Italian travels
July went by so fast! Before we know it fall will be upon us, to hard to belive.
Sharing some of july’s best insta photos. Including both a trip to Italy and to Spain. And some amazing sunsets back in Norway.
Happy mondays and August.
Yeeei got a feature in travelbloggers on wordpress 🙂 Thank you 🙂
Sunset over Radda in Chianti, Tuscany, Italy.
This beautiful photography of the Tuscan countryside was sent in by Annette from travellingmunk.
Annette is a former travel tour guide who now wants to travel the world one journey at a time. Either alone or with her much beloved Mr. Grumpy (quote Annette 🙂 ) She hopes to be able to live out of blogging and traveling in the near future.
Her blog is travellingmunk, where she writes about her travels around the world. Lately that has been Italy, and she also writes often about her home country, Norway.
Annette takes part in the Featured Images Event for the second time. Here is her other submission.
Agriturismo is a chance to be able to live more like the local. Often in a local farmhouse not to far from a small town also known as a rural retreat. Many people opt for this chance as I have a couple of times. This year in Radda in chianti, Tuscany. Agriturismo often is classified as a farmhouse but not necessarily at a real farm at least not in Italy, but you will find many italian agriturismos at wine farms.
the main building
by night – apartment Giardino and the entrance coming from Radda town
Our house was just an old farmhouse now converted into holiday apartments. Campo agli olivi has three apartments to let. One in the main building (where we stayed, this is the bigger one) and two in the oldest farm building which dates back to the 1300th. All three apartments are for 2/4 person as they all have 2 bedrooms. All apartments also come with their own private outer area and a common pool area.
apartment Oliva the sitting room entrance/exit
Kitchen area
a huge living room with its own library and a big dining table – would love to have this one at home
sitting area, been updated with a new leather sofa
our bedroom – one of two. The second one has two single beds
pool area – not heated but still good on a warm day
The city center of Radda is up the hill 200 meters. In a good distance to both the mandatory gelato store and the many restaurants. The location is perfect in this matter.
This is the town of Radda seen from the pool area of Campo Agli Olivi and the area with the parasols is Apartment Terrazza
This year my whole family were traveling together. The whole shebang. All 7, divided in to two groups we had two apartments. We got the big one called Oliva apartment.
Entrance Apartment Oliva
Oliva comes with a secluded outdoor space – beware of the sprinklers that come on at early morning/night – everything gets soaked
On the day of arrival we was greeted by Nise, who runs the place. She lives on the upper floor of our apartment with her mother – la patron. Her mother a super cute Italian mama, Â who gave us her whole life story – IN ITALIAN!. Did I mention that my italiano is poco? But none the less, I managed to understand that she was a widow, for over 40 years and raised her two little girl all by her self with no family.
She told us that family is very important and that I should definitely get married – any time soon (this part is where my boyfriend cringes and my parents cry of laughter and nods in agreement) In addition to these things she also tells us how her beloved husband dies and that she just had an accident and ruined all of her teeth – W.O.W I guess my Italian is not that shabby after all.
Pool area by night – enlighten
the entrance coming from town
I enjoyed my stay here for our fortnight but I have a few reservations that made the experience a little less enjoyable.
As I said we were traveling together 7 people and one of them, a girl of 8 years. No need to say that she loved the pool area and would, if allowed be living in the water day and night. Children make noise, especially when playing. As do grown ups. I do not consider us a noisy group and we behaved well – not staying up all night, or making any uncomfortable with loud fights or such things.
Still me managed to get hushed by, not only once but several times – mostly by the pool area.
And the first story we got from the owner was that the previous “camper” have had 2 children that were all over and being noisy and difficult. How do you respond to that?
My understanding after visiting is more like – they don’t have children of their own and may have forgotten that children make noise. Good noise, when playing. If this is such a big annoyance to them they probably should state so, that children is not wanted in their apartments.
To be honest the neighbors dog made more and more often noise than we did. My parents have visited this apartments two years earlier and were quite shocked by the hushing and the unwillingness of the play. My sister got hushed to for splashing to loud! T.
So to be said – if you are a couple in need of a quiet little place, this might be it. If you have children stay clear! If I ever go back to Radda I will never stay at this place again given the behavior of the owners. I would rather look into some of the hotels up i town. It looked like there were many nice ones there.
Today is the first of two palios held in Siena, Italy. A palio is horse race held twice a year. July 2nd and August 16th. 10 horses with their riders riding them bareback in their local colors. 10 of 17 “districts” are represented at ill palio in a race tree times around the piazza del campo. This normally do not last more than 90 sec.
Here seen with all their flags. Different flag for different part of the city
Before the race there is a spectaculare pageant, the corteo storico which I got to experience. Which includes flag wavers and drummers in medevial costumes. They parade through the streets with the horse and following the crowds from each districs singing loud songs. Much like at a soccer game.
Here are the houses of tortuga and panthera. You can really feel the dedicatons from each district. A serious matter.
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We packed our bags and headed for Florence for a few nights. Our hotel of choice was this time Villa Olmi Resort. It is located about 4km outside the city center but the hotel offers free shuttle bus to and from the city center. If you choose to go by taxi it is about € 20-30 (june,2014)
Villa Olmi is a beautiful 4 star resort wich includes a villa, a farmhouse and a rural house set in a big beautiful garden.
They served an intercontinental breakfast but ours were not included in the total price. This is also where they serve lunch and dinner. The resort has a small swimmingpool with lovely sourroundings not to far away from the bar.
Every room has its own private bubblebath that left you wonderful relaxed before bedtime. Nice hotel rooms but they were not sound proof and much of the sounds around came through and were disturbing.
All in all a great stay if only a little closer to town and a little less noise.
Sunset over the tuscan hills
For Mr. Grumphy’s 40th birthday I booked some well deserved spa time for the both of us ofcourse. Found this lovely little resort and spa hotel only 10 minutes drive from Radda in Chianti. Perfect. A 4 star hotel in lovely sourrondings. So in spite of not getting the massages together I didn’t mind waiting around.
They charge aboute €75 for a full hour massage and have a big variety of spa choices. From the single manicure and face treatment to fully body massages. So well worth the trip down this valley.
This is also a fully operating hotel so you may take a weekend here for ypur own well beeing or just to relax. Prices are from €140 a nigth ( all prices from june 2014)
