Tuscany

One of the many little alleyways of Siena.
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Well originally what was intended to be two blogs has now merged into one. The following blog of Tuscany includes, Florence, Pisa, San Gimignano, Siena and the beautiful Tuscany landscape.

Just want to make a quick note to let you all know that we beat the insurance company. For some of you that don’t know we were having trouble getting a refund on our car insurance policy on the camper. We had called and emailed as requested before the 14 day cool off period and had not received anything from them regarding the cancellation. Anyway, once we did get in contact they were claiming they hadn’t received any of our emails etc so it was our word against theirs type thing but after a few heavy emails we received most of our policy back. That made our day.

The Duomo, the wedding cake church in Siena. Great fresco inside.
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We arrived in Florence early evening, it was really busy with people, cars and scooters. Just our luck, the street we had to walk up was this narrow little touristy street lined with cafes, restaurants and stores, it wasn’t an easy task walking with our backpacks. We had booked our hostel the day before and fortunately we had walking instructions and a map in the guidebook so we had a rough idea of where to go. It was a bit further away than we thought and probably took us twenty minutes to find it.

Inside the church, this fresco was painted over 500 years ago and as never been touched up.
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The hostel was great, we had a nice big room and managed to get bottom beds (we hate bunks gahhhh). The hostel had a kitchen, free wireless, friendly staff and a laundry service. We were sharing with a French Canadian girl, she was a lovely, and her name was Leone or Leo as we called her. After we dropped our bags in our room, Erin stayed chatting with Leo and John waited for the reception guy to come back for us to pay. Erin came out to see what was happening, John had paid and was about to be told what to see. After the map orientation we were told that the following day all the museums were closed. So it was suggested that we do the tour…we felt a little bombarded by this, he was writing our names down and we were like ahh…what…sorry…wait a minute. So we went to chat about it and look at what was included in the tour because it was eighty euros each and a lot of money to us. In the end we worked out that it was good value for money. We wanted to go to Pisa anyway and this way we could do that plus more and not have to think just jump on the bus. Geeze we were going to be a part of a tour group, the very thing we hate, BLOODY TOUR GROUPS.

The Il Campo. Siena's centre sqaure.
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The morning of our Tuscany tour started early, we had to be up at 7:15am to be at the bus by 8:15am. We showered the night before so all we had to do was get dressed, pack a bag and find where the bus was leaving from. We had only spent say an hour all up on Florence’s streets so we weren’t familiarized with the city yet. We found the right spot but because of works to the square it was on the other side of the piazza, we had walked right past the bus oh well. Our tour guide could see us waiting and waved his flag so we came over and boarded the bus. We hadn’t had time to get any breakfast on the way. Erin was getting grumpy because she was hungry and the idea of waiting a couple of hours made her even more aggravated. So she jumped of the bus with 9 minutes to spare on a food hunt. She found a cheese and ham roll and a bottle of water.

Clock tower in Il Campo.
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On board the bus there were mostly Aussies and seventy per cent were middle aged and beyond. They proved to be quite a laugh, getting into the bad jokes of the tour guide, named Mario by the way and yes the bus driver was named Fabio. It was a two hour ride until we were to arrive at our first stop. It was lovely driving through the Tuscan countryside. The landscape is green with trees and mountainous but the land itself is arid. I suppose it may be different in winter. I would love to return, Tuscany is definitely God’s county.

View of Tuscany from our Tuscan farm house.
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Once we arrived in Siena we had to quickly get off the bus because we had parked illegally so we didn’t have to walk as far. (Now this all happened over two weeks ago so the details may not be very thorough.) We made our way to the oldest bank still in operation, it has official documentation claiming it is hundreds of years old, possible over a thousand, sorry I can’t remember the date. Siena is a beautiful old gothic town with it’s many alleyways, piazzas and churches. One of these churches is the Duomo, looks like a big wedding cake. Inside are the most amazing frescoes and marbled floors made into magnificent images. To the side of the main part of the church is the library, which contains the choir’s books, but look above, there is the most wonderful fresco. It is over five hundred years old and still as bright as the day it was painted. Truly splendid, I enjoyed this fresco more than the Sistine chapel. Siena’s centre holds the sloping Piazza del Campo, this is the place to be seen, to hang out, grab an expensive coffee as well the place they hold the legendary Palio twice a year. The Palio is a horse race between 10 of the 17 districts in the town. All of Italy knows of this race. Perhaps google ‘Palio’ if you’re interested in knowing more, I could continue but would run out of energy to write about other things.

John sitting on the walls on San Gimignano with the tuscany landscape behind him.
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After an hour and a half we were back on the bus, making our way to our lunch stop. Described as a Tuscan farmhouse lunch, with local wine and produce. It was about one pm when we arrived at the farm. It was on top of a hill and the views were breath taking. Our table was all Aussie, mostly in their 20’s but next to us was a mum and 2 nana’s. We all started chatting where ya been, where ya going next and offcourse where are you from. Well the three ladies next to us were from Mount Gambier. Small world. Lunch was pasta, salad, ham and cheeses. Overall everything was good. We were there for an hour or so and back on the bus to get to San Gimignano.

San Gimignano
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San Gimignano was only about 10 km’s away so only a short drive. The town is made up of medieval houses and buildings, most with 11^th century towers. The towers were built as high as possible to show the families wealth. In the town there is the world’s best gelato shop. And it’s true it was the best we have eaten.

Our third and final stop was Pisa. We didn’t see any of the town, the trip only goes to the leaning tower and Battistero area. We didn’t go inside the tower, it was a bit pricey and we were happy to see it from the ground. We took one photo and before we could take anymore our camera battery died. Bugger! Everyone around us was taking those funny pictures when it looks like your holding it up etc. Oh well we did get one pic. We didn’t do much here, we just had a little walk around and then just sat and waited until it was time to get back on the bus.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa.
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The bus ride home was about 2 hours, Mario was pointing things out but you couldn’t see anything. We finally got home to the hostel after a supermarket stop at about 9:30pm. We were really exhausted. We ate some dinner and then it was straight to bed.

The next day was our last day in Florence, we walked down to the Duomo, yet another wedding cake looking church. We then made our way to the Galleria dell’ Accademia where you will find the infamous Statue of ‘David’ by Michelangelo. Well the line was massive, and we decided that we didn’t really need to see it. So we walked around Florence, found a nice park with a big pond. We sat and ate an ice cream instead. There was a lot to see in Florence but the day before had killed us so we were happy to have an easy day.

The Il Duomo in Florence.
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That night we stayed in the hostel, Erin had some wine with Leo. We just relaxed and talked with other travellers. The next day we