Part of the plan for our trip to Italy was to take some side trips out of the major cities we visited. From Florence we particularly wanted to get out to San Gimignano and Sienna. We found a bus tour that hit those two cities and also Piensa and Montepulciano, plus a winery tasting visit. If that sounds like a lot for one day, it turns out it was.
Tuscany is dotted with hill towns. Here is one closer to Florence that I shot before the weather turned overcast.
The Tuscan countryside is very pretty with lots of farms, vineyards, olive groves, etc.
San Gimignano is also called the "tower city" because it once was the site of a medieval tower building competition. Every wealthy family tried to outdo its neighbor by building a more impressive tower house. Most of them are gone now, but there is still an impressive collection remaining. There was a lot of nice architecture in the town. Here are a few samples.
We didn't get nearly as much time in San Gimignano as we would have liked--there were a lot of interesting shops and cafes--because of some troublesome traveling companions. It would be a nice place to make a return visit. A pity it is so hard to get to.
The next stop was Sienna (made famous in the last James Bond movie). We had a local guide there, so we were able to get a bit more flavor of the city. Sienna is a very old town--it predates Rome--and has interesting traditions. Sienna is made up of 17 distinct neighborhoods. They are towns within the town and very competitive. The competition is at its highest during the summer when the city is the site of two horse races around the central piazza, which in Sienna is called the Campo. As you move through the city, you can tell when you pass from one neighborhood to another by the decorations and the flags. The picture below left is of a street corner where two neighborhoods meet. The one on the right is the display of the flags of all 17 neighborhoods in the piazza in front of the cathedral.
The streets in Sienna tended to be very steep and usually narrow, but also picturesque.
Remember the building supports from Florence? Sienna has similar features, except that they fill a dual purpose. Sienna (as well as a number of of other Tuscan towns) was rife with rivalry between warring factions and always threatened by outsiders (remember the Medici?). The supports in the picture below also served as passageways between allied houses when it was too dangerous to use the streets.
We thought that the Cathedral in Sienna was very pretty. We saw only the outside, because we didn't have time to go in. Plus we were there just after lunch and a lot of places close down for about three hours beginning at noon.
Our next stop after Sienna was Piensa. Along the way, we passed a famous grove of cedars that is often seen on postcards of Tuscany. Turns out my camera takes decent pictures from a bus going 80kph.
Piensa is known for producing popes. The church has a carving that everyone who has seen "Angels and Demons" will recognize--the crossed keys of the papacy.
Piensa might have been the prettiest of all the towns we visited in Tuscany. The problem was that it was clogged with tourists. The lower floor of every building on the main street was turned into shops. I still managed some nice shots.
Our last stop was Montepulciano. It was not a good "last stop." Montepulciano has the steepest streets of any town we visited during our trip. It is known mainly for the wine produced nearby, which is regarded as one of the world's great red wines. The winery we visited wasn't that impressive, although the wines were decent. Here are some shots of the city, including a nice urban garden.
There were flowers everywhere in Italy and that made for some nice shots of stone walls with color.
On the way back, we were treated to this sunset.
Next up: Bologna.
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