The Casentino and Arezzo

From Fiesola, we drove Eastwards, towards Arezzo, into a region of Tuscany called the Casentino. It's actually a valley, through which the Arno river flows. It's a pretty rural area, with less tourists than most parts of Tuscany (definitely a good thing!). While the place may not be quite as stunning scenically speaking as say the Chianti, the landscapes are still beautiful, and the towns are very enchanting as well. We finally arrived at our destination, Ortigiano Raggiolo, a small rural village where we were planning to stay the next three nights.

The village immediately made a great impression on us - the place is very well preserved, very medieval and not overrun by tourists (it has to be said it appears to be rather sparsely populated though). The local tourist office has made a real effort to provide plenty of information of the village, which is pretty cool. We learnt that the place was actually founded by Corsicans!

Our accommodation was pretty cool, too. We were basically renting a medieval town house (but one with all modern comforts) - for the rather ridiculous price (in an altogether positive way!) of 40 Euros per night! Now that's what I call a bargain. We decided to dine in the only restauarant in the village - a rather amazing place called Il Convivio dei Corsi. Their cuisine is based on traditional Tuscan ingredients, but the end result is inventive and modern. And for a very reasonable price indeed. We just loved the place, and decided immediately to come back for dinner the next night.

As we had been quite impressed with the beautiful landscapes on our drive to Raggiolo, we decided to get sporty and go for a hike on Friday. After all, it's something we do much too rarely these days. But before embarking on our hike, we spent the morning walking around and exploring our little village. A very nice place it is indeed - and what's best of all, we were about the only tourists around! Which is a rare thing in Tuscany.

The objective of our hike was the Pratomagno, a mountain located not too far from the village, at a lofty altitude of 1592 meters - which makes for quite an ascent, given that we started at an altitude of a bit above 600 meters, at the village. We stocked up with supplies at the local grocery shop, and then headed off. The hike up to the Pratomagno was a bit boring scenery-wise, as we were mostly walking through quite dense forest - so no scenic spots to speak of. A family of wild boars did run across our path at one point, which was pretty cool.

After a good two and a half hours of hiking, we finally arrived at the summit, which is dominated by a rather impressive cross, which was erected in 1928. The views from up there around the surrounding scenery were rather amazing, and for sure made the hike up there worth it. For the walk back, we decided upon an alternate route, one which followed a nice ridge for the first 40 minutes or so of the hike, which meant that we were treated to quite nice views along the way. And, what's best, we spotted a couple of deer crossing the ridge just ahead of us. Quite a good hike wildlife-wise, then, in the end!

We got back to our apartment a couple of hours later, thoroughly exhausted. But we did manage to muster enough energy to go for dinner in our favourite Raggiolo restaurants. Amazing meal again, I decided to go for an all-out truffles meal - a truffles omelette to start with, followed by an amazing truffles dessert! Yummie, yummie, yummie. We were gutted when we heard the place was already all booked out for dinner Saturday night (but the lady promised we could go have a desert!)

The next day, we decided to visit Arezzo. Arezzo is one of the most famous historic towns in Tuscany, probably the most famous one after Florence and Siena. Our visit started by the impressive Duomo, which was, naturally, very impressive (as churches in Tuscany are - the biggest danger that can afflict a tourist in Tuscany is the Church Overload Syndrome).  There were some pretty impressive views over the surrounding countryside behind the church as well.

We spent the rest of the morning walking around the place, being suitably impressed by the medieval streets, mercifully absent of the tourist hordes that will no doubt invade the town come summer. The focal point of Arezzo is probably the Piazza Grande - which is what one could call "the perfect Tuscan square", lines as it is with medieval buildings, one more impressive than the other.

We then checked out the most "must-see-church" (trust me, there are many to choose between!) of Arezzo, dedicated to Saint Francis. The main reason to visit the church are the impressive frescoes - which are indeed stunning. A pity there wasn't much information in English (or Italian either, for that matter), a bit of background information would've been really useful in this case.

We then rushed off to the amphitheatre, which was located a bit outside the medieval centre. There wasn't much left of the amphitheatre, to be honest, but there is a museum that contains a lot of the stuff found at the site. Still, it was one of those museums with huge collections of ceramics and other "old stuff", without a lot of information to put it all into a historic context. So we lost interest rather quickly.

After an excellent lunch in a wine bar, we continued exploring Arezzo for a while, visiting a couple of churches, and feeling the Church Overload Syndrome starting to kick in. So to ward that off, we decided to visit Casa Vasari, which was the residence of the artist Giorgio Vasari (he was one of those renaissance types, which meant he was a painter, architect, historian, and god knows what else at the same time). There wasn't much to see, but there were some pretty nice frescoes by Mr. Vasari on display.

Before heading back to Raggiolo, we decided to visit a cool village we'd driven through on the way from Fiesola to Raggiolo, called Poppi. Poppi is one of those Tuscan towns that just look perfect as you approach them, jutted on a little hilltop, surrounded by gorgeous Tuscan landscapes, with a nice medieval castle at the tod. And of course some impressive city walls to protect the place (from tourists?).

The thing to do at Poppi is, of course, to visit the castle. The Poppi castle is what I call a proper medieval castle - plenty of those in Tuscany. We took the audio-guide tour, and were treated to a bit of an overload of information. That aside, the castle was pretty cool. And the views from the top were pretty amazing.

For dinner, we bought some stuff in a shop on the way which we cooked at our little medieval lodgings back in Raggiolo. And then, as promised, I headed over to our favourite restaurant in the village for desert. Not only did I get the promised desert, but also a half-full bottle of wine. And all this, for free! Now that's what I call customer service! I think (no, I know!) I have definitely fallen in love with the place!

The next day, 'twas unfortunately time to pack the car and drive back to France... We did stop by at Lucca for lunch. On our first holiday in Tuscany, it was our first stop, and one of our favourite ones. This time around, we were less impressed. I mean don't get me wrong, Lucca is definitely a pretty medieval town. Maybe we had just been saturated by the beauty of all the places we'd seen so far. It happens easily in Italy, in particular in Tuscany!

So all in all, a fantastic mini-break in Italy. Just what the doctor ordered. And as far as Tuscany is concerned, I think we will be back! If for nothing else, to have dinner in that wonderful restaurant called Il Convivio dei Corsi!