Montecatini Mostly by Night (Days 4.5-7)

Montecatini what a mouthful to say. Honestly we didn’t get to explore the Tuscan town we stayed overnight in extensively, but we had great time overall! I also became obsessed with the word Quirinale because it was part the name of where we stayed, Hotel Francia E Quirinale. (Plus it’s just fun to say.) It used to be where the president would reside so the word itself is associated with being presidential I guess. The hotel itself had an old world charm to it from those obnoxiously huge keys with a plastic tag. This may have been our favorite location in terms of food since the Swordfish one night was excellent. Breakfast each morning was consistently great! (They had this unique over hard egg in a Hollandaise-esque sauce.) We got to enjoy the outdoor pool on the last day! I didn’t notice any specific signage for their thermal spas, so perhaps if we return in the future we will seek them out!

During our free time we walked around the town just a few minutes from the center and finally got to use the Bank of America alliance with BNL d’Italia. Annoyingly Dana’s PIN was way too long so it kept giving him errors, so at first we thought that the ATM just wasn’t working before I tried mine. The town was not nearly as bustling as Venice, as they don’t have as many huge historical attractions from big name artists. On the second night we went to a high end restaurant called Enoteca Da Giovanni di Rotti Giovanni. Their claim to fame seemed to be the article and photo of the late Princess Diana dining there. DH and I treated ourselves since this place had a pricey cover of €6/person! They definitely had the best spread of bread and we got seconds. We loved our dinner choices of Filet Minion in Chianti wine sauce and DH’s Roasted Pigeon. We ended dinner with a wonderful spread of biscotti and cookies since had our daily gelato already.

On the last night in town, I was bummed we hadn’t gotten to explore the garden. So in my sheer ambition we stumbled by the garden in the darkness. Dana felt too uncomfortable that it was so poorly lit by sparse street lamps so once he heard giggling in the distance despite me wanting to find the fountain we walked back into the main square. While walking around we also stopped in one of the many Pharmacies. They have a very distinct green neon cross sign similar to red cross. We realized saw that they had specific medical waste trash cans and a vending machine dispensing various prophylactics. We followed the sound of the lively music for a live concert and made our way back to the hotel using an alternative route.

Town center

Sunset

Tiny orange plant

Strolling

Despite losing 2 scarves: one of my favorite pink and orange gradient scarves and one I hadn’t even really gotten to use I still have great memories of this location. It really was my own fault for not checking the last drawers. It was so warm for most of the tour that I didn’t even use the scarves.

Rating: 4/5 ★★★★