Sunday, May 07, 2017 – Hanno
perso la nostra macchina & driving to the Borgo
On the plane, we were awakened at 3 AM
(10AM Roma time) and arrived at Aeroporto di Fiumicino a little ahead of
schedule – by about 10:30. It took
us a while to get our luggage, and then we headed over to pick up our rental car
from AutoEurope/Hertz. Our car
rental for 10 days is 320 euro – an amazingly good deal. When we were directed to get our car at parking location
113, there was no car! The
attendant had to walk around the parking lot, clicking the keys until she was finally able to find
it. We ended up with a Fiat SUV – bigger than more European cars, so parking
may be interesting.
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| After waiting in a rather long queue at the Hertz counter... |
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| Oh, no -- no car in unlucky spot #113 |
As we were leaving the rental garage, we asked the attendant for
help with directions (only telling her we were going in the general direction
of Pisa), hoping for good instructions to exit the airport and find the correct Autostrada. I told her we wanted to drive on the
coastal road. She was aghast ,
telling me it would take as long as 4 hours to drive that way. (Otherwise, you can head into Rome,
take the Circumnavigale –beltline- and head on the big Autostrade to
Firenze.) Little did she know she was talking to two veteran Detroiters, who can't do a vacation without driving an automobile umpteen miles.
We figured it out – headed
first to Civitavecchia, and then continued on the Via Aurelia. The road is
divided highway much of the way, but hugs the coast close enough that you can
see the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west.
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| Spring flowers, white horse, and an Etruscan necropolis in the background |
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| Tuscan hills and hay bales - nothing makes me happier! |
We are enjoying the late
spring flowers – many poppies and other floral displays on top of the hills and
along the roadsides. As we climbed
in elevation, places are still in early spring, with bright green leaves just
coming into fullness. We drove
north past Orbetello, the little mountain that sticks up from the sea off the
coast, with three fingers of land bridges that connect it to the mainland, and
then past one of the places with my favorite name – I Monti degli Uccelini –
the mountains of the little birds.
When we reached Grosseto, we turned north on inland state provincial
roads to head toward Sienna and the small village of Borgo Pignano – the
location of our stay for the next three nights.
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| Poppies galore in the fields along the drive |
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| Views on the drive through the small roads in Tuscany |
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Staying at Borgo Pignano - right between Volterra & San Gimignano
Tuscan hill town in the evening light |
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