Where we are in Tuscany

 

GETTING HERE

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It is not necessary to plan your Tuscany vacation around moving to different lodgings every night. With our central location, you can make I Melograni B&B your headquarters if travelling with or without a car.(see "WITHOUT A CAR" below) Empoli is in the centre of Tuscany between Florence and Pisa and is in a perfect position for touring connected to Florence, Siena, Pisa, Lucca and the Italian Riviera by good motorways or a reliable and frequent train service.

For those with G.P.S. the co-ordinates are: 43.695674,10.965133

By logging Via Dei Granai it will bring you onto our road, Via Maremmana. Do not log directly onto Via Maremmana as it is divided into three tracks and you will get lost.

 

Without GPS, write for directions

Florence is only a 30 minute drive but we recommend guests leave their car at Empoli station and get the train instead to avoid parking stress in the busy and chaotic city centre of Florence.The train ride goes along the river Arno and there are some beautiful views of little hilltop towns.The train takes 30 mins and goes right into Florence centre where it is only a ten minute walk to the Duomo,Uffizi and Ponte Vecchio. The train costs 6.00 EURO return. Trains are frequent from Empoli station.(www.trenitalia.com)

Siena and San Gimignano are lovely drives across a breathtaking landscape (Siena 1 hour, San Gimignano 40 mins). Lucca is a 1 hour drive and the beautiful beaches of the Italian coastline only 1 hour.

 

"WITHOUT A CAR"

For those who don’t drive or simply prefer a ‘car free’ holiday for a weekend break , I Melograni B&B Tuscany is an ideal base. If you intend to visit only Florence Siena, Pisa,and Lucca you don't need a car.You can reach all the towns by train. We can telephone for a taxi after breakfast to take you to Empoli Station ready to buy tickets and catch trains. A taxi to the station is 11 Euro. A perfect solution for a short break away. You can experience the Tuscany countryside, away from the tourists with walks up to local wine growers but still within easy reach of all the major towns by train with just a short taxi ride home in the evening. During the summer months guests walk down the track into the village to eat at the local trattoria.

The ride to Empoli train station in the morning is 10 minutes. Guests get a taxi back in the evening again which costs about 11 Euro. Or you can get a bus and walk up the hill. Buses run every hour until 7.30

Connections from Pisa www.trenitalia.com
If there is not a direct train to Florence (which passes through Empoli) when you come out of Pisa airport you only need to get the five minute train shuttle to Pisa Centrale where you will find trains running approx twice an hour to Empoli. When you come out of Empoli station the taxis are on your left.

 

"CAR HIRE"

www.nationalcar.com - www.alamo.com - www.europcar.com

www.hertz.com Offer excellent dicounts with Ryanair flights.

Many guests have hired cars from the above car hire services and have found the prices very competative.

 

"FLIGHTS"

Pisa and Florence airport are less than an hour away from our B&B.
Pisa airport especially has a good choice of flights to many European destinations. Ryanair fly direct from Pisa to

Glasgow, London Stansted, Hamburg, Bournmouth, Brussels, Doncaster, Dublin,Glasgow, Liverpool ,Frankfurt, Eindhoven, Barcelona, Valencia and Oslo-

 

The following airlines also offer a variety of destinations

 

www.thomsonfly.com (Bournemouth, Manchester,Sheffield, Doncaster,London Gatwick)
www.jet2.com (Leeds/Bradford, Belfast,Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh)
www.hlx.com (Cologne, Hanover, Stuttgart)
www.easyjet.com Berlin,Bristol,Paris
www.transavia.com (Amsterdam)
www.norwegian.no (Oslo)
See Pisa airport site for a list of airlines click here

 

Antipasto: The starter - sometimes crostini or a soup, ham with melon or mixed appetisers which may include the chef's own creations.

Primo: The first course - usually a pasta with lots of different sauce choices, often home-made. Sometimes a dish of the day, or a risotto.

Secondo: The second course - meat or fish is often from the grill and could be with a sauce.Rural restaurants also have typical dishes of the area - wild boar, rabbit, hare or pheasant when in season. Almost everywhere in Tuscany, meat is grilled over open fires, but one of the most well known grilled dishes must be Bistecca Fiorentina. This is a perfectly cooked T-bone steak, which is often served with a splash of olive oil, or topped with peppery arugula lettuce

Contorni: Vegetables or salad are usually fresh from the market.Many vegetables are eaten raw, or steamed and drizzled with olive oil. Artichokes, asparagus, spinach, fennel, broad beans and cannellino beans are grown in kitchen gardens everywhere. Tuscans are named the "bean-eaters" as they are renowned for their love of beans. One particular favorite is the white cannellini or toscanelli beans. The traditional method of cooking toscanelli is in a flask with olive oil and garlic and cooked over a dying fire overnight until they reach a creamy consistency.

Pane: Bread is eaten with almost everything in Tuscany and served at I Melograni Bed and Breakfast Tuscany for breakfast with home made Honey from Lucca. Tuscany bread is baked without salt. This is because historically it was found bread retained its freshness longer when salt was not added, and it has been made that way ever since.

Frutta: Fresh fruit.
Dolce: Something sweet - you may be offered the dish of the day typically a 'torta' - gateau or 'gelato' - ice cream or something like Tiramisu.

(Tiramisu is a derivative of Zuppa Del Duca ("the duke's soup"), a creamy layered dessert from the 17th century created in Siena in honour of a visit from Florence by the Grand Duke Cosimo de' Medici III (1642-1723),
The Grande Duke took the recipe back with him to Florence where it became extremely popular among the English intellectuals and artists who lived there at the time.It eventually made it’s way to England as ‘The Trifle’).

Pizza: Usually on a separate section of the menu and can be an entire meal or taken as your prima or secondo.

Some examples of local Tuscan dishes

Crostini: Small pieces of bread grilled with olive oil and topped with cheese, mushrooms, pâté or tomatoes.
Ribollita/minestra di pane: Wonderful farmers soup of black cabbage, all vegetables, beans and old bread - a meal in itself
Cinghiale: Wild boar - a Tuscan speciality.
Fagiano: Pheasant - cooked in many different ways often in red wine.
Coniglio: Rabbit
Funghi: Mushrooms
Fagioli: Beans - a Tuscan speciality can be served as a soup or with olive oil as a vegetable on its own with bread.
Porcini: Wild mushrooms - collected wild in the field and offered seasonally as a local delicacy.Often served as part of a pasta dish or with pizza.
Tartufo: Truffles.Very expensive. Sometimes just grated over the pasta
Zuppa Inglese: An Italian form of trifle.

A Pizzeria
Serves pizzas but will often have other pasta dishes available.
Pizzas come in many varieties usually on a very thin base and anything up to twelve inches in diameter. I Melograni (The Pomegranates) Bed and Breakfast is near Florence,Siena and Pisa so there are many Pizzerias with typical local flavors, for example with Artichokes (carcofi) or Mozzarella di Bufala (buffalo cheese). Here are a few examples.

Calzone- folded pizza with cheese,ham and tomatoes
Capricciosa-literally ‘capricious’.Topped with whatever they have in the kitchen usually including baby artichoke ham and egg.
Frutta di mare-seafood usually mussels, prawns and clams.
Funghi-mushrooms
Margherita-cheese and tomato
Quattro stagioni- “four seasons. Toppings split into four separate sections.ham, green pepper,onion and egg.

 

TYPICAL MENU