Friday, May 31, 2024

Today we drove from Rome to Florence with many stops along the way, so we started early picking up the rental cars at 7:30am. Driving within the center of Rome is not the easiest, so instead we chose to all head to the train station and pick up the rental cars together. We hailed a couple taxis and they dropped us and our luggage off at the station. It was sprinkling a little rain, but luckily not too much as we tried to figure out where to go.

We checked in, grabbed the cars from the garage and proceeded out of the city toward our first stop, Sacro Bosco, about 1.5 hours from Rome. We arrived around 10am, ahead of schedule and we nearly had the place to ourselves. While getting some coffee here, I did learn the important lesson to order “cafe latte” and not just “latte”, which mean milk.

Sacro Bosco is a strange place. Out in the middle of nowhere, it is a forest filled with strange sculptures that make you wonder how these got here. It was a relaxing visit with no crowds and gave us a chance to wind down after the busyness of Rome. Apparently we were lucky, as we were getting in the cars to leave, two large busses full of loud school children arrived.

After driving through some questionable back roads for an hour, we arrive at Bagnoregio. Attempting to drive toward the closest parking lot to the bridge, we were redirected away from the city center which apparently is for locals only. We circled the nearby parking lots for 30 minutes looking for somewhere to park and eventually parking in a large empty lot just north of the city, meant for campers. The parking pay terminal would only take coins, so we had to risk it as we could only afford to buy 1 hour (we stayed here 4 hours)

Pro Tip – When in Italy (and Europe in general) always have a healthy lot of coins. Sometimes paid parking areas or toll booths will only take coins (no card or bills).

It was a long 45 minute walk from the lot up into Civita, but worth it. There is a small booth near the bridge where you pay a small fee to enter the city. Walking up the bridge to the city is quite the climb and very windy, so hold onto your hat! Once in the city, there are quant alleyways and beautiful architecture.

We worked up an appetite during the long walk and decided to grab lunch at Alma Civita. This turned out to be our favorite restaurant in all of Italy, and the service was fantastic. Our server told us a bit about the city, where currently there are no longer residents, just daily travelers and businesses due to the fact that the city is slowly collapsing into the valley. He told us of the history, when residents of the city used to utilize donkeys to transport farming equipment up from the valley every day, so today they celebrate with an annual donkey race in the city square.

Civita is not large, as you can walk from one end to the other in about ten minutes. On the far end, there is a garden (small donation to enter) and the views from either side of the city are incredible. There is a small church in the city center, a museum (paid entry) and a few tourist shops.

During the long walk back to the car, we were having gelato withdraws, so we made a quick gelato and espresso stop along the way. Luckily once we reached the car, we had not been ticketed, as our pass had expired 3 hours prior.

We were running a bit behind schedule, so we only drove through Orvieto briefly and skipped the Well of St. Patrick. Many of these old cities have narrow streets and limited parking, otherwise we would have stopped briefly and walked around the city square.

On the way to Cortona, we stopped at Castiglione del Lago and parked in the large parking lot near the lake to stretch our legs. It was extremely windy next to the lake. Not a very popular town, so plenty of parking and easy to get around. We thought we could easily reach the city square from the lake side, but after walking around the hill that separated the two for 30 minutes, we decided to turn around and head back. We ended up settling for a quick drive through near the castle and square on our way out.

Cortona was another old city located on top of a tall hill with very small streets to drive and limited parking, so we chose to view from the car as we drove by. We had a dinner reservation in Siena waiting for us.

When we finally reached Siena, it was starting to get dark and the streets in the city center are not easy to navigate. Similar to the other nearby cities, Siena has tiny streets and limited parking. It took us 30 minutes to find parking, and with our two cars we ended up parking very far away from each other. I dropped Scott off near the restaurant so he could hold our reservation, then went to park the car.

Unlike most of the other cities we drove through Siena is not at the very top of a tall hill, but walking through the streets felt like climbing vertical up a mountain. Dinner at Osteria Permalico was amazing and I would definitely recommend. After dinner, instead of walking back to the car parked far outside the city, we all piled into one car. Seven people in a small italian car was very entertaining. A couple children may have ended up in the trunk!

As we were exiting Siena, we drove through the city center. I wish we had more time to walk around and enjoy the city, so next time we will plan a much longer visit to Siena.

It was after 11pm at this point and our host was waiting for us in Florence, so we skipped Monteriggioni and San Gimignano. We had booked parking reservations in Garage delle Terme, just a few minutes walk from our Airbnb, but we did not realize the garage closed at midnight. Florence is not a large city and it seems most of the city was shutting down around this time.

We parked our car on the main street, Via Por Santa Maria, so that we could unload our luggage and greet the host. Afterward, Scott and I took the two cars and tried to find somewhere to park. Along the river on the opposite side, we did finally find a couple parking spots, but knew we had to move the cars into the garage by 7am to avoid being ticketed.

We all got settled in and ended the long day of driving and exploring, ready for our first day in Florence.

Logistics

  • 7:30a – Rental car pickup – Locauto/National/Enterprise
  • Sacro Bosco – Strange sculptures scattered around a forest
  • Civita di Bagnoregio – City on a falling hill
  • Orvieto – Well of St. Patrick – skipped
  • Castigilone del Lago – brief stop to stretch our legs
  • Cortona – Quick drive through the city
  • Siena – Dinner
  • Monteriggioni – Skipped
  • San Gimignano – Skipped
  • Florence

Restaurants

  • Civita di Bagnoregio – Alma Civita – Best meal we had in Italy.
  • Siena – Osteria Permalico – Reservations required.

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