurant and showed us to our room. There was a bottle of rosé waiting for us, which we made short work of while we waited for dinner.

At dinner time we went over to the restaurant, and since it was a beautiful evening, elected to eat outdoors. Our waiter looked very much like the head chef, and Lidia asked him if he’d checked us in. He said “No. I am Francesco, Federico’s brother!” Francesco then proceeded to tell us all about the villa. The property is actually a farm and everything served in the restaurant is grown on site. This includes the fruit, vegetables, herbs and the wheat that they mill into flour to make the bread, pasta and cakes. Also made on site was the honey from their own hives and all of the wine, including the rose we had drank in our room, from their own vineyards. The menu was small, but everything on it was super delicious.

The next morning we headed back to the restaurant for breakfast. The sun was shining down on us on the cobble-stoned courtyard where we sat, amongst barrels bursting with petunias and lemon trees in terracotta pots. The breakfast was expansive, with all of the products again grown on site. The butter was pure white, the way butter should be! An old guy was sweeping the cobblestones from the minute we turned up until we left. I think he was placed there for effect, because the courtyard couldn’t have been any cleaner! The ambience was serene, lazy and relaxed. The waitress couldn’t speak English, so was happy that Lidia could speak Italian and she was delightful. When they started playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons over the speakers, I felt like we were in a Tuscan movie.

We met the owner of the property, Alberto, who was a loud, vivacious man who loved to talk. When he discovered that Lidia could speak Italian, he took a particular liking to us. We had planned to drive around Tuscany for the day and Alberto gave us his recommended itinerary. We drove to Pienza, then Bagno Vignoni (a village whose main piazza is a thermal pool with restaurants surrounding it). All of the places we visited were on hilltops and had expansive views over the Tuscan landscape. We finished in Montalcino, which is famous for their Barbero di Montalcino wine. We headed into an ancient fortress on top of the hill and inside came across a vinoteca! We had never tried Barbero di Montalcino before, so we settled in for a tasting. Turns out it’s Sangiovese and we tasted some lovely wines before heading back to our villa.

We enjoyed another spectacular dinner and then breakfast the next morning before we sadly said goodbye to Alberto, Christina and the other staff. They really made us feel like family and our friendly waitress ran over to hug Lidia before we left.

That day was to be our longest day of travel. We had a four and a half hour drive to Milan. We picked a spot about halfway to have lunch, which turned out to be Reggio Emilia. This city is the capital of the province and halfway between Modena and Parma. We parked the car and wandered into the historical centre. It was very quiet since almost everyone was on siesta, but we were still able to enjoy the historic piazzas and architecture. We chose a restaurant for lunch with a view over the ancient cathedral and sat outside. We chose a dish called tigelle, not knowing really what it was. It turned out to be a bag full of small, warm, flat round breads, which you cut open and filled with cheese, salume and salad. They were a local specialty and totally delicious.

After lunch we headed back to the car, thinking everything would be cruisy from here. We were more than halfway to Milan, so it should have been a straight shot through for 2 hours and we would be there. Turns out there were several accidents on the motorway and we were literally parked on the freeway for hours. To top it off, when we finally exited the motorway and tried to feed our cash into the automatic machine at the toll booth, it wouldn’t accept our money. Panic set in as the cars began to bank up behind us and eventually a staff member walked in front of our car. We started shouting “Scusi! Scusi!” and he came over. He picked up the 50 dollar note I gave him and said “This is swiss francs”. I’d put the wrong money in my wallet! We quickly dug out some euro, fed it into the machine and scooted out of there feeling really stupid!

So, after a three and a half hour slog from Reggio Emilia to Milan, we arrived at our hotel, nerves frayed. I dropped Lidia at the hotel with our luggage and went to take the hire car back to the rental company at the train station across the road. I couldn’t find them, so parked in the public parking lot and walked to their office. I stood behind an old Australian man who was chatting to the staff member about everything except the car he wanted to hire. He crapped on and on and then eventually piped up with “I’m old school. Do you have any paper maps?” The attendant looked at him like he was from another planet. Eventually he was on his way and I was served. I explained where I had parked the car and he said that I had to move it to their carpark. “It’s OK” he said “the first 15 minutes parking is free.” As I walked back to the car I looked at the ticket and realised that, thanks to Mr McGoo and his paper maps, I had been parked there for 14 minutes. I ran to the car and started driving towards the exit. A rotund Italian man ambled slowly in front of the car in the middle of the road. I had only seconds to spare before my 15 minute window closed so I beeped the horn with two short bips, in a totally friendly manner. He turned around, and with arms waving around like he was attempting to fly, started abusing me in Italian. Getting him to move out of the way was like trying to get the Titanic to avoid an iceberg, but he eventually peeled off, I rushed to the exit, plugged my ticket in and up on the display flashed “3 euro”. I had to back out of the exit, park the car, pay my three euro and then find my way to the car rental carpark. I was never so happy to say goodbye to a car!

I headed back to the hotel, freshened up and we met Rob and Caitlynne in the foyer. It was great to catch up again and we headed out into Milan for a lovely dinner where they filled us in on all of their adventures in Rome and Milan. Poor Caitlynne looked like she had third degree burns on her legs, since she’d had a reaction to the hotel body lotion! She drowned her sorrows by actually having a taste of the Nebbiolo wine we bought over dinner. The second time I’ve ever seen her have a drink. I think Lidia must be a bad influence.