Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Italian Adventures
Review: This is truly a great book. It adds a new dimension to your holiday without turning it into a full on trecking trip. We completed the walks within the time specified and found the directions to be more than adequate. We used the book in 1997 and 1999 and are planning to use it again in 2001. I hope there's a new edition out by then. Enjoy!!

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Italian Adventures
Review: This is truly a great book. It adds a new dimension to your holiday without turning it into a full on trecking trip. We completed the walks within the time specified and found the directions to be more than adequate. We used the book in 1997 and 1999 and are planning to use it again in 2001. I hope there's a new edition out by then. Enjoy!!

Rating:
Summary: We found this book delightful, a real benefit to our trip.
Review: We found this book delightful, and a real benefit during our first visit to Italy in May of this year. We have holidayed extensively in many parts of France over the years and were looking for some assistance in our first attempt to discover the gems of Italy. Early in our holiday we ate (twice) at the Le Cave de Maiano and really enjoyed it. We also followed one of the walks from Fiesole. We stayed at one of the "agriturismo" recommendations in the book ("La Gavina") for two nights and found it exceptional. The proprietors were very friendly and welcoming. Their house is beautiful and it was really nice to stay on a working farm which produces its own meats, cheeses, vegetables, olive oil, and wine. The evening meal was truly excellent and as good as the best restaurants we ate in. The company was international and great fun. We would recommend this opportunity - and this book - to all future travellers.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful walk but the milage given had to be incorrect.
Review: We just returned from a trip to Tuscany and Umbria where we took one of the walks, actually we took 1/2 of one of the walks. We planned to walk from Montepulcina to Pienza stopping at Montechelli for lunch. The book said it was 3 1/2 miles to Montechelli and another 3 1/2 miles to Pienza. It took us 4 hours to walk to Montechell. The walk was beautiful and the directions exact. There were four of us all in good shape but the walk was more exhausting than we expected, given the discription in the book. We knew we could not continue on to Pienza. Montechelli is tiny pristine town without public transportation, but with wonderful people, one of whom gave us a ride back to Montepulcina. I would recomend this book for anyone interested in walking in the area but my experience is to double the amount of time they expect the walks to take .

Rating:
Summary: Don't forget Umbria!
Review: We used this book for a trip to Umbria with our children ages 9 and 12 this September and thought it was great, both for the walking and the eating. We have been to Tuscany several times and wanted to branch out to Umbria on this last trip, and can only say we wish we had done so sooner. We stayed in the lovely town of Norcia, and did the "san Eutizio" walk: an amazing adventure with children! Norcia was an easy place to be with kids, the hotel recommended in the book was extremely friendly, the town had such a safe feeling and enough of interest (particularly the gelato bar) to the kids to keep them busy. The walk - one of the longer ones in the book - was an ambitious one for kids, but gave them an exceptional feeling of accomplishment at the end, and they loved the beautiful abbey at San Eutizio, especially enjoyable on our visit because as we ate dinner at the tiny restaurant next door (the only building in the immediate environs) there was a wedding going on, which spilled into the outdoors. While my husband and I lingered over our "vino," the kids went inside the abbey and mingled with the wedding party stragglers, a few of whom - along with our kids of course - crawled through an ancient tunnel behind the altar, an action that is supposed to cure all ills.
We also went up to Castelluccio, the mountain village about 15 miles from Norcia, which was stunningly beautiful, remote, and virtually deserted. There is a small restaurant there which was fabulous, and the sunset behind the austere Sibillini mountains was a stunning backdrop to our outdoor meal. Next time we would plan to stay in this tiny village overnight.
Note: we had the 2005 edition, and the friend who recommended this book says the san eutizio walk wasn't in the original.