Tuscany, Siena - a magical place

Could there be anything better than waking up on your birthday in Florence, Italy.  I was so looking forward to my day.  Ilaria from Fun inTuscany was taking us to Siena and another vineyard for lunch and a tasting.  Up we all get and head to the local cappuccino and pastry bar to start the day.  Siena is only about an hours drive from Florence, so I took a chance on a large coffee.

Ilaria had her van decorated for my birthday with balloons, hats and leis.  Getting in the spirit of it, I might be a year older I may as well enjoy it.  I popped the little hat on and proudly wore the lei in the Italian colours (I'm sure part of me is Italian after all).

First stop the beautiful city of Siena.  Parking in all of these walled cities can be a nightmare, thankfully Ilaria knew all the tricks.  She dropped us off at the Basilica Cateriniana de San Domenico, 

 

 

 

St. Catherine is not only the patron saint of Siena but also a co-patroness of Rome and a joint patron of Italy with Saint Francis of Assisi.  Remember the term reliquary, well they have one of St Catherine's head in the basilica.  This picture is from their website.  And yes it is her actual head.  This church is a pilgrimage site.  She was responsible for Pope Gregory XI returning to Italy from Avignon.  

I somehow missed the big sign that said no pictures below.  It is considered a very holy site, only whispers permitted and yes no pictures.  There was a very spiritual and holy feel to it.  

We continued our walk up and down the hills of Siena.  Lots of alleyways and basically no cars.

Ilaria takes us to her favourite cappuccino bar.  It's called Nannina's.  And was delish.  Ilaria not missing a chance to celebrate my birthday, brought a pastry with a candle in it.  LOL.  She was brought up in Siena, her grandmother and mother still live there.  After our coffee we stopped in to see her mother as she had to pick up another surprise for me :).  This is FUN IN TUSCANY.  LOL

We headed down to the famous Piazza del Campo (this Piazza is one of the reasons UNESCO recognizes Siena as the ideal embodiment of a medieval city) where Ilaria popped out a bottle of champagne.  The day just keeps getting better and better.




As we drank our champagne Ilaria gave us a history of the famous Palio Horse Race that runs around the square twice a year, once in July and once in August.  The town is divided into contradas (neighbourhoods) and they all wear the flag of their contrada.  The people are in the middle of the square while the horses race around the outside.

 This is the crest of Ilaria's family.  Needless to say how could I resist buying a scarf and draping it around my shoulders to match my other decorations :)

Siena Cathedral

    

We were given an hour to wander around Siena before we headed off to the vineyard for lunch :).  How could I not stop in this little store to pick up my handmade Christmas Santa :)

To get to our next stop we were able to sit back and enjoy a beautiful drive through the Tuscan countryside.  At the top of this long driveway is Querceto di Castellina, an organic family vineyard.  Our hostess was actually from Napa and had met and married her husband and became a part of the vineyard family.  She explained to us about the rooster that appears on every bottle of Chianti Classico and what the DOCG rating means:

"Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG): Seeing this on the label of your wine bottle means that the wine producers followed the strictest regulations possible to make that wine. The wine was tested a committee that then guarantees the geographic authenticity of the wine and its quality. There are currently only a handful of Italian wines that qualify for DOCG status." DOCG, DOC

The vineyard was built on a hill with magnificent views.  We met 2 ladies there who were taking a week long cooking class (no husbands).  There are 4 wines to taste with our meal today.  As you can see Jim has totally recovered and is not missing a drop today.

What a fun holiday with a great group of family and friends.  Thank you to Ilaria for making our last day in Tuscany so memorable.  One last stop on the way home to find our "Gladiator" moment.  

We are all very sad about leaving this beautiful piece of Italy.  The countryside, the cities, the history, the people, the wine the coffee, the food (I could keep going on and on) are truly beautiful. 

Pisa - home of the Leaning Tower

One of the reasons for picking Florence as our base for a week, was how easy it was to get to so many places.  Train travel in Italy is wonderful so today we hopped on a local train for a trip out to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower.  The train ride was about an hour, with what felt like a majority of it going through tunnels under the hills.  Before we knew it we landed in Pisa and had no idea where to go, but out popped the phone and google search had us heading in the right direction.  The first thing we came to was the Arno river, yes the same river that goes through Florence, right out to the Tyrrhenian Sea with a view of Santa Maria della Spina erected in the 1200s.  It was an amazing day, shorts, walking shoes, bottle water and my camera were all that was needed.  Jim would take care of feeding me :)

Everywhere we looked people were taking selfies or taking pictures of each other trying to hold the tower up.  How could we resist.  LOL it is harder than you think especially with so many people around.  My left hand actually looks like it is grabbing that poor man's bottom.

 

9 centuries after the tower was built it is still a big tourist attraction, even in October.  To help with crowd control, the city did timed entries to the church, the baptistery and the bell tower.  In the summer you better book these as soon as you book your flight.  The first time we could get was for 4 pm.  The sunset times were fully booked.  

We had no idea of the importance of the baptistery, we presumed it was for baptizing babies which it was.  What we didn't know was that you couldn't go into the church until you had been baptized and that back in the early days of Christianity, baptism required a full immersion of the body, not just a sprinkling on the head.  

The Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square) included the Baptistery (above) and the actual Cathedral and the Bell Tower.  The clergy would climb 296 steps on the south side to ring the bell to bring the townspeople to services, while the north side has only 294 steps.  Restoration work done in the 90's corrected the lean from 5.5 degrees to 3.99.   

I guess there is something to be said for getting a wee bit older.  In the last few years I have had lunch in the shadow of the Pantheon in Rome, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and now the Leaning Tower in Pisa.  Tick Tick Tick off my bucket list.  Tick Tick Tick as I add more places on to it.

The actual Town of Pisa is charming, full of cafes, little squares and lots of history.  Below is the Church built for the Order of Knights of St Stephan.  The Medici family was everywhere in Tuscany, this church was built by the Grand Duke Cosimo de Medici to help fight piracy on the seas.  

Italy is still full of amazing artists.  Imagine spending all day drawing this beautiful picture only to have it washed away by the street cleaners every night.  I couldn't even do a stick figure that would resemble a person never mind the detail this young man put into his work.

One final selfie as we head back to Florence.  Another reason why we picked Florence to stay in, you can have a glass or 2 of wine for lunch, relax in the apartment and then walk out for dinner without having to worry about driving, or cabs.  Priceless.