34 Italy Is My Favorite Country

"This afternoon, we'll be going to the small town of Pitigliano to shop for groceries, as well as have a look. We'll be going to Rome tomorrow, Firenze the next day, and we can go to Sienna on the last day," Ludwina spread the map on the table and pointed to several locations.

"Okay." Andrea agreed with whatever the girl suggested. He loved the fact that Ludwina knew Italy like the back of her hand.

As they got out to the car, they saw a German couple in the apartment next door sitting, playing cards on their terraces while enjoying their wine. Both of them were probably in their 70s and looked very relaxed.

All the way from Rome's airport to here, Ludwina and Andrea saw numerous camper vans containing retired couples who were on vacation like they were, which amazed Andrea, since it was rare for him to see elderly people in Asia going on vacation together like that.

"Hello, how are you? We're guests in the apartment next door. I'm Ludwina, and this is Andrea." Ludwina greeted the couple with a broad smile. "We'll be staying for three nights. Any recommendations on which places we should visit around here?"

"Hello, we're well, Ludwina. I'm Beth, and this is Hans, my husband. Where are you from?" Beth asked equally amiably. She lifted her wine bottle and signaled to inquire whether Andrea and Ludwina would like to drink with them, but both of young people politely refused.

"We're from Singapore, but we're Indonesians."

"Aha... We've been to Bali several times. Beautiful place. But Jakarta, not so much. It's too jammed." Beth and Hans looked at each other and laughed." We're from Germany. Every year, we go on vacation here for two weeks. Hans drove 16 hours to get here, this is our favorite place."

"Ah yes, it's truly a beautiful place." Ludwina agreed. "I love the vineyard. The vineyard is beautiful, the olive groves too. From here, we can also see the valley down there... The sunset will surely look amazing."

"That's right. Our favorite things to do here are swimming in the hot weather and watching the sunset every evening in the valley below while chatting and drinking wine." Beth nodded in confirmation. "If you want to shop for food, you can go to town, it's only 10 minutes from here. There's a Coop supermarket there. It' has everything you need. Just use Google Maps, you'll surely find it. There are lots of small restaurants throughout the tourist area, you can eat there or just cook in the apartment. "

"All right. Thank you very much. Enjoy your game."

Andrea and Ludwina took their rental car to the small town of Pitigliano, which was about 3 km away from their apartment. As they passed the hill and saw the town in front of them, both of them held their breath in amazement. The small town looked like a collection of towers carved into a rock cliff. It was very spectacular.

Previously, Andrea had read that this town was founded by humans from the extinct ancient Etruscan civilization and indeed had a lot of old buildings carved on the rock and underground, but he didn't expect that the real thing would be much more beautiful than he had imagined.

The roads in Pitigliano were very small, but fortunately, there were very few cars passing. In the old town center, which was a tourist area, the roads weren't even accessible by normal cars, only accessible by scooters or small Piaggio cars, which looked like three-wheeled tuk-tuks.

In the new part of the town, they saw slightly more modern buildings and various shops, post offices, and restaurants.

"Let's go shopping for food first, and then, we have dinner at a restaurant in the old town. So, we can look around at the same time," suggested Ludwina. Andrea agreed.

They parked at the Coop supermarket and started shopping.

"Oh my God... look at the prices of the wine..." whispered Andrea to Ludwina as they reached the back alley. On a large shelf filled with bottles of wine, they saw all kinds of Italian wines from 500 ml to 5 liters with prices ranging from one to nine euros only. "Why are the prices of wine here cheaper than the prices of bottled water?"

Ludwina laughed. Indeed, the cheapest bottled mineral water on the next shelf was priced at two euros, which was around two dollars and forty cents. Meanwhile, one liter of red wine was labeled only one euro, or around a dollar and twenty cents.

"Wine is indeed cheap here because this area is a wine-producing area. If we have our vacation in Bordeaux, France, the wine will also be cheap..." Ludwina took several bottles and put them in the trolley. "Three bottles should be enough for three days... We'll buy a bottle of local wine and two bottles of slightly more expensive wine."

"If we eat out tonight, it'd be best not to buy too much food. Bread, eggs, and fruits should be enough for breakfast tomorrow." Andrea picked up the things he mentioned, "Tomorrow, if we're not yet tired from Rome, we'll shop for fresh groceries, I can cook."

Ludwina admired Andrea even more.

The young man can cook! What a dream husband, she thought to herself.

Ludwina herself couldn't cook, but she knew how to appreciate good food. She couldn't wait to taste Andrea's cooking.

Hopefully, their trip to Rome tomorrow won't be too tiring.

After they finished shopping, the two stopped at the old town center. The car was parked in a small square near the post office and the two of them walked into the old town, which at first glance looked completely made of stone. The streets of the old town were smaller and narrower as the numerous restaurants opened their tables in front of it, right on the sides of the road, but it made the quaint little town atmosphere look festive.

They chose a restaurant with empty tables with the best position, facing the street and the view. Based on Ludwina's experience, every restaurant in Italy had good food, so they didn't have to look for a restaurant which was crowded with visitors.

"In other countries, we can only judge whether a restaurant is good or not from the crowds of guests there, but in Italy, ALL RESTAURANTS - be them big or small, fancy star-rated or stalls run by grandmas, are guaranteed to have good food. So we just have to choose the table with the best view."

Ludwina was always right. Andrea had never had Italian food that good before. Whatever they ordered came in huge servings and tasted amazingly good. He was also surprised to see the cheap prices. When compared to Amsterdam or Paris, the food prices at the restaurants here were less than half, but the taste was many times better.

"Italy is amazing," Andrea said over and over again. He couldn't help but chuckle all day long.

He loved the view, from the airport to this small town. The food was also really good, and most of all, the Italian people were very friendly and talkative. The restaurant owner stopped by their table and chatted for nearly 10 minutes after they finished eating.

"Italy is indeed amazing. Wait until you see the capital city," said Ludwina afterward. "Rome was the capital city of the Roman empire that ruled the world centuries ago. The remains of the great Roman civilization can still be seen in the form of various ancient buildings and statues throughout the city of Rome."

"Sounds amazing! I can't wait!"

They arrived at the apartment just as the sun was almost setting. In summer, the sun sets quite late in the evening, even until 10 pm. Andrea was still not used to having dinner before watching the sun disappear.

They sat on the terrace of their apartment while each enjoying a glass of local wine and watched the sun slowly disappear in the far west. It was very beautiful.

The next morning, they enjoyed a simple breakfast of toast and eggs, as well as coffee, and left for Rome.

Ludwina volunteered to drive because she knew that the traffic situation in Rome was chaotic. She didn't want them to get a ticket because Andrea got into the wrong lane or couldn't find the parking area. She had been to Rome several times and was quite familiar with the area.

The car was parked in a public underground parking lot, and the two of them immediately got off to get on the bus and tour Rome.

Because they only had one day in Rome, they decided to take a hop-on-hop-off bus, or the tour bus that would take them to various tourist points in Rome. The ticket price was twenty euros, which was around twenty-four dollars, and it was valid for a day. They could go down and up at any point as much as they like until sunset.

They sat on the rooftop bus seats and Ludwina happily shared about the places they passed by, so Andrea didn't have to listen to the boring audio of the bus.

Ludwina had memorized the important places in Rome, and had she come alone, she wouldn't have given the Colosseum and various other ancient structures a second glance. However, because Andrea was so amazed by the historical places they passed by, his fascination became contagious and she felt like seeing those places for the first time.

They got off at several tourist spots, walked around hand in hand so Ludwina wouldn't get separated from Andrea in the middle of the sea of ​​tourists, and had lunch at a downtown restaurant.

In the center of Rome was the small Vatican state led by the Pope and had city guards dressed in uniquely bright colors, reminding Ludwina of the joker on playing cards. They didn't enter the Vatican because of the crazily long queue, and only enjoyed the view from the outside.

After they were satisfied walking around, the two decided to return to their small town. This time, Andrea was the one driving.

Italian roads were very smooth, and the driving experience in the country was a real pleasure. This time, Google Maps gave them a new route, a scenic one. The two of them were very lucky because this route passed through fields filled with sunflowers.

As far as the eye could see, they could see the big yellow flowers on the left and right of the road. How beautiful... Andrea was constantly amazed.

"I think this is my favorite country," he said, turning to Ludwina.

It's also my favorite country, Ludwina thought to herself. She smiled and nodded in agreement.

Unfortunately, because their trip to Rome was tiring, Andrea didn't cook dinner for them. He promised that one day, he would invite Ludwina to enjoy his cooking in Singapore when they returned home.

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From the author: I had the pleasure to visit Pitigliano and was sooooo amazed by the beauty, I think I put the city in so many of my books. Check the picture in the comment, or more pictures in Google.