TUSCANA - I LOVE YOU
Trip Start
May 16, 2011
1
17
20
Trip End
Jun 12, 2011
Lamole, Tuscany, Italy
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
TUSCANY – I LOVE YOU
Todays ride was organised and talked about a lot back in Australia. Apparently it is a grand ride for motorbikes still a part of central Tuscany we are to head to Chianti Classico region north of Sienna and south of Florence. Mmm yum, the home of the best Italian wines, some of which we have been drinking ever since we got here. We four are aiming for a particular restaurant which is rumoured to be the best in Chianti, Ristoro di Lamole.
We planned for a 1.00pm arrival, plenty of time to get there. That gives us enough time to visit another medieval city, SAN GIMIGNANO (or Saint Jimmy as we called it.) First stop as usual to fill up with petrol at the local garage. Andrew went there early and we were to meet him there. Easy enough. Neil goes off next and Steve and I fart around but are ready eventually. As we pull into the servo Andrew speeds off back towards home. That's weird we think. Andrew and Neil have the intercom connection between the helmets but Neil doesn’t get what Andrew said. So for some dumb arse reason we (well not really me) break the first rule of fight club, I mean bike club and we don’t wait for our mate. Steve and Neil head off thinking Andrew is going a different way. I did say we should wait maybe he has gone home for something. A big misunderstanding and wrong interpretation and assuming a situation, we find out eventually Andrew went back home to get his contact lenses. He didn’t stop and talk to us but thought Neil understood. Neil thought he was going a different road, which is weird because we all ride together, and Steve thought, whatever, we will meet him somewhere. So off to a bad start. Shame on us all.
So we never catch up with Andrew. Neil and Steve still thinking Andrews behaviour was weird, continue on and we miss the first turn off again not even out of Colle. This is starting to become a habit!!!
Ahhh there it is, SAN GIMIGNANO. It’s a huge medieval city and one of the best preserved in Tuscany. Fourteen of its original 76 towers remain; windowless they are built as private fortresses and symbols of their owners’ wealth. It started its life in 1237.
Womby stresses out when he doesn’t know the end result of something. Usually he figures things out, but when pressed for time he messes up. So again we are winding up up up the busy road towards the cities gates, confronted by roundabouts, signs in another language, watching out for vehicles, pedestrians, mopeds, he misses the parking area and kinda gets stuck in another street which is too hard to turn the bike around. So we (Neil following) ride into the busy city. Extremely steep slippery cobbled roads and tourists walking everywhere are a bit of a challenge, especially since we know "No vehicles allowed". So we stop in a piazza area, Neil continues down an extremely steep road, before Womby follows I decide to get off and will try to find a way out for the bikes. I leave Steve who sees Neil zooming up another lane way with blue flashing lights chasing him. Neil zoomed past with the copper on his tail; he did call out that he would see us at the restaurant.
The city is filling up with more and more crowds. Steve is lumbering with his bike doing a seven point turn in an ancient steep alley way wondering if we will ever see Neil again. I come back and say there is a small umpa lumpa rubbish truck trundling up another alley way. So I stay put and Steve follows the small truck, only to be abused for having his bike in a city. He says Im Australian !!! stuck !! way out?! Small umpa lumpa Garbo man helps silly Australian motorbike man find his way out of ancient medieval city. Womby waves to me and off he zooms into the crowd towards an exit, so within the first hour we four troupers have managed to lose all of each other. !!! Fascinating.
The lane way did lead to the way out, but now Steve had to find a park. He said all the bike spots were taken, “especially by those three wheeled motorised wheelbarrows” (I don’t think he likes them much, a bit useless like those stupid small dogs that fit inside a Stiletto shoe.)
So he finds a spot between a rock and a hard place and in between the wheelbarrows. Bikes seem to be able to park anywhere, but preferably avoid the front of garage doors.
I get board waiting and have a little - little wonder around (well you know, a goldfish needs to just keep swimming, just keep swimming) Steve is apparently a little tense as he cant find me, but I’m not that far away, just down the hill. Ooooo I have found the TORTURA MUSEUM. I buy two tickets and then run up the hill and see this confused guy looking for someone. With a cooee and a wave we find each other, poor guy, bit stressed now, big hug, lets go cheer up and investigate the Torture Museum.
First we needed an espresso, gossiped about Neil and Andrew and made up nasty stories, heehee. Tried to call Andrew to find out where he was, sent him a txt that we were at Saint Jimmy.
(It turns out he WAS there the same time as us but had his phone in his Pannier)
A visit to the torture museum certainly is not for the faint hearted. It is absolutely appalling what people did to each other, often in the name of Christendom and faith. Steve couldn’t cope and left, I being cold hearted finished the exhibition. The pain people went through is unimaginable, none of which I will elaborate on. You just have to go yourself. Of course it dates back to before Christianity as well, but you can’t blame religion for everything, but the people who did these things in the name of god have a lot to answer for. As I said to Steve, its not Gods fault!! Anyway god, schmod,we gotta go and leave this extrodinary city which we didn’t see much of and scamper to Chianti. Its 12.00 and we are supposed to be there by 1.00. Another txt sent to Andrew but no reply.
Womby and Goldie thought it won’t be a long journey as its about 2 inches on the map, and we are looking forward to seeing the boys and eating yummy food.
Now saint Jimmy is a little south east of where we have to go and Sienna is still to the south. We need to head northwest. The map studier worked out the best roads to travel on to avoid the nasty big towns with their nasty roundabouts and nasty drivers and nasty ten names to a sign post that you cant read.
I am trying to read the road signs, left, right, straight, we were following a particular name and thought we were going good. We missed our route and then had to go through POGGIBONSI, which we named Piggy Bonci. We were trying to avoid this city. Bloody stupid town got in the way of a good ride. We got so lost and I am sure we went through the same roundabout at least three times from different directions. We passed the same car driven by a little old Italian three times trying to get through Piggy Bonci. If you blink you miss a sign, and I saw a bent and twisted sign naming the place we needed but we had to turn around. Around another roundabout, wave to the same car and yay, over a hill and escape from Piggy Bonci except we are still not sure if we are travelling in the right direction. Somehow we are on a side road, not exactly the swoopy bike riding road we wanted but we “think” it is going in the right direction; anyway we will follow it for a while. Its past 1.00 now. Getting through Piggy turned a 5minute ride into a 45minute expedition.
So on and on we went Steve was happy anyway the roads were better now at least. We were headed north which was handy, still no road signs and no towns to identify. Our lunch date was over, I sent a txt while riding on the bike to Andrew to say I know its past 1.30 but we are still lost and finding our way. I thought he would have been there by now. We didn’t have Neils number, so couldn’t contact him. I got a txt back from Andrew, He got lost, couldn’t find it so he went back to Colle. Ohhh noooo ; what a shame. I wonder what happened to Neil? Did the copper get him? Stay tuned.
Honestly the whole bloody place was a maze. Our point of interest was a town called CASTELLINA, we came across the location sign that identified we were in the Region of Chianti so that made us happy, so now we followed the signs to GREVE. I guess on the map distances and not the same as reality, so what looked like maybe 15 minutes took about an hour. But still we found the sign that said LAMOLE,,!!!!!! Which was incredibly exciting as that is the name of the restaurant. Ha! Then for miles of winding one lane roads there were no signs, just quaint places. It seemed to not be a public road, more like a trail that linked the properties together. I guess it was more like a lane. Oh my goodness what a view. Much more steep and mountainous and the vineyards were planted as terraces rather than fields. Higher and higher we climbed on this little windy lane passing places on the way. Every corner... was this it?? Was this it??? The first Lamole sign was exciting, as we drove on passing little villas and winerys and mountains we thought we had passed it because again there was not that second sign. Then oh my god there it is. Around a corner, a church to the left and another motorbike parked that looked exactly like Neils. Its now 3.15pm. We are only 3.15 hours late. (google map reckons it 1 hour 11 minutes)Neil was sitting there like Lord of the valley. He had had his three course meal and thought he was all alone. We txt Andrew to say we made it and he laughed and laughed out loud. J
All I can say its worth the journey. Google it , RistordiLamole. Perched on a hillside overlooking the valleys. Saint jimmy is 56 kms away and you can just see the towers of the city with a very good camera.
So back to the food. Womby took great delight in explaining our bike journey to the waiter, who turned out to be the son of the owner. He was delighted to hear we were from Australia and had come here for his food.
I started with a ricotta cheese stack of vegetables. That wasn’t exactly what it was called however dam fine. Steve had a game meat homemade sausage with trimmings. (Doesnt sound appetising) For PRIMO I had wild boar & tagliatelle and he had rabbit and pumpkin ravioli. For SECONDI we shared a meal of sliced marinated steak and of course finished with Tiramisu , espresso and polished off Chianti Classico Lamole 2008. I think the whole wining and dining experience took about three hours.
Neil had left a while back and we had the whole place to ourselves as the lunch diners had left and they were getting organised for the evening guests. But we could linger as long as we liked. We were sitting on the balcony with the most amazing view, and then lingered inside the restaurant at the old relics and photos and of course you could purchase wine and olive oil and balsamic vinegar. So Steve got to chatting as he does and the owner photo copied the whole wine list 300 labels, which was like a small booklet, so we hope we can find someone here in Bris to get some of this beautiful wine. While we were admiring and chatting he brought out some splendid Limoncello which would be an insult to refuse and the host with the most toasted his guest from Australia. JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
So my goodness; a splendid ending to a confusing day. Steve Okey strapped me to the back of the bike, just a precaution after the wine and limoncello, (onl y joking-but I was a little smashed) and we reluctantly started for home. It was so quick going home. We found the roads we missed and avoided the town of Piggy rather well. And I saw the signs that we missed. I will be right for next time J
By the way Neil had a difficult time finding it but this was one time when his GPS saved the day. Andrew was quite cross that he missed out. He stopped and looked at his map as he was lost in Piggy as well. The wind tore his map from his hands. He had his phone in his pannier so didn’t get my txts to say we were so lost and late. (He was happy we were lost and took 3 hours to get there) Sorry ANDREW FOR ABANDONING YOU MATE. Lesson learned, always wait... haha that rhymes.
No dinner that night, but lots of talking about our mistakes, our ride, the traffic, the hills, the swoopy roads, the castles, the limomcello, the food , the view, what a bunch of dorks we are for leaving Andrew and losing Neil. Another fabulous day in TUSCANA! TUSCANA – I LOVE YOU
Comments
Love it!!!
That restaurant sounds splendid.