Florence: Best of Tuscany: Siena/Chianti/San Gimignano/Pisa

7 AM wake up call.  We stopped for breakfast downstairs.

8 AM Out the door and around the corner to the tour bus meeting point.  We checked in with Michelle, who introduced us to Fabio our driver.

We left for Siena over Ponte Santa Trinita Bridge, through Old Firenze, past the city gates.

SIENA

9:15 AM We arrive in Siena.  Siena is a medieval town with cobblestone streets.  We’re told that this town’s air is clean because vehicles are not allowed – except for the garbage trucks that drive through the narrow streets.  Today was garbage day.

From the bus, our group gathered in the plaza of San Domenico, where we were given short-ranged radio headsets so we can hear our guide’s information while roaming the nearby grounds.

Our local guide Claire led us through the narrow streets to a village square, the Piazza Salimbeni.  As our group gathered in this square, some of us sat down on the steps at the foot of the square’s statue.  Claire launched into a tirade:  “You are tired already?!  You foreigners are so spoiled with your air conditioning and computers.  We in Siena walk in this heat all the time.  We are a strong race of people with thousands of years of history and pride.”  With that off her chest, she proceeded to inform us of the origins of Siena, founded by the son of Remus.

We followed Claire through the narrow streets, rising and dipping with the contours of the hills the village was built upon.  I felt as though I were walking through a medieval movie set.

We came upon a large clamshell-shaped plaza known as the Piazza del Campo, locally known as Il Campo, where the annual Palio horserace is held.  Marie and I stepped away from the group to get a better look at the fountain.  The water in this fountain is drinkable.  There is a spigot from which one could fill a bottle to drink the cool water on this hot day.

The highlight of this Siena tour is the Duomo of Siena.  We stayed in the shade until there was room enough in the Gothic cathedral to allow a group of our size to enter together.  The Duomo contains works of art by Donatello Bernini and young Michelangelo.  Its marble floor of 56 panels designed by 40 Italian artists took 200 years to complete.

When our tour of the Duomo concluded, we were given “free time” to explore the town, with the instruction to meet back in Il Campo in half an hour.  Having no idea where we were in this town, Marie and I spent our half hour nervously looking for our way back to the meeting place in Il Campo.  We waited another 15 minutes for the rest of our group to regroup at the meeting place before returning to the bus.

CHIANTI

From Siena we continued to Chianti for lunch at an organic family run wine estate.  We toured the vineyard, followed by an informal wine tasting lesson; then treated to a traditional Tuscan lunch with a selection of wine from the vineyard with each course.  The tables were set on the patio of the tasting room.  We sat with fellow group members, getting to know them over homemade penne pasta with meat sauce, cured meats (homemade prosciutto and salami), local cheeses, garden salad from the vineyard’s garden and dessert wine with Tuscan biscotti.  The weather turned from light sprinkling to rain during our lunch, but subsided before we moved on to our next destination, San Gimignano, which we could see on a distant hill from the vineyard’s patio.

SAN GIMIGNANO

San Gimignano is a medieval city on a hill.  It is very much like Siena with its narrow cobblestone streets.  The entrance to the city is lined with markets.  All the squares are packed with kiosks of tourist merchandise.  I was not able to take a photograph of the medieval buildings without a vendor’s kiosk in the frame.  A pity, because the buildings are so well preserved.

PISA

A bus ride of about an hour and a half to Pisa.  The driver parked outside the town.  Our group departed and boarded a little train into the town.

I was amazed to see the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.  I had in mind that the tower was made of white limestone, but it is of marvelous marble.  Michelle showed us where and how to take a tourist photo of holding up the tower:  You stand on one of the fence posts and extend one arm in the air and the other arm a little lower, then have your photographer line up the angle of the hands against the tower before taking the photo.  Marie and I tried it; then thought it would be better to have our back lean against the tower instead.

Marie and I wandered around the area, stepping outside the far entrance to buy a cold soda.  We passed by a man selling bent wire name jewelry.  He also sold charm bracelets for a very reasonable price.  He was very kind.  We purchased a few bracelets for Marie’s friends and I purchased a leather cord for my son’s jade pendant.

7 PM came quickly.  We caught the bus back to Florence.  It was a quiet ride as many of us took the opportunity to nap on the way back.

8:20 PM back at the meeting point.  We stopped at our room to change for dinner.

Marie and I wandered down the alleys for something off the beaten path.  We found a little restaurant in an alley named Lo Spuntino.  We each ordered an individual pizza, not knowing that the size of an individual pizza was a 12 inch round.