Europe 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.

Our trek was long, hot, tiring, and filled with beauty as we traveled on a tour to the coastline of Italy to visit Cinque Terre, a group of five small coastal towns along the Mediterranean Sea.  Our trip included a bus to Manarola, a train to Corniglia, a three plus mile hike to Vernazza, a train to Monterosso, and a boat ride to Riomaggiore.  It was amazing scenery and well worth the trip!

We took the train to Corniglia where we had a nice lunch and tried several delicacies, including octopus and sardine.

After lunch we started on our 3 mile trek across the hillside to Vernazza.

On another train to Monterosso, where we were able to take a dip in the Mediterranean Sea and cool off.

Leaving Monterosso we climbed aboard a ship to view the towns we had visited while taking us to Riomaggiore.

Besides a now thriving tourist industry, these towns survived over the years by terracing the hillside to grow grapes and other crops.  The walls built to create the terraces do not use cement, only stacked rocks with small rocks used to fill the gaps.  This allows the rain to filter through the walls without destroying them.  All of the walls created in these five small towns, if put end to end, would be longer than the Great Wall of China.

We have discovered the key to keeping teenage girls happy on a hot, humid, day in Florence, Italy: alternate between air-conditioned museums with good audio tours, a little street vendor shopping, and gelato (we recommend twice a day).

Today we spent the day seeing the sights around Florence.  Our morning started with a trip to the Academia to see the statue of David and other works of art by Michelangelo; followed by viewing the amazing collection of art at the Uffizi Gallery, a stroll across the Ponte Vecchio, and a stop by the Straw market to rub the nose of the boar.  If you rub it you have good luck to bring you back to Florence (it worked the last time Karen and I were here.)  For the museums we highly recommend the Firenze card.  It allows you to enter the museums through the reserved line, no matter the time you are there, which greatly reduces your waiting time outside the museums.

We then ended our day with a fantastic, true Italian dinner (no pizza for Kelsey) at La Giostra.

Today we said “Ciao” to Rome and hopped on the high-speed train to Florence, Italy.  Ninety minutes later, we were walking to our hotel.  We spent the afternoon getting familiar with Florence and climbed the many steps to the top of the dome of the Duomo (the big cathedral).  It was an amazing view of the city.

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The weather continues to be very hot and humid.  We are grateful for cold drinks and air conditioning in our hotel.