Under The Tuscan Clouds

Mike at the wheel
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Well the day I have been looking forward to for a long time has finally arrived and we awoke early to get the worm (well a 2 door silver Citreon).  Yes that's right, I was going to be let loose on the roads of Italy for the first time.  Our plan for the day was to drive to Pisa to take a few snaps of the famous leaning tower, and then on to Chianti country and the beautiful Tuscan countryside.

After a few crunched gears and 'almost' stalling the car, we were away on the streets of Florence.  First task, to avoid the aggressive Italian drivers and get out of the city (easier said than done).  With limited signage on the roads, using only a map on the back of a placemat for reference and with Linda as our navigator, we did actually make it onto the freeway.  From there it was a quick hour trip to Pisa in the pouring rain.  We were making good time, that is until we entered Pisa and looked for a sign that would lead us to their biggest tourist attraction, the Leaning Tower.  It soon became apparent that there were NO signs to the tower and we would have to rely on our wits (not a comforting proposition).  Whether by luck (or Linda's navigational skills) we eventually managed to find our way there.  The rain even stopped long enough for us to take the obligitory 'holding up the leaning tower' shots.  It was definitely impressive and quite bizzare to see a building with such a pronounced lean, and  Linda was able to tick another box of her childhood Italian must sees.

We finally managed to escape Pisa's evil clutches and headed toward the Tuscan sun

The leaning tower of Pisa
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Full of confidence in our driving and navigation skills we jumped back into our toy car and went about leaving this little town of Pisa.  Well after 40 minutes of driving around one way back streets with cyclist riding the wrong way and pedestrians who thought they owned the road, and all the roadsigns to our next destination all pointing in different directions, and a few tears, we finally managed to escape Pisa's evil clutches and headed toward the Tuscan sun (well clouds really).

This is where the fun really started.  Driving through the rolling Tuscan hills was absolutely awesome.  We passed through beautiful medieval towns with gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside. We visited San Gimagnano (the best preserved medieval town in Italy) and got absolutely drenched in a sudden downpour.  It was then on to Monteriggioni (the best preserved fortified village in Italy with a main street of just 100m) and just loved it.  We were the only visitors there and counted our blessings that we had decided to do this trip in the winter (not for the first time).

San Gimagnano
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Soon we were winding our way along in Chianti Country, passing castle estates on top of vinyard covered hills.  The dark greens, browns and orange colours of the landscape had us stopping often, trying to capture the beauty in a shot that rarely lives up to the views that we actually saw.  It really was one of my highlights of the trip (among so many) and would only have been topped if some of the wineries would have been open.  I really could have driven in that setting for another few hours however we had to get the car back.  We allowed ourselves an hours leeway 'just in case' we ran into any directional problems.  To cut a long story short, after a few wrong turns and one way streets, we arrived back with 12 minutes to spare and with only one hubcap missing! A job well done!