This is long and not yet complete.

Before I begin my travel report, let me give some background.
My wife and I traveled with another couple (Duane and Carla). We have traveled often with them often before and “lived” through some wild travel experiences. We started planning this trip more than a year ago. Duane and I are both heavy business travelers and had enough Delta frequent flyer miles to plan on two first/business tickets to Italy. We knew that we needed to request our dates 331 days out. So we had our first dilemma. When to go? So I did what I often do, search the web. First I searched and asked at FlyerTalk.com (mostly business travel related), then Fodor’s travel forum and then Slow Traveler . The consensus was either spring or fall. I think we chose spring because fall we wanted to go sooner rather than later. Since we decided that part of the trip should be in the Lake Como area, we thought that late May early June might be best for little rain and mild weather. More about this choice later.

The process of finding 4 first class reward seats on Delta is quite a choice. While there are many seats available, most would have cost us twice as many points. After much trial and error, we found that the only way to get to Italy for our timeframe was Atlanta to Paris (CDG) connecting to Florence and then returning via JFK. Realizing that Delta allows one of the stops as a layover, we elected to add a few days in France on the return trip. We were booked AF business to CDG, connecting to CityJet (an AF company) Florence (only a 40 minute window!).

Now the process of choosing the itinerary. Not as easy at it sounds. We all agreed that we wanted this trip to be mostly devoted to country and rural settings. So, only one night in Florence and one in Paris. We wanted to see it all and our itinerary reflects it. We HAD to see the hill towns of Umbria and Tuscany, the Lake area, maybe Switzerland, rural Normandy, Omaha Beach, as well as a little of Florence, Siena and Paris! All of this in just 15 days!! Much more about this later.

The planning was quite a process. We decided
to mostly stay in B&B’s and agriturismo’s and try and keep our room budget to a minimum. We felt that we could enjoy the areas without having to spend too much for rooming. My wife (Judy) did hours and hours of research. Library, book stores, printouts from Fodor’s and Slow Traveler were our primary sources. She enjoys the planning process almost as much as traveling.

Much thanks to all who helped by posting on Fodor’s and Slow Traveler. Special thanks to Helen Donegan for your kind willingness to help. The report you read is primarily my opinion. Thankfully, my wife made a daily travel journal to make this process easier.
If you don’t like long reports with lots of personal experiences, this one won’t be for you. I will also have to report in sections because of time restraints.
So now the adventure begins…

Day one (May 27):
We were thankful to just be going! France’s air controllers were on strike (for one day) the day before we left. One day different and no telling how our plans would have changed.
Because of schedule changes Delta replaced Air France from Atlanta to Paris (CDG).The good news is that we had more time to connect. The bad news is that I didn’t get to sample some of Air France’s food. Because we were afraid of losing our bags at CDG (a common occurrence according to many) we decided to not check any bags.A challege,but one we all passed.
We went early to the business elite lounge in Atlanta for our 5 pm flight. It’s a bit nicer than Delta’s crown rooms because they had a nice spread of finger foods and chips and dip. The flight to CDG went smooth. The 777 seats were nice and lay almost all the way down. I watched a movie and had a pretty good meal. Judy had a terrible vegetarian meal.It was almost inedible. Delta has an okay blue pouch with eye masks, ear plugs, footies (ugly green),toothpaste,etc. We all attempted to sleep some to help fight jet lag. I generally have a hard time sleeping on planes and I probably only got a few minutes of shuteye. There was an adequate breakfast served before landing.

Day 2 (May 28):
The process at CDG went fast and smooth. CityJet is situated in the “armpit” area of CDG. It’s a small dirty room with little seating (especially since many of the seats were broken). They would not allow as much as Delta to be brought on the plane, so we checked our bags. This is the only leg that we had to be in coach. The flight was completely full. You can not reserve your seat ahead of time, if you are connecting . So, Duane ended up with a middle seat (he’s a big guy) and Judy and I were given seats apart from each other. In our attempt to sit together we asked an African person if he would switch. He smiled and took another seat, but it wasn’t mine. He was part of a group of 3 men who just took any seats (including the one he so nicely offered) and no one could communicate with them about assigned seats. It was almost comical to see the flight attendant try and straiten the seating mess in the back. Somehow I ended up sitting with my wife in better than Delta coach seats. It was a flight of less than two hours ,but they served a very decent lunch.
We arrived in Florence on time. It’s a very small airport and we were in our rental car in no time. This is a good time to pause and address the issue of rental cars. We elected on Avis. A lot of people use Autoeurope, but they wouldn’t match the rate I got from Avis (a special discount code found on FlerTalk.com). We rented a VW Passat. It was roomy, had good trunk space AND was automatic. It was to be an important member of our adventure. Another important point is THE map. If driving in Italy (especially all over),you don’t need a map. You need THE map. That is, one that gives much detail. I spent the extra money (before I left) on an excellent Michelin 1/200,000 multi page map. It , too, was an important member of our adventure. Since Duane rented the car and another driver adds $20 per day to rental, he became our driver and I handled directions.
We were off on one of Italy’s main roads A-1. Our first experience as travelers who read almost no Italian was our entrance on this road. Outside Florence we get to a toll gate and we were prepared to put a credit card in as payment, but we don’t know where. We start trying to jam it into every slot on the machine. We then tried some of our new Euro’s,but no slot would accept them as well. “It must be broke”, I said. We then started pressing buttons and a card comes out! “It’s given us a receipt without taking our money. Wow, this Italy sure is a great country!” We take it and the gate opens! We theorized that traffic was backing up behind us, so an attendant must have given us a “free ride”. After some careful examination of our almost discarded “receipt”, we realized that this was a card that showed the time and where we came onto the toll road. We weren’t suppose to pay at the booth, but simply take the card and use it later when we got off (to determine how much we paid). This would not be the only time we embarrassed ourselves at a toll both.
A word here about driving in Italy. Italy has surprisingly good roads, especially the main thoroughfares. The drivers, however, all seem to have a couple things in common. Although, Italy is a laid-back country where everyone moves on Italian time (read SLOW) it’s drivers move at a different pace (read FAST). As an Atlanta driver Duane was experienced in traveling with the traffic flow. He especially loved not knowing how to convert meters into miles. It made it easier to not know how much over the speed limit he was. The unique traffic habit of Italian drivers was based on the seeming belief that a middle line in the road is not to separate, but to drive down the middle on. This didn’t seem to matter if you are in a four lane or two lane. It’s an interesting phenomena when driving on a large toll road. It’s down right scary when traveling on a small two lane in the hill country. But I digress…
Taking with our “get as much in as possible” theme, we elected to go to Cortona for a late lunch on our way to Umbria. Since we left the airport at 12:30pm, we figured we would arrive around 1:30-2:00 and we did. The only problem was that all the advice about retail stores closing in the pm was true. This includes restaurants. Armed with a great Slow Traveler recommendation for a restaurant we walked into it, only to be gently escourtaded out with a “Troppo i tardi noi siamo chiusi.”. Both wives knew that chiusi meant closed (I thought it was a kind of Spanish sausage),so we started looking for an opened one. Croce Del Travaglio at Via Dardano. Was what we found. A simple place where we all had pizza. Since the price was only 5.40 Eu ,we assumed that we would get a couple slices. Instead we all got an entire pizza ourselves.We men thought ours was one of the best pizza’s we ever had and the girls thought theirs was good, but not all that great. We had a spicier kind (not sure which one) than the ladies.
Cortona is a beautiful town, but the shops were still closed. It was getting a bit hot out (26)…(okay I’m showing off my new ability to convert Fahrenheit to Centigrade),that is 78-79 F, but that didn’t stop the girls from wanting to try and find Frances Mayes house.We started down the street from Plaza della Garibaldi (shops started to open and my wife bought some hand towels at one)to a lovely park with Nymphs riding Dolphins and the down a white road. It seemed like we would never get there. I complained that we walked at least 25 miles, but the girls assured me that it was more like two. Neither Duane nor I understand this strange desire our wives have for seeing someone else’s house. On a trip to Blowing Rock,NC we did a search for Jan Karon’s (author of Midford series books) house. This must be something unique to females, but we continued on with them until we spotted it. The girls ooed and aahed and took pictures. We men just rolled our eyes and asked “Aren’t you going to knock?” “Of course not”, was their reply. “That would be rude, plus she’s selling it”. “She’s selling it?”, I said. “I suppose next you’ll want to go searching for her new home”. They just looked at each other and smiled. As we trudged back up the hill towards the car I couldn’t but overhear them speculating on where the new home would be.
We continued on to Agriturisma Malvarina in the Assisi area. We had good directions to their area. The last part of their directions said “…and just follow the signs”.We really tried,honest we did. A sign pointed left, then another right. After 30 minutes of driving in circles we realized that one sign was tirned around and that we didn’t know how to read Italian signs. Throughout our trip we struggled with getting comfortable with Italian direction signs. In the US, if a sign points left, you are suppose to go left. In Italy the signs “sort of” point left or right, but mean go straight. It’s like they are saying “continue on THIS road”. It’s hard to explain, but it seems to be related to the angle of the sign.
When you arrive at Malvarina you see the main house covered in ivy. There are groves of olive trees and rooms are above the house and kitchen/dining area (separate building). Our dinner reservations were for 8:30 where we joined a long table with others who were staying there. They also have about 10 other tables for other dinners. This was one of the better meals of our trip and a great bargain. Five course (including wine) for 25Eu. I had a fantastic duck dish as one of my courses.
I’ll review Malvarina in day three’s report.

Day 3(May 29)
To do a fair review of any of the properties we stayed at I need remember it’s “relativity”. How is the property relative to its price, other properties we stayed at,expectations,etc.?
I had high expectations for Malvarina because of some nice reviews. None of us had anything (yet) to compare it to. And it’s price ($100/night)was inexpensive. The property was beautiful with a nice pool area. Overall, however ,it did not reach up to its reputation. The rooms were nothing special. It had the thinnest towels of the trip, no table or space in the bathroom, and if you showered the entire bathroom “flooded”. My wife and I seemed to like it more than the others, but it could use a little work. Breakfasts we’re okay (great honey),but in a very nice outside area.
After breakfast we headed to Spoleto. We actually planned on seeing many towns (many close by),but we were to learn from this point on that our plans were WAY too ambitious. We walked up to the fortress (La Rocca) and over an aqueduct over a gorge. Because of our self-imposed schedule we didn’t see too much of the town, but I would return. We at lunch at Taverna del Pescatore in Pigge .It’s very attractively located on the banks of a river and had exceptional food. If you don’t like liver, however, stay away from their appetizer assortment. There’s a traditional spread that they put on bread that only I was willing to eat (and I loved it).
We stopped at Trevi, but everything was closed (count on no shopping in early afternoons everywhere). It was a small very cute town. Our next stop was Assisi. It’s easy to love Assisi. Right before we left we all saw a movie about St. Francis of Assisi and it really wet our appetites. It didn’t hurt than I went to a Franciscan Seminary as a youth. It’s a beautiful town with much to see.
It’s time for one of my asides. In Assisi and some other cities our trip would have been greatly enhanced if not only spent more time there, but also hired a guide. I highly recommend this, especially for history buffs.
Visiting Assisi like any hill town means you walk, and walk, and walk…A LOT. The good news was the walking helped me work off some of the calories. The bad news was that it was hot (26-30).
There is so much to enjoy at Assisi and I recommend it all, except the food. We didn’t have dinner reservations (STOP: If you want to eat well get reservations! This was true everywhere.)and ended up eating bad pizza at some pizza joint. We left Assisi around 11 (after gelato) and were back in our room in 20 minutes or so. The nights were cool enough to sleep just fine and I sleeped great this whole trip! Tomorrow,Deruta,Orvieto, Civita Di Bagnoregio and more Assisi!

Day 4(May 30):
Deruta was our stop after breakfast. It’s not a very dramatic or large town, but virtually every shop had ceramics. The girls did some purchasing and the men watched. Note: In many stores in the hill towns you CAN bargain for a lower price. It’s not Mexico, but I was surprised to see most stores willing to discount if asked. Based on prices and some other towns where we found similar ceramics, we would not recommend Deruta.
We then headed to Orvieto. While it was the longest (planned) drive, it was highly recommended by someone staying at our agriturismo. I, we all ,loved Orvieto.We arrived at lunch time and ate at a recommended restaurant Maurizio(just opposite the cathedral). Very good food. My wife had a wonderful lasagna type dish and my pillow soft spinach,mushroom,tomatoes and cheese crepe was to die for. Shops were opening and the girls started in on their favorite thing SHOPPING! They concluded that the ceramics there were prettier and better priced. We then took a tour of the underground Etruscan caves. The tour was in Italian (they have an English one later around 4),but a nice bi-lingual young man helped interpret for us. Even in Italian, it’s worth taking the time (45 minutes?)for the tour. You get a ticket at the tourism office.( Note: I found that every tourism shop is closed a lot. Always in afternoon “lunch/siesta” time, Saturday afternoons and usually by 5. Overall, when opened, I felt that they weren’t as helpful as I thought they would be. Just an opinion, but it seemed every time I came into one the employee was on the phone and didn’t look like they wanted to get off. ) You gather for the tour a little beyond the Duomo in the tree area. When we walked over there we saw two dramatic things. First,One of the most beautiful views in the world! Do not miss this! The other was approaching storm clouds. While very impressive from our vantage point, we had left our umbrellas in the car. It stormed while we toured and rained most of that afternoon. It was the only rain (except a little during a night or two)we experienced in Italy.
The Duomo in Orvieto is striking (but had a large scaffold on it’s front side) and makes for some great picture taking. After the tour and seeing the church the guys decided to walk to car and bring it to duomo area to pick up our wives. This allowed them to stay dry and to get in one more shop. Driving into these hill towns is interesting. Our first problem was that we really didn’t know all the signs. The one ways we had down, but that was about it. We, however, saw cars in these towns and we felt that there was no reason that ours shouldn’t be one of them (later we would learn that this was true folly).
We started to drive in (while raining) and found ourselves only a block from the Duomo on a side road. This road,however,kept getting narrower until I had ti squeeze out of the car and see if we could make it. I figured we had just had enough room (with perfect driving) to squeeze free to the other side. The problem was that someone had a metal 6 foot planter on the road by their door. I’m sure they never expected any sane person to try and drive this road,so the left in the street. I carefull pushed back the planter so it and I were in the doorway and Duane carefully inched his way out. I doubt that he had more than an inch on either side. When he reached “freedom” we high-fived in celebration of our conquest. From that moment on we both “graduated” to the titles of The Driver and The Navigator.
Our next stop was Civita Di Bagnoregio. Civita was once connected to Bagnoregio. The saddle between the separate towns eroded away. Now,there is a bridge that connects the two. Today,only 15 residents live in Civita. The view along the walk (a relatively long uphill walk)is dazzling and unforgettable. Because of the rain we didn’t walk it, but I want to come back. I’ll never forget the first sight of this ancient mountain town sitting alone on a high pinnacle. It’s like nothing I ever have seen. After an espresso and potty break at a restaurant near the bridge (not much there) we headed back towards Assisi. Note: Potty breaks come often when you consume lots of water-which we do. We had no problem stopping in restaurants and asking to use theirs. The proprietors were quite gracious.
In Assisi for dinner we decided to drive (The Driver was really confident now) into the city to park. We parked about 2 blocks from the Duomo and walked down the streets of this ancient city. We ate at the restaurant at Hotel Umbra. Its name is Albergo Ristoranti Umra. It was recommended as a good restaurant, but was average to bad on our visit. Although quite attractive and expensive, we all agreed that this choice was a mistake. Gelatos and cappuccino in the piazza was a winner though. Assisi is especially impressive at night. Walking back to our car (around 1am) along the lantern lit roads was a special way to finish the evening. There was even a fireworks display from a neighboring town on our way back. It was a great way to say good night to Umbria. Tomorrow we would be heading to Tuscany!

Day 5 (May 31):
Headed to Buonconvento to stay at La Ripolina. We stopped at Montepulciano and had lunch at LaGrotta. It’s just outside the walls directly across SanBiajio church. It’s a wonderful restaurant and we dined outside in a beautiful setting.We all liked our meals very much.This was one of our best meals. We liked Montepulciano a lot. The wives (I even joined in)shopped at a great leather shop. Top quality and well priced!
This area is a stunningly gorgeous. We stopped often for pictures. La Rippolina is a little outside of Buonconvento (a rather plain town). The building we stayed in was built in 1300.It’s a lovely place to stay at with fantastic views from our room’s large window. Our room was clean with a king size bed, stone floors and timbered ceiling.
After unpacking we headed to Siena.The road from Buonconvento to Siena (not the main one, but the scenic route past the abbey) is one of the most beautifully picturesque in all of Italy..We parked many blocks from the old town (there was a soccer game that night)after searching for quite awhile. Here is where our review will differ from others. None of us liked Siena very much. It’s a much larger town (city )than where we had traveled. We found it much dirtier and less agreeable than our other visits. The terrible parking, the loud crowds and the traffic I’m sure tainted our opinions. We ate at a restaurant called Nello’s. The only thing worse than the food was the service (bordered on rude).

Day 6(June 1):
We started with a very good breakfast of fruit, cereal, granola, yogurt, cheese, toast, sweet breads, ham, and various jams and jellies. We then headed to the abbey Abbazia Di Monte Oliveto Maggiore. Sunday’s a great day to stop. You can go to their mass and hear some of their glorious singing/chanting. We took a tour and actually probably spent a little too long there, but it was nice. We then went to Pienza for lunch. We tried to eat at Restaurante del Falco (no way without reservations). We took a long walk along a white road along their ridge and saw a cute little church. We decided to stop in and used that time to pray and meditate some.
We ate at Viale S. Caterina. It’s right near the park and has panoramic views. The restaurant was great with yummy gnocchi with truffle sauce, great salads ,wonderful rabbit and boar.
The town of Pienza was beautiful with lots of flowers and cute shops (especially cheese and wine). It almost seemed “too perfect” a little “Disneyesque”. The town had a free concert of local singing groups in one of its churches. We took some time to just sit and enjoy their singing. It was now time to head to Montalcino for our dinner reservation (we’re learning). We ate at Boccon Di Vino right outside the town. It was wonderful and the owner is a great host. By the time we got back to our rooms it was well after midnight.

Day 7 (June 2):
After a good breakfast we headed to Montalcino and did some shopping and looking around.We liked Monalcino a lot and would come back. We then headed for a small nearby recommended vineyard ,La Crociona E Croce Di Mezzo. After a little tasting THE Driver bought some nice bottles and we started for another vineyard that we never reached. Somehow, The Navigator (me) thought that he saw an interesting way to bypass the Siena route on our way to Chianti. However, I somehow got us going up to the top of Mt. Amiata. The top is actually quite impressive. Heavily wooded,it almost looked like a rainforest. The temperature dropped from 28 to 12 at the peak. There’s lots of picnic areas and it was a pleasant surprise. The Navigator’s problems were multiplied when we found that the best alternative was to head back through Siena to reach our next home. It then took us 4 hours to reach our home (Podere Torre) in Greve. Hungry, we decided to stop at the small hill town of Quirico d Orchia.The small town was having a celebration (it was a holiday) and all the shops were closed. We drove into the city and found what looked like a nice parking place and headed for the celebration. The local towns people had prepared food for sale. We bought extremely good (and cheap)salad,beans,pasta and sausages and sat with them enjoying our find. As we walked back down (for a gelato) we saw a piece of paper on our windshield. It looked like a parking ticket,but we couldn’t read it. We then saw a local constable with a small pouch of tickets and The Driver showed him our ticket. He smiled and waved for us to follow. We figured that we would pay the fine (what could it be? $10 .maybe $20?) .When we figured out that we owed 100 Euros,we couldn’t understand how a parking ticket could be so expensive. It turned out that the ticket was primarily for us being in the city without a special city pass (usually for some locals). As it turned out, we probably could have been ticketed many times as we entered the ancient hill towns (including Montalcino that morning).We pouted and paid the fine.
As we got to Greve,we started following the directions to Podere Torre. We took a very tiny dirt and gravel road through vine yards for about a mile up a hill. When we reached the top we were treated to a zillion roses and other flowers. Podere Torre, quite simply, is so good that I hesitate mentioning it. Cecelia,the owner,greeted, the doing some gardening as we arrived and she showed us our charming rooms. Our room dated from the 11th century and was used by soldiers during the war between the Siennese and Floritines. It, however , was large, nicely furnished, charming ,and had a modern bathroom with fluffy towels and wash rags!! For some 80 Euros it was a steal.
We sat with our friends enjoying a great view and the smells of all the flowers. Cecelia then brings us carafes of her own wine and juice (blood orange).This was one of the highlights of the trip! But, because she had a laundry area we decided to do some washing before dinner. Italian washers,though,seem to work on Italian time. It would take all through our clean up time and dinner for all the washes to be finished. Duane and I used flash lights to hang up the wet clothes to dry during the night. We headed into Greve to a popular pizza place called La Cantina. Good pizza and salads. The other food, though, was average. Later, we walked around the tiny town. Not much to it and went back to our rooms and wash. We loved Podere Torre and intend to come back for a week.

Day 8 (June 3)
We had breakfast outside at a long wood table. EVERYTHING was great. We even had eggs to order! Most of our clothes were still wet,so we left them to head out to S. Gimignano.We stopped at Poggidonsi to hit the coop (mostly for more water) on the way.
S. Gimignano was too crowded to park,so we headed out to Volterra. We went to museo Etrusco there (lots of Etruscan urns) and found the town much better than expected. This town is great place to shop for alabaster with many nice shops. We had a surprising wonderful (and quick) lunch at cafeteria. It was called Caffe Bei (up hill from parking lot and turn left at top).Great lasagna, potatoes, sautéed spinach and eggplant parmesan at a fraction of what we had been paying. We then headed back to S. Gimignano where the afternoon parking was greatly improved. This is great town with excellent shopping. We hit some towers and toured the duomo. Although hot, this was one of my favorite towns. We then headed for a restaurant Cecelia recommended called Osteria Alla Piazza in Castellina. My wife chose the word “adorable” to describe it and it fits. The food,however,was even better! A great ensalada with fresh artichokes, asparagus, tomatoes and mixed greens . Soft dumplings of pureed veggies in a cheesy cream sauce melted in my mouth. Grilled fresh porcini mushrooms were selected by weight and cooked like steak.And great pastas and meat! All of this and great bread!!!
Aside: We did not like the bread in Italy. It seemed everyone had the same kind and it just did nothing for us, until this restaurant. Even the desserts here were wonderful. We HIGHLY recommend it. After another leisurely dinner (around 3 hours) we headed back to our inn wearing contented smiles and wondering how the Italians are able to eat so late (and so much) without bloating up to the size of Macy’s floats. Next, Lake Como!