Day 7: San Gimignano & Monteriggioni & Siena & Pienza

San Gimignano
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The first city of our busy day, San Gimignano, is a picturesque little town with a lot of towers from the families in the town that fought amongst themselves.  It was a small town, but there were a lot of tourists for its size.  The town is on a hill and we did a lot of walking up and down streets.  San Gimignano is known for their wine.  We went into a really cool wine store.  When you walked in, you crossed a little "bridge" with glass on the floor on one side and an open staircase on the other with the center being opened up to a well filled with corks.

San Gimignano
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Next, we went to Monteriggioni, a fortified small town also on a hill.  It still has its walls and towers around the town and you can climb up and walk around a small area of the wall.

Next, Siena!  Siena was a really nice town and wasn't too touristy.  We stopped by the Piazza del Campo, then went to the cathedral.  We went inside and it was really pretty.  It was different because the floors were decorated and the columns were made of white and green (black) alternating stone.  Also, outside of the church is an area where they were going to add on to but because of the plague, they never added on.  After going into the cathedral, Laura, Dianna, Emily, and I got pizza and paninis and then yummy ice cream!

San Gimignano_cute kids
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The next town we went to was Pienza.  We went to the center, where there's a cathedral, palace, and town hall -- a model of ideal living.  We went into the courtyard of the palace and into the gardens behind that overlook the countryside.  On our way out of the city, I saw a baby swing that overlooks the Italian countryside...ridiculous.