Monday, May 15

Siena to Pienza

Maritza woke me announcing that it was 8:30 am, so we threw on some clothes and headed over to breakfast. She had read LA time on her ipod—it was really 6:30 am and the restaurant was still closed. We had a good laugh and went back to the room.

Packing is easier when you’re traveling by car. We enjoyed the ride to Pienza—about an hour-and-a-quarter’s drive south of Siena. We arrived at the Piccolo Hotel La Valle around 11:00 am, were warmly welcomed and immediately checked into room 220, a no-smoking room. We had reserved a twin room with a panoramic view…and what a view! One-hundred-and-eighty degrees of magnificent Tuscan hills. The room offered adequate space for us to move around without bumping into one another. It was very quiet with the windows closed, and we had air-conditioning. Note: just because a hotel states on their website that they have air-conditioning, doesn’t mean they make it available…mostly it depends on when you are there...they might have the heat turned on, or the air-conditioning turned on, or neither. The bathroom was modern, providing the best shower of the trip.  There are small details that show that they try to make the hotel comfortable for their guests...there were terry cloth slippers in the bathroom, a nice touch. We would have liked a room with a balcony, but the only rooms with balconies are doubles. The parking garage was a bit challenging to maneuver, but the proprietor brought our car up to us each time we wanted to go out. The man at the desk at night had the strongest command of the English language, but the language barrier during the day didn’t matter as the people tried hard to be accommodating. http://www.piccolohotellavalle.it/homepage.aspx?Lang=2

The view from our room

Hotel's back garden

The hotel is situated across the street from the walled village, which turned out to be a great location as we could stay in or wander out at our leisure. Pienza is a perfect place to base for visiting the hill towns in Southern Tuscany and was a favorite of mine. This is the only town we saw where the people make an effort to have flowers everywhere—at their front doors, windowsills and balconies. It was also the flattest town, making it easy to stroll through the lanes. Breakfast was good and we could eat in the garden or inside. The buffet included lots of cakes, something I usually don’t eat at breakfast. I particularly enjoyed the cake with the almond paste filling. Oh, and I can’t forget the pecorino cheese. This town is renowned for it, and it was everywhere. Wild boar is a Tuscan ingredient, and I saw it on just about every menu.