Costa degli Etruschi May 2021 - Bolgheri, Castagneto Carducci, and Rimigliano coast

OnThursday we decide we absolutely must visit the famous Bolgheri with its 3km of cypress lined road and the irresistibly named Castagneto Carducci. The cypress lined road is slightly less convincing than expected. There are many, shorter, in Tuscany, somehow more scenographic. Perhaps there are too many other trees and too much undergrowth in between, perhaps the cypresses themselves are too robust to be poetic.

Parking in Bolgheri is easy and free. It's before ten in the morning and there's no one around. The entrance with the castle and tower is fine but the rest of Bolgheri, unless you are interested in lunch and wine tasting, is soon seen.

Castagneto Carducci is the next stop. It's a pleasant drive between the two. We stroll around and look at the view from the gardens where there's the fountain.

There's a museum about Carducci, nothing really particular to see. We are hungry and the thought of bread and ham does not appeal. We head down to San Vincenzo without any clear idea for lunch except not bread and ham. There's a Conad and we look at the so-called Gastronomy section but it all looks cold, congealed and uninviting. Disconsolately we come out. A takeaway pizza? Along the road, suddenly, an outdoor veranda with fresh looking blue tables and white paper tablecloths. Miraculously, a fixed menu, 15 euro including wine. We succumb. We move the car. We take a corner table with nobody on two sides. It feels almost unreal to be sitting at a restaurant table after seven months. We've been lucky. Osteria Cristian's offers us a free starter of panzanella then pasta allo scoglio for Andrea and with tuna and aubergines for me, both very good. Then fried anchovies and grilled sardines with interesting round chips with the skin on and roast potatoes. Coffee. 31€. I've no complaints! How exceedingly good to eat out after all this time, and well, into the bargain.

We drive to access number 3 of Parco Costiero Rimigliano. Parking is still free this time of year and it's just a short walk through the pines to the beach. Splendid. Wild. Blue sea, light coloured sand and Mediterranean vegetation behind. 

A beautiful early summer day. We sit in the shade of a lifeguard stand and relax and then take a short walk along the beach, looking for perfectly round tiny white stones before heading for home.