Traveling with Laura

Tuscany. Just the name evokes images of rolling hills, vineyards, and roads lined with cypress trees. Today was my first day exploring one of the many tiny villages and hill towns that dot the Tuscan countryside. Colle di Val d’Elsa wasn’t even on my radar and didn’t appear in any of my searches for “quiet Tuscan hill towns”. Instead, I found it by accident on YouTube, where I watched a video of a couple exploring the town in mid-August (prime tourist season) with nary another person in the video. My kind of place. (As it turns out, it may have been a little too quiet for my taste.)

I always set an alarm at home but never wake up to it. I’m always up well before the alarm goes off (like, hours before). Imagine my surprise when some gentle music interrupted my sleep this morning and I realized it was my phone alarm. 9.5 hours of sleep left me feeling more rested and ready for my first adventure outside of Florence. The Florence bus station is a short 5-minute walk from my hotel and the gentleman who helped me buy my bus ticket was very patient in answering my questions about my journey. The bus made a few stops before leaving Florence and then it was a highway ride most of the way. The clouds were clearing and I spotted a few hot air balloons gliding over the hills. The bus stop in Colle di Val d’Elsa (Colle, as it seems to be locally known) is in the more commercial, newer/lower part of town. I took a few minutes to get my bearings and then followed signs to the Old Town. It is an uphill walk the whole way. I passed by a few cafes on the way up but wanted to wait until I was in the old town to have breakfast. It turns out, there isn’t really a place to have breakfast in the old town, not even a pastry shop. So I wandered around the main roads through town, stopped in a couple of churches, took some pictures, and then I decided I was done. And hungry. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, it’s just that once you’ve wandered up and down the main road and the side roads, there isn’t much else to see or do.

Back in the lower town, I found a patio table at Caffé Garibaldi for a pistachio cream-filled croissant and a hot chocolate (the thick Italian kind; like drinking chocolate pudding!). I checked the bus timetable and realized if I ate quickly, I could catch the 11:11AM bus back to Florence.

I stopped to grab lunch at the corner snack bar near my hotel and brought my prosciutto and mozzarella panini back to my room to eat on the balcony. After lunch, I decided a nap was in order so I slept away part of the afternoon. Feeling somewhat refreshed, I headed out to explore more of Florence. I had hoped to visit the Duomo, but the line was long and I wasn’t in the mood to wait. Instead, I walked to Via Laura and strolled down the street that bears my name. Then it was on to Basilica di Santa Croce, the final resting place of both Galileo and Michelangelo. I enjoyed walking around the church itself as well as the two cloisters.

I stopped at a pastry shop I had read about online (Forno Ghibellina) to get a pastry to have for breakfast in the morning and then wandered my way back to my hotel. The restaurant I was planning to eat dinner at didn’t open until 7:15PM.and when I arrived at 6:55PM, there was a line around the corner and down the block. I waited until 7:30, but it was obvious I would need to wait a while if I wanted to eat there. Plan B was to just wander and find a place to eat. I ended up at Ristorante Pizzeria Masò, a place I had walked by several times in the past coupIe of days. I got a table on the covered patio and enjoyed a delicious meal of gnocchi with bolognese sauce, a glass of prosecco, and tiramisu to end the day.