Accomodations in Tuscany

One thing more scary than the hills in Tuscany are the accomodation prices. The Tuscan country-side isn't a major destination for budget conscious travellers, so there are almost no hostels and few campgrounds. We found only one campground along our route, at the end of our first day. And this was no ordinary campground - it featured seven different swimming pools, three bars, and four or five restaurants (for thirty euro a night). It was very reminiscent of the all-inclusive resort my family travelled to in Mexico last Christmas. Of course, this campground wasn't all-inclusive, but the illusion was nevertheless quite realisitic because cash was not accepted on the campground. All campers had to load cash onto a magnetic card which could be used at the bars and restaurants. So, with a mere flick of the card, a cup of gelato or a plate of appetizers would be served up. Human nature being what it is, everybody's card ends up getting flicked a lot and the campground-resort makes two or three times what it would have made otherwise.























One other accommodation in Tuscany deserves mention. After the awful hill near the town of Cavriglia (described in a previous post) we were feeling quite demoralized and exhausted. We decided to stop in Cavriglia to rest for a few hours and check at the tourism office for more detailed maps and campground information to be able to make a better plan for the next few days. The tourism office was closed until 4 in the afternoon, and we decided to wait rather than risk heading out again into unknown territory. With only one cafe in town, our choices for how to kill time were limited. We spent most of the time in a playground, resting on picnic benches in the 40 degree heat while the local kids eyed us and our bikes warily. This wouldn't be a very interesting story if the tourism office had opened and we had gone on our way (and I hope that we have been only posting interesting stories here), so you can probably guess that 4 o'clock came and went with no tourism officer in sight. The town we were in had no hotels (it was not very touristy - more working-class) and our map didn't show any nearby campgrounds. Our only lead was a street sign that pointed to a campsite (but without any distance) down a road that our map showed to be very windy and steep. And, needless to say, we were wary of Tuscan roads that were windy and steep. Nonetheless, we didn't have any other decent options, so we set off (rather, we set up) the hill. About 1 km along, we came across an accommodation sign at the side of the pointing down a gravel road. There was a handwritten sign in Italian underneath (which we couldn't read) but we decided to try our luck and investigate. A little ways down the road we came to a beautiful stone house guarded by a beautiful and friendly golden labrador. We soon met the owners and explained our predicament in a mix of French, broken Italian, and hand signs. They, in turn, communicated to us that although they rented out rooms in their home during the summer, they were on vacation and weren't taking guests.



Fortunately, our sweaty bodies and anxious faces inspired their sympathy and they offered us a room for a very reasonable price of seventy euros. At this point, with the sun beginning to set and our legs ravaged from all of the days climbing, we would have happily slept in a broom closet, but we were given our pick of all of the rooms in the house.


We picked a beautiful room on the main floor with an arched roof and French doors that opened directly onto the patio (these features weren't as important to us as the fact that, being on the main floor, we didn't have to climb stairs). The villa featured a gorgeous swimming pool that overlooked a valley below, were we could sit and watch the sunset over the surrounding olive trees and wineries. Our hosts were incredibly friendly, feeding us olive oil freshly squeezed from their own olives as well as many homemade honeys whose distinctive flavours arose from the different pollens used by the bees.

All in all, this was one of the highlights of the trip and definitely turned a rough day into a unique and wonderful experience.