I’m behind the climate change curve. Over two-plus recent weeks in Italy, temperatures hit 95 to 100 degrees daily, wreaking havoc on plans to visit Etruscan necropoli, fortified hill towns, cathedrals and museums without air-conditioning. Sitting poolside at one of the hotels that served as our base, I scrolled Instagram and saw some friends were braver than I, hitting the Palio in Siena, for instance. But here are five things that will make you a smarter global warming traveler, even if you still insist on an Italian summer.
1. Choose hotels where you can chill. We spent a week in a villa with a huge pool outside Pitigliano. An Orsini family-owned village in the 13th Century, built on a volcanic tufo cliff, it was called Little Jerusalem in the 16th Century after a large Jewish population moved there. That was followed by a week in swimming-pool equipped hotels. The first, Villa Fontelunga near Cortona in southern Tuscany, is a nine-room boutique in a 200-year-old house that looks and feels like a private home, thanks to its resident terriers and the skill and hospitality of its owners, Philip Robinson, a Brit, and Paolo Kastelec, a Roman. They bought it in 1999, renovated, and turned its gardens into an ever-evolving work of landscape art. Finally, we fled to the Adriatic, specifically Cattolica, south of Ravenna in Emilio-Romagna, where we found another oasis, Carducci 76, owned by fashion’s Ferretti family. It’s an island of chic in a sweet (if, frankly, down-market) beach town.
Cattolica beach scene
2. Eat light lunches and big dinners. Fontelunga and Carducci 76 both offer elegant outdoor dining, the former serving salads and long views of the Maremma’s val de Chiana, where Siena and Florence fought in the Renaissance, the latter, a seafood-centric menu overlooking, what else, the sea. At Il Tufo Allegro, in the twisty medieval streets of Pitigliano, chef Pichini Domenco modernizes meaty southern Tuscan cuisine. The steak tartare with truffles, Parmesan mousse and balsamic jelly from Modena was a revelation. Just outside town, Il Grottino serves up sensational views and a more diverse menu ranging from pizza to giant grilled shrimp. La Cucina Della Lodola is a new farm-to-table spot outside Lucignano. Its house dog, Pyjama, is as attentive to guests as the masters of cuisine in the sparkling kitchen, which they call a laboratory. In the maritime town of Ravenna, the sprawling menu at Il Gambero Sbronzo takes full advantage of local fishermen’s catch, and its owner sent us to Gente di Mare (i.e. The Fishermen) in Cattolica for another sunset seafood feast.
Gente di Mare
3. Take the waters. The thermal springs at Terme di Saturnia were a great way to cool off, work off jet lag, and just pamper ourselves. While some (mad dogs? Englishmen?) played the resort’s 18-hole par 72 championship golf course, we chose lunch in its 1919 restaurant (named for the year Saturnia opened). Then we regenerated our chill in the 3,000-year-old hot spring. Ancient Etruscans and Roman emperors and popes have reputedly soaked in its magical plankton, rife with minerals and natural chemical compounds–amino acids, sulphur, potassium and magnesium. Their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits really do make you feel great. Legend has it that the springs were created by Saturn, the Roman God of agriculture; today, the mortals in its spa also offer a full range of treatments—a great way to worship yourself.
Saturnia
4. Time travel back to the Etruscans. The Gothic and Romanesque Duomo in Orvieto is awesome on the outside, but turn around and check out Museo Claudio Faina, an archaeological collection that began with a gift of ancient vases from Princess Maria Bonaparte to a 19th Century Italian count, who expanded it with purchases from local excavations. The Museo Archeologico Nazionale Tarquiniense in Tarquinia, housed in a 15th Century palazzo, is bursting with treasures dating back to the 7th century B.C., many from the nearby necropoli, which can also be visited on the same ticket. If you’re willing to spend time outdoors, a better bet is the monumental tombs in the Parco Archeologico Città del Tufo near Serano, a short walk a long way back to ancient times. Finally, the MAEC or Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca in Cortona combines 18th Century collections of Etruscan and Roman antiquities.
Città del Tufo
5. Leave Tuscany. Go to Ravenna. Briefly the capital of the Western Roman Empire, the so-called City of Mosaics more than lives up to that name—and due to its out-of-the-way location and superb organization, is one of Italy’s most pleasant-to-visit places, uncrowded, unhurried and jaw-droppingly beautiful. It’s the home of perfectly preserved Byzantine mosaic sites: the Mausoleo di Galla Placida, the Basilica di San Vitale, and the air-conditioned Archiepiscopal Museum, filled with early Christian relics and the mosaic Chapel of St. Andrew, the only intact archiepiscopal chapel of the early Christian era, erected during the reign of Theodoric the Great. You can see them in half a day, leaving time for a visit to the 18th Century tomb of the poet Dante Alighieri, who died in 1321. His remains were hidden for 200 years by friars of Dante’s Franciscan order who were determined to keep them from Ravenna’s rivals in Dante’s hometown of Florence; it had exiled him and sentenced him to death, a victim of local and papal politics. In the heat of an Italian summer, it’s a good place to recall that Dante’s epic poem, The Divine Comedy, begins in Inferno but ends in Paradiso.
St. Andrews Chapel in Ravenna