Tuscany Countryside

This is the earliest of our bookings hopefully, as the house is up at 5.30am to get to our destination for a 12 hour tour of Tuscany.  Only the metro goes this early on a Sunday, so its 2km walk first thing in the morning to the metro to make our way into central Florence.

Our first stop is Pisa at 9am “before the crowds” which I can’t imagine how packed this place gets when it's already quite busy.  I hadn’t realised that you could actually go up the tower now, and have been able to since the early 2000’s when they did stabilisation work.

Unfortunately for us, the line, and the time we have in this place, won’t allow us to get back to the bus in time.  So we admire the tower and the surroundings.  Of all the things to become obsessed with for Gareth, it's the lawn care in Europe.  We first noticed it in France, on our way to the Eiffel tower, the lawns were overgrown and not well maintained.  And it's been a theme as we have gone to other places, even Versailles as we commented on the cost of our tickets should invest in some decent gardeners.  Arriving in Pisa, however, this area has been well maintained, and there are signs everywhere to stay off the grass.  A good look at the tower, and you can see the history in front of you.  The architect who started the project and “ran away” when he completed the third floor, realising how much of a lean there was.  If you look carefully you start to see how the next set of caretakers tried to counterbalance and reduce the lean as they added more floors to the tower.  By the time you see the top, its angle looks vastly different to the ground layers.

Next stop is San Gimignano, and thankfully Kaia sleeps between Pisa and San Gimignano.  Up on top of this medieval fortress are towers.  At one point, there were so many towers in this city and so high it became a hazard as it was all about who built the highest, at the risk that they fell down, and so many did.  This place also has a claim to fame, in that it has the best gelato in all of Italy.  However, when you get to the piazza, there are two gelato stores both claiming the title, typical italy.  It’s here we also realise we likely can’t bring any Biscotti home as it wouldn’t pass customs.

Lunch is fantastic, we get to sample real Modena Balsamic Vinegar and it's nothing like what we get at home.  It's thick and slightly sweet, and also over €100 for us to ship home, so that little bottle stays in the restaurant.  The kids get served all the wine we do, so poor Gareth has to double down and drink Zach’s while Kaia tries all of mine, as I give away hers to others at the table.

Off to our last stop for the day - Siena.  I have a real love of this city, and we have opted for the Cathedral tour which gives us a fascinating history of the town, being the first bank in the world - Monte dei Paschi di Siena.  The word Banco comes from the benches that were used to trade goods and currency.  There was a real rivalry between Siena and Florence, the battles that took place and how the town has dedicated its worship to the Virgin Mary after the battle of Montaperti.  The exception being artists, they were totally fine in sharing Michelangelo and other famous painters and sculptors.  Even with all this rich history - it's the Palio that really unites this city.  It runs deep into the core of being Sienese.  We arrived a couple of days after the Palio and the Contrada with the fish had won, but it was also the week that the Contrada with the caterpillar got to celebrate.   The easiest way to describe “Contrada” is to think about it being a district in the city that someone is "born" into.  If the parents are from different Contrada, they have to make a decision when their children are born as to which Contrada they will belong to. Once identified at birth and recorded by the church - you will be in this Contrada for life. The horse race (Palio) is more important than football in Siena, which is saying something in Italy, if your Contrada is in the race for the upcoming year, it is all consuming, and you can’t help but get swept up in the enthusiasm of everyone in Siena and the Palio.  When we got to il Campo where the race is held, there was still sand and clay outlining the race track. By nightfall, there would be the draw that would decide the last remaining 3 Contrada spots for the August race, and the sand and clay removed until the next race in August to celebrate the Virgin Mary. People were already starting to congregate in il Campo to see who was picked out. The crowd was expected to be in the thousands as the sun when down.

We were lucky enough to visit the cathedral on one of the 2 days in the year that they uncover the mosaics on the cathedral floor.  The first part of the cathedral was built and is very impressive, however as the city expanded the need to expand the cathedral was also required.  But the extension was never finished, because the plague came and wiped out two thirds of the population.

We get home very late after a long day, it's still way too hot but at least we have tomorrow to chill by the pool and enjoy the air con which is becoming essential to our sanity.