Exploring Tuscany – July 16, 2015

We decided to spend a second day on a tour with a knowledgeable guide to explore other areas of the Tuscany region of Italy.  Our day included visits to Sienna, the Fattoria Poggio Alloro (a family farm and winery), San Gimignano, and Pisa.  It was a hot and busy day, but we were happy to leave all of the travel details to someone else.

Sienna is a nice small city with a large town square and consists of 14 neighborhoods, each with an animal as its symbol.  Twice each summer Sienna has a horse race in which 10 of the neighborhoods are randomly assigned horses that race around the town square three times.  There is a great sense of pride and belonging to each neighborhood, especially if your horse wins the race.  Sienna is also the town that proclaims that it has the oldest, continually run, bank in the world.  The cathedral has unique inlaid floors that took over 200 years to compete.  Take a look at the detail; amazing.

Fattoria Poggio Alloro is a wonderful, all natural farm and winery just outside of San Gimignano.  Our toured stopped by for a tour of their vineyard, olive grove, and cow barn with a delicious lunch and wine tasting.  An interesting fact is that they plant an artichoke plant at the end of each row of grapes.  They do this because the artichoke will attract insects first to give the farmers a warning if they need to treat the grape vines to prevent an infestation.

Some people refer to San Gimignano as the “Manhattan of Tuscany” because of the many tall towers that were built.  Several are still standing.  We had a wonderful view of the town from Fattoria Poggio Alloro.  Besides being a cute town in a beautiful countryside, it also has some of the best gelato in the world.

Pisa was a fun quick stop, but there is not much to do there besides taking the usual Pisa pictures.  The most memorable part of the stop was the small train (one similar to what you would ride in from the parking lot at an amusement park) that picked us up from our bus and drove us into the city.  It is amazing and a little scary at how fast it goes.