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Some tips for Your days
The times indicate the total time spent in the car (according to Google maps) round-trip from San Carlo.
1) Firenze: 1 day for monuments and places of interest + 1 day to visit some museums.
2) Certaldo – San Giminiano – Volterra (h. 2,15).
3) Cerreto Guidi – Vinci – San Miniato (min. 50).
4) Excursions and visits on Montalbano ( min. 50).
5) Colle Val d’Elsa – Monteriggioni – Siena (h. 2,50).
6) Shopping day of crafts, see "What to buy".
7) Empoli – Montelupo Fiorentino (min. 40).
8) Certaldo – San Giminiano – Palaia – San Miniato (h. 2,15).
9) Padule di Fucecchio, nature and bird watching (min. 50).
10) Vicopisano – Charterhouse of Pisa in Calci – Pisa (h.2,40).
11) Altopascio – Montecarlo – Lucca (h. 2,30)
For more info see "Area Links"
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What to buy
Of course you will be overwhelmed by the offer of souvenirs in places visited by mass tourism. Here we just want to indicate to you the opportunities that the area offers
We are in a production area of Chianti DOCG but farms continuously enrich their products with innovative wines from grape variety compatible with the terrain nature. Many of them also produce white wines and “Vin Santo”. You can to taste, often for a fee, and purchase.
Remarkable and excellent the production of extra virgin olive oil, purchased directly from the makers or by the oil mills.
You can buy many handicraft products of high quality at reasonable prices directly in the factory:from pottery in Montelupo Fiorentino to leather clothing, shoes, handbags, leather goods in general.
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What to eat
The clayey nature and aridity of the hilly lands has limited the crops to vineyards, olive trees and a bit of grain, the rest is wood.
The only rich dish on our table is the Fiorentina beefsteak obtained from slaughter of animals of Chianina breed, the same used in the past working in the fields. Hung long and, considered the tonnage of these bovines (up to 1,700 kg!), a weight that is about 1300 gr., 3-4 cm thick, soft, juicy, has a unique taste. It is not cooking, very simple, which gives it flavor, in case preserves it, so any beefsteak outside of the above parameters can not be called "Fiorentina".
For the rest, oil, bread, many vegetables and legumes, farmyard animals and game abound on our tables. The menus are rich of toasted bread and fried in lard polenta with chicken livers or game, bruschetta with fresh oil, various cold cuts.
Few are the typical pastas except pappardelle with hare or Pici in Siena. Many are the soups: ribollita, panzanella, bean soup, pappa al pomodoro.
The most common and traditional second courses present in many menus are: grilled pigeons, mixed roast, arista (pork loin), fagioli all’uccelletto (beans whit sage, sausages and tomato), stewed beef, tripe and various offals, hare and boar.
Low voice, to justify my 100 kilos I must also mention specialties that can be tasted only at home: soprassata with traditional flavors (what is sold is just boiled pork), macaroni and rabbit sauce, spaghetti with olives and fresh oil, pasta and duck, mallegato (sausage of pig’s blood), fegatelli (meat and pork liver stewered in fennel flowers), grilled rabbit, papero (goose) in damp, sweet and sour cod with pine nuts and raisins…
The products are almost all local and I like to emphasize that Tuscany was the first GMO-free European Region.
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For who is on holidays
The offer is huge, every town and village in the district has its museums with important or interesting works and some of them are real architectural gems. You will find same leaflets at home and we will be happy to assist you to make your days interesting.
You will can wander from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, from Medici villas to the Etruscan world.
Florence is very easy to get from here without getting lost in traffic. By car you can park in half an hour under the central station or, better yet, leaving the car at Empoli, to get to the same place in 20 minutes by train without the anxiety (and cost) of parking.
For more info see "Area Links"
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For people working
Our location and proximity to S.G.C. FI-PI-LI makes accessible in a short time (5 to 20 min) several industrial areas like the Leather District (Fucecchio, San Miniato, Santa Croce s / Arno, Castelfranco di Sotto), Mercatale Vinci Sovigliana, Capraia e Limite , Empoli and Montelupo Fiorentino.
In addition to 10 minutes are the San Pietro Igneo Hospital of Fucecchio, the IRSOO-optics school of Vinci and the S. Giuseppe Hospital of Empoli.
For business customers we offer discounts and special agreements with Companies for the price of the rooms and the possible dinner.
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San Carlo Bed and Breakfast
Culture, business and typical Tuscan flavours and wines
Welcome to the "Lands of the Renaissance"!
Family Corti wishes you a pleasant and fruitful stay.
The position in the center of the provinces of Florence, Pisa, Lucca and Siena and the excellent road and railway links allow you to:
• see the most important attractionsof tourism and art of Tuscany
• reach in few minutes the main commercial and industrial areas of the Middle Valdarno.
• taste the more traditional wines and foods of central Tuscany.
All this in the countryside among vineyards and olive trees without the complications and costs of the city.
Our Western civilization owes everything to travelers. Whether they were warriors, merchants, explorers, or pilgrims, they certainly were merchants of culture. We take some of it from who is hosting us and inevitably we leave some of our own.
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