Tuscany

The Tuscany tour is another must do and great way to end the time in Florence!  Let me begin by saying it snowed that morning in Tuscany so you can somewhat imagine how cold it was. You can’t fully understand unless you were there right? We started the day by driving to the city of Sienna.  Sienna was beautiful.  It is up on top of a hill and has nothing but small narrow roads that are mostly for pedestrians only.  We saw the world’s oldest bank, the central square where they hold the Palio horse raises twice annually and walked through the AMAZING cathedral they had in the city.  Sienna has historically been one of the wealthiest cities in Tuscany given its location on a central Italian trading road.  The riches really showed through in the cathedral with all its gold and paintings.

After Sienna we went and had lunch on a real Tuscan farm.  We ate homemade pasta, bread w/ homemade olive oils and sat by as the group tasted lots of wines. =)  We bought some pasta, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and even some pastries to take home with us and then continued on to San Gimignano.   Sam Gimignano was beautiful but almost totally deserted given the cold temperatures.  The town is filled with tall stone towers that were occupied by families in the middle ages.  They lived at the top of towers for protection as the towers allowed for them to cast things down on intruders before they could enter.  The city from a distance looks like a mini-Manhattan with all the tall buildings. 

We ended the day in Pisa where we toured the Field of Miracles and climbed to the top of the leaning tower of Pisa.  It was a tough climb up the lopsided tower, 300 plus stairs, especially after all the good Italian food.  Don’t worry, we made it to the top and the climb was totally worth it. The view was amazing! I didn’t realize how big Pisa was until I was able to overlook the entire city. And yes, we took those cheesy tourist picture with the leaning tower. We couldn’t resist. Please don’t judge.

At the end of the day we went back to Florence and had a final dinner back at our favorite spot Il Profeta before packing up to head down to Rome.