Siena, Tuscany - Wine, pasta, and everything Italian - 20th September 2026
Buongiorno Bella's from Siena,
The road north from Albinia - apart from much, much roadwork - was pretty good. About 45 minutes in, we started to rise, and the highway started going through a mountain range. After some back roads, we noticed that the scenery was very green with lots of hilly paddocks, olive groves, vineyards, Cyprus pines and grey and orange villas… Yep, we were in Toscana. (Tuscany)
We’d been to this region 11 years ago, and we still had fond memories of the wine, food, countryside and villages, and we were looking forward to a few good days.
The caravan park was pretty steep and windy, but Jen managed to get Delph in the pitch and with chocks and some concrete blocks lying around, we almost got her level.
The caravan park was huge. It had a restaurant, bar and mini-market, 25m swimming pool and a second pool bar. Awesome.
Big storms were forecast for the night, so we didn’t set up the chairs or awning. The heat was slightly less, and we were pretty comfortable - if on a slight lean. The storms didn’t arrive that night but were postponed to the following afternoon.
Nek morning, we caught the local bus into the centre of the town - 2 euros and 10 minutes was all it took - and walked around the cool brick and cobblestoned streets. We did some window shopping, grabbed a coffee from a Palestinian dude who asked us our nationality; Aussies were cool and allowed to buy coffee in his shop, but Americans and Israelis were banned. Fair enough.
Anyway, at 12.30 we lobbed up to a cooking school to do a pasta making course. How very bloody Italian. Merda!!
Along with about 20 other people, we were placed along 2 long tables and over the next hour we were taught to make three types of pasta: Spinach and ricotta ravioli, potato and parsley tortellini and tagliatelle - that was to be served with a Tuscan ragu.
But before all of that, we soaked ladyfinger biscuits in coffee, and the chef taught us the authentico way to mix the ingredients for tiramisu (or tiramazoo as it has come to be known in certain circles)
My assessment of the day: it was a lot of fun, even with the silly bloody chef hats and the plastic aprons. Jen-Jen made a good video of the fun we had.
After this, we all adjourned to a local bar where our pasta was cooked and sauced up before we attacked a glass of prosecco and jugs of delicious house chianti.
What a lunch!
We chatted with our fellow chefs and ate and drank like lords!! And the clincher - delicious tiramazoo!! Check it.
We got out of the bar just as the heavens opened and the city was drenched for the rest of the day. We made it home to the caravan park and called into the mini-market to get some supplies. I noticed that for 3 Euros you could buy a litre glass bottle with a stopper, and for 5 Euros you could use the DIY wine tap to fill your bottle with “fresh from the farm” Chianti. We made it back to Delph, poured a vino and sat in bliss as the heat dissipated and the cooling rain quenched the earth. Ahhh.
We did some laps in the pool the next morning before the storm came back and limited our travels into town. We meant to check out more of Siena, but weather and time beat us on this occasion.
Not to worry, as we had a cracker of a day planned for the next day. An organised bus trip through the Tuscan countryside to visit three towns and have a food and wine tasting experience.
Righto.
First though, the alarm wasn’t set, and we just made the bus into town and boarded the coach. Marta was our guide, and she did the tour in Italian, English and Spanish. No mean feat, and she was excellent - as was our driver Antonio.
There were 30 of us on the coach - including a handful of Aussies - and we set off for the beautiful town of Montepulciano. We trekked up the many steep stairs to this hilltop main square and were greeted by a cellist playing in the square. Also, this square was used in Twilight: New Moon as the home of the Volturi. To add more coolness to this square, a Porsche club rocked up and put on a shine-and-show in front of us…Nice first stop. We walked around for a bit before Marta took us to an ancient winery called Cantina Gattevecchi.
We checked out the barrel room as we got info about the joint - how it had been going since Napoleon invaded and the Etruscans - the tribe who are the namesake of the region - used it as a monastery. She even showed us an Etruscan tomb below ground.
After this, we were shown to the dining room for lunch. We got a platter of antipasto - fennel salami, prosciutto, pecorino cheese, bread and prune marmalade, and this was accompanied by a Rosso wine. Very bloody good!
The next course, however, was even better.
We tried the Nobile wine (for the nobles), and this was accompanied by a thick spaghetti and minced ragu. Spot on. Espressos were then bought out for us all before we headed back to the bus.
The espresso kept everyone awake, and we stopped for a quick photo shoot at our next film location of the day - The homestead of Maximus in Gladiator - complete with twin rows of Cyprus pines. Molto Bella.
Speaking of Cyprus pines, Marta told us that they were imported from Cyprus during the Roman occupation of the area and are used for border planting and for cemetery planting. The reason is that they are poisonous. The fruits are poisonous to both animals and humans, so they are a good deterrent both physically and metaphorically. If you enter here without permission, you may die. Fair enough.
We then had a quick stop in a town called Pienze. Zeffirelli filmed a few scenes of Romeo and Juliet here in the day, and there was a wedding at the main cathedral. So cool. A quick coffee and we were back on the bus to the other steep, mountainous town: Montalcino.
We walked around for a bit before we were taken to the Pedeletti winery to try the wine jewel in the Tuscan crown: Brunello.
Pedeletti Winery had been making Brunello here for 27 generations, and they obtained the DOC and DOCG label. We sat around and tried a Rosso and a Brunello, and for 10 Euros each we were allowed to try the Brunello Reserve. We tried all three and decided that we liked the 2020 Brunello best, so we bought two bottles at the special vineyard price of 35 euros a bottle. Sweet. - Literally and metaphorically.
The owner also told us the story of the region and her family history, and it was pretty moving if I’m being honest…Or I might have just been gagging to taste more wine…meh.
That’s it.
We didn’t see much of the town of Siena, but we’d checked it out in 2025, so it wasn’t new to us.
We did make great pasta, see beautiful landscapes, walk through ancient cobblestoned streets, and drink some of the best wine in the world, while the heat dome started to cool down.
All in all, I’d say we had a great time. Check out some pics.
See you in Lucca,
Ciao.
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