Orbetello and Porto Santo Stefano

Last weekend, Shelly and I decided last minute that we wanted to go to a town called, Grossetto, up in Tuscany. We didn't have time to book a hotel before we went, but the lady that Shelly works for, Patrizia, said that she would be happy to call and book us a room somewhere.  There was a convention going on in Grossetto that weekend, so all the hotels were booked. We were already at the train station when we learned of this information.  Of course that called for a decision to hop on the next train going in the same direction to a different town.  We looked at the train schedule and decided to try a town called Orbetello.  Patrizia called and found us a hotel in town and arranged for a car to pick us up at the train station since we would be arriving at 10:30pm. An Audi Q7 was waiting for us at the train station as we arrived...very classy.

Lagoon in Orbetello

The hotel was in the city center where all the young people from this small town were hanging out. It was a fairly warm night; we were able to sit outside at a little bar and observe all of the locals.

Flamingoes in the lagoon

Saturday, we were up and going at 7:30am. The fog was extremely dense this morning.  We went to the lagoon, but couldn't see two feet in front of us. It was very eerie! My camera was dead from the second I turned it on this trip and because our decision to go away was so last minute, I didn't bring the charger. Shelly is an excellent photographer and captured some great shots.  We walked around town snapping pictures.  There was a park that had about 20 different types of trees and different plant life; we must have spent about an hour there.

Swinging in the park

We continued to walk until we came across a large outdoor market.  There were stands sellingn clothes, pottery, baked goods, produce, seafood, trinkets, pretty much anything you could think of and there was a stand for it. I bought a small grey satchel and bargained it down to 8euros. Shelly, on the other hand, bought a silverware set.  I understood that the price of the whole set to be 75euros, so when she went to pay, he told her it was 200euros! Oops, it was a 75-piece set...guess I misunderstood :) The seller told her that it retails for 400euros so she was getting a great price.  It really was beautiful and made in Italy; with some more bargaining, she talked him down to 160euros and now had to carry this 25lb. box around with her all day.

foggy lagoon

Shelly really wanted to go to the beach; we asked the men at the market and they weren't exactly sure, but they told us to catch a bus to Porto Ercole or Porto Santo Stefano.  We waited by the bus stop for about 30 minutes before a bus to Porto Santo Stefano came along. We hopped on, not sure where exactly this town even was and worried about how much it was going to cost to take a taxi back to the train station. Fifteen minutes later and we were in this beautiful seaport town.  It was so beautiful that we thought we would inquire at the hotel the cost for a night's stay, come to find out it was only 70euros and included a view of the sea. Here's what we saw:

We were very happy just to put our bags down so we could explore the city.  It's in Porto Santo Stefano that the ferry goes to Giglio Island, now famous for the crash site of the cruise ship, Concordia, a couple months ago. Honestly, we had no idea where we even were until we looked at a map and we realized 1. we were in Monte Argentario and 2. just how much further we were from the train station. After searching on our ipods for what to do in this town, we found ourself at a spanish fortress built in 1640. Inside the fortress were tons of ancient artifacts found at the bottom of the sea.

Spanish Fortress

This town was breath-takingly gorgeous. It was the most beautiful day.  We spent some time sitting on the rocks by the water watching the many fishermen. Many people told us that in the summertime, this city is packed with people; I can believe it.

We went to an aperitivo and had a glass of red wine that's made in the region. Two 45-year old men asked if they could take us to dinner and dancing in Porto Ercole, but we kindly declined :) They were quite persistent though!!

About as Italian as you can get...our favorite picture

That night, Shelly and I found a restaurant called, Lo Sfizio, down by the water. We didn't arrive there until about 10:30pm. Our waiter, the owner, asked us what we wanted and we told him to recommend some dishes;  he told us that he would surprise us. We had no idea what the bill was going to come to after he brought us fresh seafood kebabs, an entire seabass, grilled vegetables and a bottle of wine. Shortly after we arrived though, Raffaele (the owner) asked me to look at the menu on his computer and if I could help him translate it into English. After an espresso with sambuca, more sambuca, a dessert of strawberries, brandy and cream, it was suddenly 4am!!!! We helped Raffaele translate the majority of his menu and I agreed to have him e-mail me the rest that I translated for him a few days ago.  We sat and talked to him for a couple hours and learned about his life in half italian, half english. The dinner came to 60euros, but because we helped him out, he only charged us 30euros.  It was as if we had worked for a couple hours with no effort!

Inside city of Porto Santo Stefano

Sunday morning, we spent some more time walking around the town and sitting on the rocks by the water before we headed back to the train station.  We learned that there was a bus that went directly from Porto Santo Stefano to the train station.  Everything fell into place so well for this random weekend adventure.  It was definitely one of my favorite weekends here so far!!

View of the city from the top of the fortress