Really interesting article in today’s New York Times about North Macedonia’s claim that Alexander is their native son, much to the infuriation of Greece. Historians agree that Alexander (and his father Philip) both originate from the Macedonia region of Greece, south of the country of North Macedonia. But historical realities don’t discourage the nationalistic fervor of the North Macedonians in creating a national identity for themselves.
We encountered all of this during our bike trip through Macedonia and Albania a few years ago, including the presence of oversize statues of Alexander, his father Philip, and a 10th-century Bulgarian king (who also isn’t native to Macedonia).
Greece’s Alexander the Great, prominently displayed during our trip in Skopje, North Macedonia’s capital:
And across the bridge, his father, Philip of Macedon (also not North Macedonian):
One one side of Skopje’s main square squats Samuil, the Tsar of the First Bulgarian Empire from 997 to 1014 (also not North Macedonian, enraging the Bulgarians, as noted in today’s NYT article):
And on the other side, a couple of more recent heros of the Balkan region – maybe Macedonian, maybe Bulgarian. All of this is a little disputed.
So, we planned the following month-long trip to five countries:
Fly into Buenos Aires and spend the day and night
Take a ferry over to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, rent a car, and drive up the coast
Take a ferry back to Buenos Aires (this time from Montevideo) and spend an afternoon and night
Fly to Argentina’s Mendoza wine country and spend several days there, including celebrating one of our birthdays
Fly to Santiago, Chile, and spend a couple of days exploring the city
Fly to Iguazu Falls, Brazil, and spend a couple of days marveling a this natural wonder
Fly to Sao Paolo, Brazil, and spend a couple of days there – exploring the city and exploring the Rosewood Sao Paolo even more
Fly to Cusco, Peru, and get a car immediately down to the Sacred Valley region. Cusco lies at an elevation of more than 11,000 feet – more than double that of Denver – so we headed out of this elevation to acclimate in Urubamba, at 9,000 feet (not down to Denver’s level, but every drop helps).
Spend almost a week in the Sacred Valley hiking and checking out lost Inca cities, culminating in back-to-back visits to Machu Picchu over 2 days
Head BACK to Cusco after acclimating, and spend a couple of days there checking out its unique combination of Spanish colonial architecture built atop Inca palace foundations
Fly to Lima and spend a day and night there, then fly home
A map of the trip locations is here (as well as updated on the Map / home page of WolfeStreetTravel:
The trip easily exceeded our expectations (which, for one of us, were kinda low). Highlights included:
The super cool-vibe beach town of Jose Ignacio on the Uruguay coast
Mendoza wine country and horseback riding through wineries for tastings and lunch to celebrate the birthday
Peru’s sacred valley and the hikes and Inca ruins we experienced there
(Lowlights included Santiago, Sao Paolo (other than the Rosewood), and Lima. We have decided that we are definitely not big city travelers. We’ll continue to visit major cities that we haven’t experienced before, but our sweet spot is definitely medium to small towns [the epitome in our experience continues to be Ronda, in Spain’s Andalucía region]).
Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay – the country’s oldest city:
Onward and up the coast to Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital:
And finally, Uruguay’s cool-vibe beach town of Jose Ignacio:
And just inland, one of the four best hotels of our trip: Fasano Punta del Este.
And its resident kleptomaniac Uruguayan crab-eating foxes, one of which stole a right Birkenstock, size 45, which was never recovered (although was finally replaced in Santiago).
And then over to Argentina’s Mendoza wine country, home to the country’s signature red (and the favorite red of one of the WolfeStreetTravelers: Malbec.
Accommodations at Cavas Wine Lodge in the heart of Mendoza wine country – outstanding.
Pretty cool ride through multiple vineyards to multiple wineries for tastings and lunch on Lisa’s birthday:
Villa roof deck on another one of the four best hotels on the trip:
An hour hop across the Andes to . . .
Santiago, Chile:
Very cool Chilean Pre-Columbian Museum, including the Inca’s stone and bronze weapons used heroically but futilely against the Spanish conquistadors:
Back over the Andes and to the center of the country (and border of Argentina and Brazil) to Iguazu Falls.
Even more extensive than we had imagined:
And more powerful than Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe when we visited there in 2018:
Yes. Yes there is.
Another flight – this time domestic – to Sao Paolo, home not only to the largest urban population in South America but also tons of pretty cool street art:
And Rosewood Sao Paolo:
Then, across the Andes again for the last time – to Peru’s Sacred Valley:
The 15th-century royal estate and later Inca citadel of Ollantaytambo:
Our first Incan walls:
The next day, a three-waterfall hike up a mountain, culminating in a visit to an even older Incan village site.
Then, after a train ride to Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu!
After acclimating, we headed back up to Cusco to actually stay there for a couple of days.
One of the many 14th- and 15th-century Inca palace walls, atop which monasteries, churches, or manors were built by the Spanish. The walls in Cusco were even more impressive than those Machu Picchu or Ollantaytambo.
Cusco’s main square and cathedral . . .
Inside of which is a uniquely Peruvian painting of the last supper:
The native artist included guinea pig (cuy) as the main dish and portrayed Francisco Pizarro as Judas on the lower right:
Last night in Cusco at Belmond’s hotel-built-on-a-Spanish-monastery-built-on-an-Inca-temple; another one of the best places we stayed.
We’ll post a lot more on all of these locations after we finally get around to the backlog of some prior trips.
After a little less than 2 months of recovery from a prolonged foray to Italy, Malta, France, and Portugal, we embarked on another journey in September, this time to the other side of the globe: we headed to Bora Bora in French Polynesia to celebrate our 25th anniversary.
Since we already were going to be traveling to the middle of the Pacific for just 7 days, we decided to travel a little further after to visit another remote country that had been on our list for 2 decades: New Zealand. We’d spend another 2.5 weeks road tripping there – first on the North Island, then, after a ferry ride across the Cook Strait, on the South Island.
Our travel locations / itinerary for this trip can be found in the interactive travel map below:
Upon arrival in French Polynesia, we spent the night and the next morning in Tahiti (home to the international airport), then made our way to our actual destination in the French Overseas Territory. Bora Bora’s great appeal and unique geographical / oceanographic situation: its turquoise-blue lagoon. The island consists of an extinct volcano in the middle, a coral atoll that encircles it, and a serene lagoon in between:
The lagoon is protected by the atoll from ocean waves, resulting in an ideal setting for overwater bungalows that otherwise would not survive in more challenging ocean environments. THIS is why we targeted Bora Bora for our milestone.
Turned out to be a pretty good setting for a 25th anniversary celebration. . .
Nice housing / diving platform:
The snorkeling in the lagoon turned out to be as memorable as the bungalow – we’ve never seen healthier, more vibrant coral ecosystems outside of Carricou, one of the Grenadian islands, exactly 25 years earlier.
And spinner dolphins – a whole pod of them at the break in the coral that’s the main point of ingress and egress to the lagoon from the sea (located at the 3:00 position on the island pic above).
Bora Bora also is home to manta rays, and we tried diligently to find them, circumnavigating the entire lagoon in our quest and diving where we were hoping they’d be:
But came up empty. All we found was a lousy eagle ray:
After 5 days, it was time to move on:
After another overnight in Tahiti, we proceeded on to New Zealand for the start of our north-to-south Kiwi road trip. We landed in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, in the north of the North Island. The place is home to a significant harbor complex and ample evidence of the country’s sailing prowess, as the first nation to take the America’s Cup away from us.
Across the harbor from Auckland in Devonport:
We then drove south, stopping on our first leg to hike the Waimangu volcanic valley, the youngest volcanically active site on earth:
While residing in our our base town of Taupo, in the center of the North Island, we headed northwest for a day to go blackwater rafting through the Waitomo cave complex, the highlight of which is an impressive density of glow worms on the cavern ceiling that you experience floating through, in the pitch black (after launching backward into the darkness over a small waterfall). To experience the thrill of blackwater rafting, however, one must accept the indignities of the mandatory getups.
Located directly above Taupo, we hiked Mount Tauhara, home to an inexplicable trench system in lieu of trails. Compression? Erosion? WWI reenactors? We still don’t know.
At the top, with a view of Lake Taupo:
And hiked west from town to the Huka Falls, fed by Lake Taupo:
Then drove south, to Wellington, stopping for a day hike on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing:
Wellington is home to Zealandia, a wildlife refuge for New Zealand’s native fauna and flora, including, and in particular, the Tuatara, the last remaining member of an otherwise long extinct order of reptiles. (Since one of us originally went to school to be a herpetologist, this may have been a close second to Bora Bora as the highlight of the trip.)
From Wellington, we crossed the Cook Strait to the South Island and New Zealand’s wine region: Marlborough. Despite the optimistic suggestion of the next morning’s rainbow, we biked the entire next day in the rain for a six-winery bike tour. The wine helped, but only a little.
And then on to the South Island coastal town of Kaikora, located near an undersea chasm that’s home to giant squid – and hence, sperm whales. But the rain had other plans, and the whale watching was cancelled for the entire day. We seal watched, since there was a colony in the area, but it really wasn’t the same thing.
From Kaikoura, we headed further south to Christchurch, stopping to hike along the Lewis Pass in New Zealand’s Southern Alps.
And then Christchurch, our final destination.
New Zealand’s towns, we’re sorry to say, are devoid of charm and pretty utilitarian. The only one that struck us as appealing was Christchurch, where the architecture was a mix of English charm and ultramodern, due to a massive rebuilding effort after a devastating series of earthquakes in 2011. One example is the Transitional Christchurch Cathedral – also called the Cardboard Cathedral, due to its cardboard tube construction (for virtually every element), befitting its temporary status simply until the real cathedral is rebuilt.
The River Avon, which winds through Christchurch like an eel, constituted one of the elements of town we found appealing:
After 3 nights in Christchurch, we headed home, through Auckland, and then Tahiti again (of course). But this time, we would alter the space / time continuum, and arrive in Tahiti the day before we left Auckland:
After limiting our travel each year for the past several decades to 1- and 2-week trips abroad due to work responsibilities, retirement by the second of the two travelers in 2023 eliminated this constraint. So, we kicked off WolfeStreetTravel’s 2023 journeys with one-way tickets to Italy with no plans to return.
The original vision for this prolonged foray to Europe assumed that we’d have an itinerary and lodging planned for the first week or two, then we’d wing it from there. However, this approach proved to be completely unbearable for the travel-planning arm of the consortium. As a result, our entire itinerary, including all destinations, transportation, and accommodations (and about a half a dozen dinners) were planned for the first 7 weeks of the trip.
We still had no return plans, maintaining fidelity to the spirit of the trip, but we definitely weren’t winging it, either.
The trip, which began on May 5, can be logically sequenced into the following legs:
Italian peninsula road trip (17 days)
Sardinian break (4 days, including overnight ferry to Palermo)
Sicily road trip (18 days)
Malta break (4 days)
Normandy bike trip (8 days, including a day before and after biking)
Portugal (8 days)
The color coding of each leg above aligns to the destinations depicted in the interactive map below:
In addition to the color coding, the map breaks down our travels using the following icons:
Bed = hotel stay
House = villa / Airbnb stay
Pin = day trip
Hiker = uh, a hike
Biker = a stage in our Normandy bike trip
We’ll file detailed posts on the trip later, but each of the legs is summarized in this post. We really have tried to keep this overview to a bare minimum, but it’ll still be the longest update we’ve ever posted – sorry!
Italian Peninsula Road Trip
The trip began in Tuscany, where we’d spend 5 days with the Brandts and KJQ in a beautiful area just northeast of Siena.
Overlooking the Val d’Orcia:
We hiked w KJQ one day to the Abbey of San Lorenzo a Coltibuono (and, about 5 miles later, to a harrowing shortcut escaped only through an opening KJQ dubbed The Gate to Salvation):
Tuscany wasn’t all sunshine and Brunello, though – it freaking poured in Montepulciano:
Gracie joined us for a portion of the stay, as well (and a team comprised of her and Madison cleaned up on two successive nights of Trivial Pursuit)
From Tuscany, we drove north, to Portofino on the Ligurian coast – a town that had been on Lisa’s wish list for several years. It did not disappoint.
We continued our hiking habit in Portofino, hiking one day to the Abbey of San Fruttuoso:
And the next along the coastline to Santa Margherita Ligure:
Portofino also was the jumping off point to scores and scores of Aperol spritzes consumed as aperitivos throughout the trip.
From the Ligurian coast, we drove south, back through Tuscany, and over the border to Umbria, and the medieval town of Orvietto for a stopover on our way to the Amalfi coast:
We continued south the next day, to Herculaneum. A smaller town than Pompeii, Herculaneum also was nonetheless lost due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, but it was covered in ash and pumice, rather than being flattened by rocky debris, preserving it much better, including numerous, intact, Roman snack bars:
After a quick overnight in Naples (in which our only goal was to score some iconic Neapolitan pizza), we headed to Capri for a couple of days, leaving the car in Sorrento:
Our stay on Capri was one of the highlights of the trip – we will definitely be back. View over Capri Town from our place:
Hikes each day, including to the ruins of Emperor Tiberius’ villa:
And a hike from Capri to Anacapri, followed by a hike up Monte Solaro because fog reduced visibility to zero for a ride up the cool little cable chairs:
But the weather cleared for a chair ride back down:
We ferried from Capri back to Sorrento, retrieved our car, and began the most harrowing aspect of our peninsular road trip: driving on the Amalfi coast. Seriously – really treacherous.
Luckily, relief was at hand in Praiano, our home for the next 3 days:
We headed a few miles down the road to Positano the next morning, only to retreat back to Praiano after a half a day there. A lot of travelers characterize Positano as the “Jewel in the Crown of the Amalfi Coast.” It’s not. Its a cruise ship packed full of tourists and shitty shops that happens be be tumbling down a cliff in a picturesque way.
We enjoyed Positano much more from a distance, content at our place in Praiano:
The next morning we hiked the Path of the Gods from Praiano to Positano:
Once the path paralleled the coastline, the going was a little technical, but not a big problem. The challenge to the 5-mile-long Path of the Gods hike was the >2000 feet of incline and decline, almost all of which is straight up from Praiano and then straight down 1700 steps into Positano.
Praiano also hosted the first of three Michelin-starred gastronomic dinners of the trip. Plus, a ridiculous perch over the Tyrrhenian Sea on the Amalfi Coast:
From the Amalfi Coast, we drove southeast for a couple of days in Matera, Italy’s oldest city:
Similar to our experience in Capadocica in Turkey, Matera sported tons of centuries-old troglodite homes, churches, and tombs:
And cave restaurants, too:
Our last night on the Italian peninsula:
The next morning, we surrendered our ride for the past 3 weeks (a dr, a brand none of us – not even KJQ – had heard of before), and flew to the island of Sardinia:
Sardinian Break
Between the end of one 3-week road trip, and the start of the next, we built into the itinerary a little down time on the the Costa Rei on the southeastern coast of Sardinia.
Not a lot to report – a few miles of walking each morning along the beach:
And some killer seafood, including and in particular, Sardinian oysters. (We thought these were the best we had every tasted until we later encountered even better ones in Normandy.)
Then an overnight ferry to Palermo, when we’d start another road trip leg across Sicily.
Sicily Road Trip
The surprisingly vibrant and enjoyable city of Palermo – very different from the gritty and sketchy image that we had prior to our time there:
And the first of many cool encounters with Arabo-Norman architecture in Sicily at the city’s 12-century Church of San Cataldo:
And our introduction to the ubiquity of pistachios on everything in Sicily:
And the most horrific of the catacombs of our entire journey below Palermo’s Capuchin Monastery:
And a cool, 3-hour street food tour, featuring a spleen sandwich (4/10: would not try again):
Our last evening in Palermo:
We drove from Palermo to the south-center of the island, to Agrigento, home to the most intact Doric Greek temples in the world, dating to 400 BC:
And spent a little time on the coast while we were there:
And continued the recommended daily doses of Aperol:
Final evening in Agrigento, with a view to the Temple of Juno and the sea:
From Agrigento, we headed due east to a cluster of Baroque towns, so called because they were all destroyed by an earthquake in 1796 and were all rebuilt in the Baroque style du jour. We based ourselves in the town of Modica for 6 days:
Which sported a pretty cool AirB&B that was built into a cliff:
The Baroque Church of San Giorgo in the nearby town of Ragusa Ibla:
The main piazza (such as it is) of the Baroque town of Scicli:
And the spectacularly picturesque Baroque town of Noto:
Modica also was just 20 minutes from the beach, so we started two of our mornings during our stay with some pretty great beach hikes along the Sicilian coast:
Second gastronomic experience on the trip at the tiny Michelin-starred hole in the wall of Accursio, featuring, among other things, Sicily’s orange wine (the color, not the fruit):
Modica’s Baroque Church of San Giorgio (same name as in Ragusa, same style, just different town) on our last night:
The ancient town / island of Syracuse served as our final stop in the south of Sicily – also another city we liked so much that we may return:
Sicily’s most captivating characteristic, at least to WolfeStreetTravel, must be the convergence and layers upon layers of different cultures that have dominated the island. We witnessed this with the mélange of Arab and Norman architectural styles in churches in Palermo and Monreal, for example. But nowhere was it more evident than Siracusa’s cathedral, which began as a Greek temple to Athena in 480 BC. In our travels, we’ve seen tons of churches build on top of pagan temples, replacing them. That was how they operated. Good site, but obliterate the offending structure. Not so in Siracusa. In the 6th century AD, the Byzantines just filled in the spaces between the Doric columns and incorporated the temple into their new church. Then the Normans added to it in the 11th century w crenellations reflective of their military-style churches. AND IT’S ALL STILL STANDING. You can see the ~2500-year-old Doric columns and capitals inside and outside the church (which was hosting a wedding while we were there, reinforcing how Sicilians simply live through their amazing history).
Another case in point, the Syracuse’s abandoned, 1st-century Roman amphitheater. . .
But just up a path lies the city’s even older, 5th-century BC Greek amphitheater, which is still in use today:
And, of course, we checked out the local catacombs:
Imbibing our daily recommeneded allowance of Aperol spritzes at one of the cooler little roadside cafes on Syracuse’s ancient Ortigia island old town:
And then north! To hike Sicily’s still-active Mount Etna. Twice.
The first day’s hike, from the caldera’s southern approach was okay, but not particularly thrilling. The next day, we hiked up from the eastern approach. Holy shit – absolutely stunning. First, a legit old lava tube:
And then, at the top, along the rim of the old caldera, a view of the still active peak, plus smoky evidence in the old caldera of still active volcanic evolution:
And finally, to the northeast(ish) of Sicily, and the now hyperpopular town of Taormina, setting for White Lotus Season 2 (although we didn’t know this when we planned the trip).
We challenge anyone to locate a more stunning, atmospheric setting for a classical theater than the one in Taormina. It began as a 3rd-century-BC Greek theater, then 1st-century-BC Roman theater, then 2nd-century-AD Roman theater, then 18th- 19th- and 20th-century restorations. Pretty freaking cool. And, like Syracuse’s Greek theater, still in use today.
Our digs for 5 days, perched above IsolaBella. Wins the prize for best AirB&B pool on the trip.
Last night in Taormina:
The next day, we flew from Sicily to Malta, dropping off our trusty Citroen C3 – the second time we’ve had one of these for a European road trip. It looks like a sneaker with the unnecessary side effects, but this car grows on you!
Malta Break
And then, Malta! Country no. 71 for WolfeStreetTravel.
Downtown Valletta, the tiny country’s capital, with its unique wooden balcony boxes (gallarija):
And on the heels of the best AirB&B pool in Taormina, the best hotel pool at our digs in Sanglea built into an old fortress and overlooking Malta’s Grand Harbour:
A side trip to Mdina, Malta’s golden limestone old capital:
Last night in Malta along the harbor:
To avoid potential flight issues to reach our next destination in Normandy, where we had a hard start, we flew to France a day early, and stopped over in Chantilly, home to Chateau de Chantilly. No delay, but good call – cool place.
Normandy Biking
The next leg of the our extended foray to Europe entailed our latest biking trip – this time with Thomas and Lisa, in celebration of their wedding (albeit delayed for 2 years).
The five stages of the bike trip spanned two invasions. The first in 1066, by William the Conqueror conquering England from Normandy, as depicted in the 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry, as seen in Bayeux, our starting town:
The next almost a thousand years later, this time and invasion of Normandy in 1944. On our first day we visited three bunkers in a German battery on Gold Beach:
And on the same ride, the first of our dozens and dozens of dozen oysters ordered in Normandy:
Invasion overview at the American Cemetary at Omaha Beach:
And a night in a 13th- and 14th-century chateau, which may have been the most surreal night of our entire travelling lives. There’s an entire story about this insane evening, but we’ll deal with that in a separate post.
The conclusion of our biking journey at Mont Saint Michel. Originating in 708, the site has attracted pilgrims who still trek across the sandy estuary at low tide for more than 1300 years, staved off an entire English army during the 100 Years War with a garrison of just 100 Norman knights, and is claimed to this day by both Normandy and Brittany.
Then, a day in Paris:
Of all of the legs of the trip, only Portugal was unplanned. We knew while in Malta that we didn’t want to go home after biking, and considered either grabbing a car after Thomas and Lisa departed Paris and then driving south to the Dordogne region for a week or two or flying to Portugal at the same time as their return flight. We’re going to save Dordogne for another bike trip, and so we decided to head to Portugal. Still without having a set itinerary there or a return flight home, though!
Portugal
We decided to first spend 4 days in Porto, in northern Portugal. This turned out to be the absolute best location of the entire trip. We’ll be back to spend a month or two here in the future.
Porto’s medieval Ribeira District and south Porto astride the Duoro River:
Everything in Porto is clad in tile:
And, after 7 weeks of Aperol spritzes:
Local port and tonics suddenly dominated the scene:
And an afternoon of port tastings:
Then, a train south, to Lisbon, the first European destination we had ever visited, back in 2002:
With some monumental areas:
And some more sketchy areas:
And a day trip to Sintra, home to the Pena Palace:
And a final gastronomic meal:
Final night in Lisbon before finally flying home, accompanied by July’s Blood Moon:
All told, we traveled for 2 months, experienced 4 countries, 41 towns, stayed in 19 hotels, 5 AirB&Bs/villas, and traveled by trains, planes, and automobiles (and ferries, trams, tuk tuks, and bikes). Amazing trip!
We’re finally posting on the locations from our first, epic, post-retirement trip, which entailed, as noted above, a prolonged foray to Europe that ultimately spanned more than 2 months. As noted in the trip overview, this trip entailed multiple segments – in the Italian peninsula, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Normandy, and Portugal. Pretty great experience that commenced shortly after the second WolfeStreetTraveler retired, where we bought one-way tickets and could explore locations without having to solve crises at work or worrying about getting home in time for an important meeting. Very liberating change of pace.
Sunrise over Italy’s west coast as we head into Rome.
Tuscany served as our kickoff location for the trip. This would be our third time in the region, which really is quite awesome. The first took place in 2004, when we biked through the area. We then returned in 2021 for a road trip through Cinque Terre and Tuscany. And now, just 2 years later, we found ourselves here again. Although we knew we wanted to start our inaugural, post-retirement trip in Italy, we could have launched our journey anywhere on the peninsula.
But the Brandts (and KJQ) coincidentally were heading to Tuscany at the same time we were heading to Italy, so the timing was perfect to hang with them as the start of our trip. We would spend the first 5 days here, before heading north (and then immediately south, but that’s the story of the next post).
Another sunrise the first day in Italy from the terrace at our guest house on the estate of Castello Brandt.
First stop: Pienza. “It is first mentioned in documents from the 9th century. Around 1300 parts of the village became property of the Piccolomini family after Enghelberto d’Ugo Piccolomini had received the fief of Montertari in Val d’Orcia from the emperor Frederick II in 1220.“
We were delighted to visit, inasmuch this was a well-regarded Tuscan hill town that we had yet to experience during or previous two Tuscan tours.
The remarkably monochromatic and stately Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta (Pienza’s cathedral):
The cathedral was commissioned by Pope Pius II (a member of the Piccolomini family who was born in Pienza) and consecrated in 1642; the piazzetta in front is named for the pope.
“Pienza Cathedral prominently features the Piccolomini coat of arms (a crescent moon with stars, representing Pope Pius II’s family) on its facade and a gothic window behind the altar, often combined with the Vatican keys and tiara, symbolizing papal authority and the Pope’s power over heaven and earth, linking the church to the Holy See. These symbols, especially the crossed keys (gold for heaven, silver for earth), are central to the cathedral’s design, reflecting Pius II’s vision for his ideal Renaissance city.
Key Elements:
Piccolomini Arms: The distinctive crescent moon and stars are the family emblem of Pope Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini), who commissioned the cathedral.
Keys of St. Peter: Two crossed keys, one gold (heaven) and one silver (earth), signify the Pope’s spiritual authority, as seen on the well in Palazzo Piccolomini and potentially in the cathedral’s decoration.
Papal Tiara: The three-tiered crown (tiara) often accompanies the keys, representing the Pope’s threefold power (teacher, judge, ruler).”
Pienza certainly ranks up there in charm, but it’s super tiny. Based on the strong recommendation we received from our safari travel friends that this was their favorite Tuscan town, we thought it would be just as charming as it turned out to be, but more substantial.
KJQ selfie hijinks:
Pienza’s bell tower, which was silenced the year we visited due to complaints by tourists in nearby hotels. Which pissed off the locals who consider the bells to be part of the town’s character (kind of like us when Appomattox was removed from the intersection of Washington and Prince in 2020. . .). Smithsonian magazine featured an article on the row titled, “This Italian Town Silenced a Historic Bell That Kept Tourists Awake. Now, Locals Can’t Sleep.” Indeed.
Dunno – some cloister somewhere? This was 2.5 years ago, so we don’t remember everything. But it was picturesque and atmospheric nonetheless.
Pretty cool portal from Pienza to the Val d’Orcia below:
Another pathway to the Val d’Orcia:
And there it is:
Pretty quintessentially Tuscan, as it happens:
Pretty awesome lunch at Ristorante la Terrazza della Val d’Orcia:
Heading out of Pienza, through its city walls:
Next field trip: Tenuta Valdipiatta for some fine brunellos (albeit in the rain – but this gets way worse):
A brief respite on a belvedere over the vineyards:
The wine tasting clearly elicited different emotions from the tasters:
Next day: a decent hike near Gaiole in Chianti.
Starting with a stroll around the 1000-year-old Badia Coltibuono Abbey:
Including the gardens that we were not supposed to be in, and from which we were brusquely ushered out (still worth it!):
The hike continues through countryside. . .
And the village of Montegrossi, founded in 500 – 600:
Small but mighty (and mighty old):
And a cool winery that we stalked through, seeking KJQ’s gate to salvation to cut a leg off the hike and get to town to grab a well-deserved lunch:
The gate!
Key component of a post-hike lunch:
And the first of two nights of epic Trivial Pursuit competitions at Castello Brandt:
The winners of the first night:
Here’s the much worse rain – torrents during our visit to Montepulciano, which we had visited back in 2005 during our bike trip in Tuscany:
Wet but happy(ish):
On the way back, a quick stop (for a few of us) at the monastery Badia a Monastero, founded in 867 (beating the longevity of the monastery visited during our hike):
A final hike starting at Borgo Castelvecci (similar in structure to the borgo we stayed at during our last visit to Tuscany in 2021 – an ancient village converted into a hotel campus):
And then a stroll around the nearby hamlet of Valpaia, followed by a final Tuscan lunch before heading out the next morning.
The Brandt villa:
Pretty good digs:
And the cocktail that would dominate all of our European travels henceforth, but that one of the WolfeStreetTravelers would not imbibe, initially decreeing it too girly, and sticking to red wine. That point of view would change rather dramatically as the trip progressed. . .
Final evening in Tuscany:
And a final game of Trivial pursuit, where Team MadiGrace won once again:
Morning of departure at the guest house:
You can take the herpetologist out of the country but not the herp out of the herpetologist.
Gracie would be moving on, too – first to Venice, then to Valencia to stay with her cousin Quinn, who was in his second Spanish semester of mechanical engineering.
The Cyprus-tree lined lane departing the villa’s area on our departure:
After intentionally foregoing Europe at Christmas for the last 4 years, a few factors drove us back this year: nostalgia for winter weather in the season, a truly authentic Christmas experience, and the paucity of other options with availability and reasonable travel costs. One day we’ll get to Namibia or Peru for Christmas, but not this year.
We initially targeted all three of the Baltic states for this year’s trip: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania:
Northern Europe to meet the winter climate criteria
Great Christmas tradition (Tallinn holds the distinction of hosting the Europe’s first public Christmas tree in 1441)
Have not visited any of them before (they would put WolfeStreetTravel’s country count over 70)
However, WolfeStreetTravel flight criteria and the need to keep the trip limited in length due to work resulted in the following refinements:
Lop Lithuania off the itinerary (maybe we’ll get back there when we can also visit adjoining Belarus; we certainly can’t go there now, with Putin stooge and corrupt autocrat Lukashenko in charge)
Bookend our stay in the Baltic states with some time in another country with direct flight in and out of Europe
The UNESCO World Heritage site of Old Town Tallinn, Estonia, from atop the castle hill of Toompea:
Riga, Latvia, from the spire of St. Peter’s Lutheran Cathedral in the center of town:
Regarding the direct flight bookend, we found a perfect candidate in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. United offered direct flights there from IAD, and BalticAir offered direct flights to Estonia and Latvia from Schiphol. Plus, we’d add a few days in Haarlem on the front end and a few days in Amsterdam on the back end to break up the flying time.
Haarlem decked out for Christmas:
The canals of Amsterdam during our stay:
In the middle, we’d fly direct:
From Amsterdam to Tallinn, Estonia, then
From Tallin to Riga, Latvia, then
From Riga back to Amsterdam
Between the direct flights to and from Europe and the direct flights to, within, and from the Baltics, we planned this perfectly to minimize the impacts of inevitable flight delays. Nothing could go wrong now, with no connecting flights that could be impacted by delays on the initial leg – the bane of any traveler’s existence.
Then, more than a month after we bought our tickets, United saw fit to eliminate the direct flight from IAD to Amsterdam, screwing things up and requiring some rework and now unavoidable two-leg flights in and out of Europe. Not a disaster by any means, but it just meant more risks.
Which, of course, did materialize into actual problems, although none too bad, in the great scheme of things: our connecting flight on the way in got cancelled when we were in the air, and the connecting flight on the way back resulted in total travel time almost twice as long as the time the original direct flight would have taken. But, we weren’t impacted by domestic air travel calamity wrought by the massive Christmas snowstorm, and got back on time on December 28, so we consider ourselves relatively lucky.
After arriving (late) at Schiphol, we beelined it to Haarlem, where we stayed for the next 3 days (including watching the World Cup Final, where we were cheering on Argentina and the Dutch were rooting for France simply because Argentina beat them in the Semis, which was fun).
Haarlem’s Christmas lights throughout the city were the profile of the town’s landmark cathedral:
The functioning Molen de Adriaan windmill right in the heart of town, which we toured while there. Super cool.
From Haarlem, we flew northwest to Tallinn, Estonia, which was still initially blanketed by snow, which is exactly what we were hoping for.
Heading into the town square, dominated by Tallinn’s 15th-century town hall and host to the town’s Christmas Market.
St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on Toompea in Tallinn, a vestige of the Russian Empire’s role in Estonia’s history (and also, we got some good snow!):
Tallinn was mostly undamaged during WW II, and its medieval walls and defensive towers are still intact:
Dining highlight during our stay at the Chef’s Table of 180 Degrees Restaurant, which lasted 4.5 hours. This was about an hour and a half longer than it needed to be.
Due to Tallinn’s latitude, the sun set at 3:20 during our stay, resulting in lots of surreal, perpetual twilight afternoons in town:
After 3 days in Tallinn, we headed a little south, to Riga, Latvia – country # 70 for WolfeStreetTravel:
23 degree weather on Christmas Eve!
Riga’s Christmas Market was actually better than Tallinn’s.
And boasted multiple stalls across the market hawking mulled gin, which was a new one to us. It was fine, but we prefer traditional gluhwein (they had that too).
Riga still maintained some of their town’s fortifications, as well.
And was also home to Europe’s greatest concentration of Art Nouveau architecture, since Riga’s prosperity peaked at the same time as this arts and architecture movement at the turn of the century, and Riga wasn’t bombed into oblivion during WW II, preserving the buildings in this district.
Christmas night dinner at 3 pavāru restorāns in Riga, which bested the much fancier 180 Degrees a few days earlier in Tallinn.
After a couple of days in Haarlem, we headed to the first of our actual Baltic destinations: Estonia and its capital city of Tallinn. We were hoping for snow, and we got some! (Initially, anyway.)
Tallinn’s main square and Christmas Market on our first evening – perfect!
But the next day (and throughout our stay), the snow on many of the streets and squares turned a little slushy.
Definitely more of a winter, Christmas atmosphere than Alexandria, but still. . .
Tallin’s settlement dates back thousands of years but the first fortress appeared around 1050 AD, demonstrating the importance of the town to the north Estonia region.
As a trading town on the Baltic coast, the town (then known as Reval) became a member of the Hanseatic League in 1285. We previously visited the Hanseatic towns of Lübeck and Hamburg in Germany and Bergen, Norway. (Riga, Latvia, another Hanseatic town, would be our next stop on this trip. Apparently, Berlin, Cologne, and Krakow also were Hanseatic towns due to the river system, but we have decided to ignore this because they’re not on the Baltic coast.)
Snow still covered some streets – very cool medieval town.
Tallinn Old Town is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The spire of Tallinn’s Town Hall:
The town hall was first mentioned in 1322,
but the structure actually dates back to the 1200s.
It’s the oldest surviving town hall in Europe.
At the top of the spire stands Old Thomas, first placed there in 1530.
The figure memorializes a peasant who became famous for winning a crossbow competition held by the Baltic German Elite.
The tower – and Old Thomas – was damaged in 1944 during a bomb attack during the war. A new Old Thomas went up with the repaired tower in 1952, but it was weathering too much, and the Estonians put another one up there in 1996. The 1952 Old Thomas hangs out in the Tallinn City Museum. Nice codpiece.
Viru Gate – one of the original eight gates in Tallinn’s city walls.
The first wall around Tallinn was ordered to be constructed by Queen Margaret of Denmark in 1265 (Denmark controlled northern Estonia from the early 13th century until 1346, when the Danish king sold it to the Teutonic Knights).
Fully taking shape during the next three centuries, Tallinn’s city wall was one of the strongest defense systems in Northern Europe at the time.
Plus, there are chunks that are still intact and walkable (that’s Tower behind Monks in the background)
Not a lot of snow, but Tallinn proved to be pretty atmospherically wintery, nonetheless:
Located across town, we found Tallinn’s Great Coastal Gate, first mentioned in 1359:
The Great Coastal Gate was the most important gate when Tallinn was a Hanseatic town because it protected the main route for traffic between the port and the market square.
Above the gate stands an impressive dolomite carving bearing Tallinn’s coat of arms (from 1529):
Protecting the Great Coastal Gate? FAT MARGARET! Dating from the early 16th century, Fat Margaret not only served as a fortification against invaders of the town’s port but also a military monstrosity to impress visitors arriving by sea.
Michelin 2* dining experience at 180 Degrees:
Pretty good perch at the Chef’s Table
where we could watch all the cooking and prep work for multiple courses.
Heading up the next morning to Toompea, Tallinn’s central hill district, which is home to. . .
Estonia’s Parliament, the Riigikogu:
And also the Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, built in the late 19th century:
Crests for local noble families along one wall:
Because the church was built when Estonia was part of the former Russian Empire, and because it represents Russian Orthodoxy, and because the Estonians are outraged by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, there’s a movement in Tallinn to raze it and replace it with a park.
Back through the walls:
To yet another stretch of Tallinn’s extant city wall. Here, we have Kiek in de Kok (“Peek into the Kitchen”) on the left, an artillery tower so named because the garrison could see into the kitchens of the nearby houses; and Maiden’s Tower on the right.
And a creepy, faceless monk statue perched on one segment of the wall. This is one of three faceless monks in this area; this one is “Observing Monk.”
More city wall-and-towers action:
Loewenschede Tower:
Enough with the tower names; here’s a buttload of towers. Definitely a cool, preserved medieval town.
Heading to dinner one night; one cannot escape the walls, man.
Rataskaevu Street, where the novels featuring Melchior, the 15th-century Tallinn apothecary / amateur sleuth are set (or at least where his apothecary is located). The first book – pretty good! The second – should have been tossed down that well.
Featured in the Apothecary Melchior novels are Tallinn’s medieval guilds. The Great Guild hall, dating from the very early 15th century is right off the main square. It was used as the headquarters of various merchant and artisan guilds until as recent as 1920.
Aaand, the House of the Brotherhood of Black Heads. Also featured in the Melchior novels.
Described as a social club for single merchants and other tradesmen in the Melchior books, it “was a professional association of ship owners, merchants, and foreigners dating from the 14th century.“
“The House of the Blackheads was visited by several Russian Emperors including Peter I, Paul I and Alexander I who also became honorable members the Brotherhood.“
Just some Art Nouveau architecture down the street, which was pretty cool. (But NOTHING like we’d see later in Riga.)
Toompea at night.
Tallinn’s Victory Column on Freedom Square, commemorating the Estonian War of Independence at the end of WW I.
More winter scenes from Toompea’s stretch of wall.
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