Our Grand Tour of Europe

I’m in Kelly’s spacious and sunny room, reclining in my favorite spot on the chaise lounge next to the wide double window that looks southeast. The windows are wide open and the light breeze is relaxing, almost hypnotic. The bell tower of the old village church is just below me. The bells ring every half hour, even through the night. Four bells, a pause, then two peals of a different bell. It’s 4:30 in the afternoon, and we’re halfway through our laid-back month in the Tuscan countryside.

Our little house… an apartment really… is one of several built into the old castle walls in the tiny hilltop village of Chiusure in an area of Tuscany south of Siena called the “Crete”. (Chiusure is pronounced “key-zur-ray,” which I never seem to get right, much to Kelly’s frustration.) Our neighbor Gary told us that Chiusure was likely an ancient village founded by the Etruscans, a pre-Roman civilization that dominated central Italy from about the 8th century BC until the 1st century BC. He said our building probably dates back to the 10th century, which means it’s over a thousand years old. The 10th century… that’s 900-something. The three of us can hardly comprehend this thought. In Knoxville I worked in a 100-year-old “historic” building that I proudly considered old. But in the 900’s—five centuries before Christopher Columbus sailed across the sea—America was undeveloped, a vast wilderness inhabited by primitive Indians. Meanwhile here in Chiusure there was a castle and someone was living inside these same walls where we’re spending our month, cooking their meals on the huge stone fireplace, perhaps even daydreaming by this same window looking out across a view that has changed little in 1000 years. Once America was discovered, progress came quickly. But here in this part of Tuscany, the modern age has developed more slowly. Life is simple on our Tuscan hilltop.

Our Leisurely Life

Other than our six-and-a-half months in Provence, our time in Tuscany is the longest stay of our trip. We haven’t settled down as residents in quite the same way we did in Provence, but we’ve been able to explore Tuscany in a much more leisurely fashion. We’ve enjoyed being able to take the days more slowly, relaxing from the aggressive sightseeing schedule of the previous six weeks.

Tuscany covers an extensive geographical area in central Italy, and our base in Chiusure enabled us to reach much of the region. We’ve gotten to know many of the neighboring towns and villages of Southern Tuscany well: the wine towns Montalcino and Montepulciano, Pienza known for its sheep cheese, the old walled town Buonconvento where we do our grocery shopping, the smaller villages Montisi and Monticchiello. One afternoon we visited Sant’Antimo, a beautiful 12th century church set in a peaceful valley below Montalcino, and watched the age-old ritual of the monks’ Gregorian chants.

Kelly and I especially like Bagno Vignoni with its beautiful views and hot springs. We’ve spent a couple of lazy days at the Hotel Posta-Marucci, occasionally dipping into the two pools (one hot and the other even hotter) while Charley reads a book in the shade. The whole environment feels like something from another era… older men and women in big white bathrobes stepping into the hot bath to take some kind of cure, everyone (men and women) wearing the mandatory bathing caps.

With the advantage of a full month, we’ve also been able to make several longer day trips… to Siena (twice), Pisa and Lucca, Volterra, San Gimignano, Chianti (twice), and Cortona. We visited San Gimignano late one afternoon, arriving in this town of 14 towers after most of the tour buses had left for the day. Chianti is one of our favorite areas, the lush green countryside and manicured vineyards such a contrast to our base in the barren clay pits of the Crete. Outside of Castellina in Chianti we visited a large Etruscan burial mound that dates back to the 4th century BC…. now sitting unattended (and fortunately empty) off the main road.

We knew very little about Umbria before we arrived for our two-week stay on June 25. I knew it was adjacent to Tuscany and similar in some ways, but I hadn’t really done any research and didn’t even buy a guidebook. Other than Assisi, I’m not sure I could have named any famous towns or cities in Umbria. But a few Slow Travel friends had highly recommended the area, several even preferring it to the more-popular Tuscany. At some point in our trip planning I decided to look into spending a week in Umbria.

In part we ended up in Umbria because I fell in love with a rental apartment I found on the internet. I never even sent out any other inquiries for Umbria rentals. Once I saw this place, I knew I wanted to stay there and that we would go to Umbria… in fact, we would stay there two weeks.

Umbria was an unexpected delight, the apartment even better than I had expected.

We traveled only two hours from our month-long base in the village of Chiusure, in an area of Tuscany called the Crete, to reach our new home in Umbria. Our route took us through familiar territory near Cortona, the landscape changing from rolling hills to rocky, more mountainous terrain. We passed into Umbria on a modern freeway, along the north shore of Lake Trasimeno. Charley was interested to be at the site where Hannibal defeated the Romans in 217 BC. Our route took us past Perugia, the capital of Umbria, a large city that blended the ancient and the modern worlds. As we traveled south down the freeway, picturesque towns clung to the sides of mountains—Assisi, Spello, then Trevi. The steep mountainside around Trevi was covered with olive trees, quite unlike anything we had seen in the olive-growing regions of France. We later learned that some of the best olive oil in Italy is produced in this area. Huge fields of sunflowers seemed to be everywhere, in full bloom… masses of vibrant gold. I felt happy just to be around so many sunflowers. We liked what we saw of Umbria.