Portico di Romagna, Italy
Monday, August 20, 2007
From San Gimignano, we took two days to drive to Venice. First stop was at Florence to see the statue David. Parked on the outskirts and took a bus in. Once in the city, we walked across the Golden Bridge which looked like it was covered with houses, but they were actually all the jewellery shops, hence the name of the bridge. We wandered through the rich areas of town and found the replica in a square with other huge statues. Most of them naked and killing each other or other creatures... These Italians are so friendly! Time was running out so we headed to museum and found an old building with no queue... Something was wrong. We followed the signs to the entrance (a small door in the wall) and wondered. Then read the sign. Closed on Mondays. It was a Monday. So we went shopping (and bought two leather jackets, Shannon's SO proud of hers but Andrew was only convinced by the smooth-talking salesman who said he had the right Italian figure for it.) and to a Leonardo Da Vinci exibition - We never realised how intelligent he was for his time and how many different areas he explored
. Then it was definately time to leave... Via another replica of David in bronze. That night we were way behind schedule and decided at 7pm it was time to find a place to stop for the night. Andrew, who was driving, turned into the next place we saw and found us probably one of the best nights of our trip. The town was called Portico di Romagna and had a population of only 380. It also had one of the best chefs in all of Tuscany! We got into our rooms which were so ornate and had wonderful old furniture. They were also very big, and Daniel could lie down in the bottom of the wardrobe and still have room to spare! We then went back downstairs to mingle with the other guests. Around the table we had an American, two Danes, two Italians, us, and occasionally the German sister of the owner. The conversation was translated several times before it got around the table... The good wine was helping it flow. Dinner was divine and now we've all had truffles.
Next morning we went for a wander around the town and it was a step back in time complete with vege gardens, narrow cobbled streets, colourful window boxes and a 700year old chapel next to a (clean) stream. We were sad to leave... but Venice beckoned.
