My favorite day! Tour of Tuscany.

A beautiful day at the Tuscan winery.

We always made fun of the tour groups; you know, the ones wearing the voice headsets around their neck and following the guide with the umbrella? Well, we have a different opinion now! Walkabout Tours, Best of Tuscany tour is one of the highlights of our trip. It was so nice to sit back and relax and let someone else tell us what to do and where to go for 12 hours. And although we thought we’d be exhausted at the end of the day, we found that actually we were energized by the entire experience.

We started by meeting a mom and her two college-aged students while we were waiting for the bus to show up. Just getting to the bus was a tad un-easy as we had to make sure we got on the right bus to get to the meeting spot. Once on the bus though, we made more friends, some from LA, a family from DC , and a couple from Arkansas.

Our first stop was Sienna. This place is so rich in history that I cannot begin to go into it so I will share a link…. http://www.abctuscany.com/siena/siena-town/
For me, the most interesting part about Sienna is the districts in which it is divided. There are 17 districts and they are very special to the people of the district. There are tiles notating which district you are in. And I could go on and on. This is tied to the Paleo horse race that is run twice a year in the summer. We just missed the last race and they were cleaning up after it in the Campo. One step in to the shell-shaped
Piazza and you feel transported to medieval times. It looks different than any other piazza or square we have been in thus far. The whole tour was fascinating!

Next stop, the organic wine farm (http://fattoriapoggioalloro.com/?lang=en) which may have been a favorite for both of us as we both agreed we needed to stay longer! We toured the vineyard and then had a fabulous wine tasting and lunch consisting of the best olive oil I’ve had, penne pasta with meat sauce and then a plate of cheese and prosciutto and I LOVE prosciutto! There was biscotti with a very strong dessert wine and tradition is that you dip the biscotti in the dessert wine. With just a dip it was delicious!

Next stop, San Gimignano (http://www.discovertuscany.com/san-gimignano/)
yet another city so rich in history that I must attach a website. Cam has always wanted to see this place. This is where he toured the “Museum of Torture” while I shopped☺ San Gimagnano is famous for porcelain which in the US doesn’t particularly interest me so I had to be careful to not buy something in the moment that I would later regret. I decided on a salt and pepper shaker because I frankly have been looking for one for a long time! I walked up and down the main street of this walled city and looked and looked and checked pricing until I about gave up. Then I walked in to one last shop and found the most beautiful designs different than any others and prices were not any more. Also, the salt and pepper shaker I found was smaller and prettier so for less money I got exactly what I wanted!

We met our bus and off to Pisa we went. Each bus ride from place to place was only about an hour which was the perfect amount to just relax in between. This is probably why we weren’t so tired at the end of the day as opposed to the other days where we thought our legs would fall off! We also got lucky with cloud cover and a nice breeze.

We weren’t all that excited about Pisa but once we were there we realized that actually this would be a great place for a picnic! The lawn out front reminded me of a smaller version of the Eiffel Tower lawn. So we walked around for about 10 minutes looking for a good place to take away sandwiches and drinks. We were patient and we found the perfect place. We got our favorite prosciutto and mozerella sandwich and a couple of sodas and went to the lawn below the tower. There was a sweet family there with the cutest little 16 month old boy who was wanting to interact with us. It really made the experience fun.

You could climb the tower but in my opinion, unless you end up with a fabulous view at the end, don’t bother! Plus is was $20!

After our hour or so in Pisa we were on our way back home. We were both energized after this day just loving the fact that we weren’t completely exhausted!

When we got back to our little hotel haven, Cam and I played chess; well, Cam tried to teach me how to play chess and I lasted for one sad game! Then he went to the room to do the shower/talk to his friends thing and I stayed downstairs watching the World Cup game with a few others from the hotel and started writing this blog post with a glass of wine from the “honor system” bar at the hotel. Actually they have you buy an entire bottle of wine, provide a nice glass and you just write down what you bought on a paper by the bar. The bottle I bought was only 7 euro so about $9 and it was fantastic! And the best part is that I have 2 more nights to have a glass from the same bottle. Best bargain so far!

I’m typing the last part of this blog sitting outside at breakfast where they make you a wonderful cappuccino and the food choices are completely European; eggs, croissants, meats and cheeses and the best fresh fruit salad around. They cut up the fruit into tiny pieces and it’s fresh fruit so it blends really well. I will be doing this at home when I have the time to cup up that much fruit!

Today is the day we finish off seeing any of the museums and attractions on our Firenze card. With this card we get free transportation on busses (which is great since we have a bus stop just outside the hotel) and entry into a ton of places while skipping the line. Today we will enjoy that as we are going to the Accademia to see the David. http://www.accademia.org/

Buongiorno!!!

Cam refused to do a cliche leaning tower pose:)

San Gimagnano

Had to bring some wine home from the winery. There is some olive oil too

White cows!

Olive trees

Sienna's cathedral

Sienna

This is where the district's horse is kept before the Paleo race. There is a "drawing' to see which horse the district gets and it's a big deal to draw a good horse. The district chooses the jockey. If the jockey falls off and the horse still wins, then the district wins.

Sight of the Paleo race. This is the main "square" in Sienna but it is shell shaped...water drains to one end. They cover the race area with dirt for the Paleo. The race had only been days before so there was still quite a bit of dirt around and workers washing it away.

The winning district flag of the Dragon. Each district is named after an animal .Our tour guide was part of the Turtle district:)

Bell tower in Sienna

This chapel's carvings were done by Michelangelo, but he never finished it as seen in the upper right hand side. The bottom right (which i don't think you can see here, is actually a self portrait of him)