Europe June 2011 -- Fun in Tuscany with Ramona & Aidan: Part 2. San Gimignano, Pisa & Florence

This is a leftover picture from Siena, but it could be a scene from almost anywhere -- a person who is a street performer, in this case a living statue, getting dressed for his gig.  It's common to see them do this and fun to watch them get into costume and makeup.

After that lovely lunch at the agriturismo, we rode on over to San Gimignano.  By this time, I was really getting weary.  My knees hurt and I was just dragging.  I watched as the bus drove by this entrance to the town hoping they would let us off here.  But noooooo, we went to the lowest parking lot and had to walk back uphill to get to the entrance.

Walking up a slope isn't nearly as bad for me as going up and down stairs, but there were some of those, too.   Ramona, Aidan and Trout handled the hike just fine, but I was very slow.  I had on my good hiking Salomons with some wicking socks I got at REI.  At one point I pulled up my pants and my ankles were exceedingly swollen and the tops of the socks were cutting into my legs so much that it looked like they were those balloon animals twisted in the middle.  When I moved the top of the sock down to my ankle, I was much more comfortable.  I made sure to get a few good whines out of the situation, though.

San Gimignano is a very touristy town, but it's still interesting to see.  I linked to a Wikipedia article above, but I found no really good articles on the town.  The major interest is the towers.  It was a common thing during the middle ages for the wealthy to build towers to show off their wealth, the bigger the better.  At one time San Gimignano had 70+ of them.  Now there are only about 14.  I was so pooped, I shot no pictures of them, but you can see lots of good pictures here.

We walked uphill through lots of shops ready to take our money, until we got to the Piazza della Cisterna.

We had to have some world champion gelato, naturally.

Like so many others, we sat on the steps of the "well" to gawk and enjoy the gelato.  You can also see a wedding party having pictures made here.

It turns out that this is no ordinary well.  The cistern from which the piazza gets its name is under it.  It was designed about 800 years ago to be a rainwater collection device.  The runoff goes into the cistern and the well is the way the people got to the water.  And we think we're so clever...

This is a hotel right on the piazza.  We didn't go inside but I suspect the rooms are quite nice and quite pricey.

These kinds of views are what make Tuscany so attractive to so many people.  I have to admit that in spite of this area being cultivated and populated for millenia, it is still beautiful.  I took these pictures on the way back (down, thank goodness) to the bus.

Our longest bus ride of the day was to Pisa from San Gimignano.  This is the famous Piazza dei Miracoli with the Duomo, Baptistry and Bell (Leaning) Tower.  Even though it was a Saturday in June, it wasn't as crowded as I expected.


There's something about this setting with only the green grass and the buildings that I find particularly appealing.

Trout found the steps to a chapel on the tower side appealing.  Many of the larger churches keep one chapel open for people to go in and light candles and pray without having to pay an entrance fee.  I went in this chapel and did that.  It was the 1st chapel I had been to where the candles are now battery operated.  I could look at the rest of the cathedral, but I couldn't go into it to see anything close up.  It was well-guarded to prevent that.

Ramona and Aidan went around to explore on their own.  I walked around the Duomo.

I liked this drain design.  You many remember a very similar one I shot at the Forum when we were in Rome in 2009.

Here wheelchair access becomes a bicycle ramp for this child and his grandmother.

This is the Baptistry.

This is the entrance side to the Duomo.

Our long day was complete with the visit to Pisa.  We got on the bus and headed back to Florence.  We took a taxi back to our apartment and once again ate at Baldovino.

The next day was Sunday.  In spite of my attempts to schedule our must-sees so as not to conflict with things Ramona had already seen, I couldn't get tickets to the Accademia to see Michelangelo's David except on this Sunday.


That worked out okay because she wanted to take Aidan to a Micky D's and to ride on the carousel at the Piazza della Repubblica.  You can see the carousel in the aerial pictures shown in the Wikipedia link.


I linked to some photos of the David above.  I didn't take any pictures inside the galleries. 

After our time at the Accademia, we walked to the piazza and watched Aidan from a sidewalk cafe while we had a little snack.  She was definitely having a good time.

From there we went on to the Palazzo Vecchio.  Trout and I watched Aidan while Ramona went inside.  We hung out in the open sculpture court called the Loggia dei Lanzi and played games with Aidan on the steps while Ramona enjoyed the Palazzo.

These buildings and scuptures are all off the Piazza della Signoria, a significant and major square in Florence.  We went through it many times on the way to other places as well as just for its own sake.

It was getting close to dinner time, so that meant going to the Golden View Open Bar.  Ramona recommended it and we had already eaten there once on our own.  She didn't have to twist our arms to get us to go.  She noticed the place because it was one of the few places that is open all day without shutting down in the afternoon.  Then there was the fun decor, the great location and the  food. 

It was super having Ramona and Aidan come up and join us for that weekend in Florence.  We had lots of fun in spite of my whining in San Gimignano.  She has what I think is the perfect attitude about traveling and the costs involved.  She decides how much she wants to spend and when the money starts to run out, it's time to go home.  If it doesn't run out, more's the better.  The travel gurus all say to make that decision in Euros (these days) and forget about comparing them to dollars all the time. 

I'm really pleased that she and Jason understand the value of experiences and have taken good advantage of their time in Europe.  They have seen and done things I'm sure they will never forget, and I think Aidan will remember the feeling of living in Italy and their travels, even if she doesn't remember the details.  I'm sure there are many military families that hardly venture away from the immediate area where they live and hate every minute of being there.  I certainly saw them in Germany in the 80s, even though the exhange rate (marks back then) was so favorable to the American dollar.

Of course, we all know that regardless of how much or how little money we have, we all spend it on the things we enjoy or think are important, right?  That's why I'm sceptical when people say that they can't "afford" something.  I think that really means that whatever they can't afford really isn't as much of a priority for them as what they can.  

 

Europe June 2011 -- Fun in Tuscany with Ramona & Aidan: Part 1. Siena & an Agriturismo

When Ramona and I started planning for her and Aidan to spend the weekend with us in Florence, we compared notes on what she wanted to see and didn't need to see again with what I wanted to see and didn't mind seeing again.  Trout was just along for the ride because it was all new to him.

I decided that a day trip on a big tourist bus (not my usual type of tourist option) would be the most efficient way to get a lot of sightseeing done in one day and include some of our must-sees and dos while in Tuscany.  The option I chose is Walkabout's Best of Tuscany Tour.   It was a long day and at first Trout thought it would be too long for Aidan, but Ramona said she thought it looked great and that they had been on similar tours of similar lengths and Aidan did just fine.  That proved to be a totally correct prediction of the way things went.  Aidan was great the whole time.

We got up early on Saturday morning (June 11th), everyone got ready and we took a taxi to the train station where we were to meet the bus for the tour.  Sidebar:  There were no bathrooms on the bus, so I had to make one last pit stop in the train station.  I almost got locked in because the lock on the stall I chose was not working right.  After hollering, the attendant -- thank goodness for those attendants -- came and got me out.

We loaded on the busses.  Ramona said that someone she knew on base had been on this same tour, said it was great and hoped we got Stefano for our guide.  We found our seats and our guide got on.  It was Stefano!  He was an absolute delight, one of those adorable, blue-eyed northern Italian men with a stumbling command of English and a great self-deprecating sense of humor.  He was somewhere around 30 and a university student getting an advanced degree in hospitality/tourism.

We took off and drove through the Tuscan countryside to our first stop, Siena.  I had been to Siena before...way back in the 70's.  That time I also went on a a guided tour.  It was well worth it, as was this one.

After taking a series of escalators up the hill (Tuscany, remember?) to the city, we met up with a guide who did the local tour of the city for our group.  She was also funny and had some lively banter about the rivalry between Florence and Siena.

Our first stop was the Basilica of San Francesco.  Although I appreciate Gothic and many other types of church architecture, these are the kinds of churches I usually prefer.

Then we started walking through the narrow, medieval streets of the city with our guide pointing out things along the way.

I liked the stone on this building.

Another one had heads of many famous Italians, but Dante is always a favorite, even if he was born in that pesky rival, Florence.

You can always spot the tourists -- cameras, backpacks, looking up...

The goal of any trip to Siena is the central piazza, the Piazza del Campo.  This is one of the most renowned plazas in the world.  It's not only beautiful architecturally, but a central place for locals and tourists of all stripes. 

Perhaps the most famous event held here is the horse race called the Palio.  Go to the link for more information on that.  What we learned that was a surprise to us is that there are 17 "contrade" or areas of town that can participate.   Only 10 are chosen, so the potential participants cheer or groan if they are chosen or not.  They do not have their own horses.  The horses are chosen separately so cheers or groans go up among the 10 participants when their horse is announced. 

The piazza is covered in dirt for the horses to run on.  People crowd into the center of the ring (about 30,000 of them) or watch from the buildings around it.  If you saw Under the Tuscan Sun, you saw some of the pageantry involved in the whole event.

The horses run around the ring 3 times and the winner is determined by which horse gets to the finish line first -- with or without its rider.  The riders do not use saddles.  For a general idea of this event, take a look at this video clip.  There are many more on You Tube, some done like sporting coverage, some very long.

We were not there for the Palio, so it was just a somewhat normal Saturday morning.

This is the Torre del Mangia, Tower of the Eater.  It was named for its first guardian who tended to spend all his money on food.

This wasn't quite an average Saturday because it was the last day of school for some kids.  They went for a short time in the early morning and then were released.  These ones chose to come to the fountain, fill up water bottles and douse each other.

We crossed the piazza and headed toward the Duomo.

My first trip here, we didn't go to the Duomo.  We concentrated on the Basilica of San Domenico.   I must have taken this picture from the most popular spot to do it because the link has almost the same shot.  This church contains several relics of St. Catherine of Siena.

Somebody had their tights out to dry.

The is the entrance to one of the contrade neighborhoods.

This is the entrance to the stables where the horses are kept around the time of the Palio.

Siena is definitely a medieval town.

After going through the narrow and somewhat steep streets, we came out on the piazza in front of the Cathedral of Siena.   The cathedral or duomo is a great example of Italian Gothic architecture, but it is particularly known for the marble floor that took almost 200 years to complete.

Pet peeve:  I'm often flabbergasted at the number of people who go on trips to other countries without learning  anything about where they are going, especially about the culture.  I think that's the major cause of the misunderstandings that make Americans look ugly and make Americans think that people in other countries are rude to them.

On our tour was one woman (at least 40) in very tight short, shorts and a tank top.  She carried nothing with her to use to cover up.  No church anywhere in Catholic Europe that I know of will allow anyone (males included) inside with their knees or shoulders showing.  Usually the idiots who try to go in dressed inappropriately are simply turned away, which I think is the way it should be.  Some churches provide paper wraps for those who are so disrespectful.  This was one of those churches and that woman got 2, one for each over-exposed body area.  One good thing about the wraps is that the whole time the person is in the church, everyone can see that they are an idiot.

Although our experience on this trip was that the European "dress codes" so many people worry about are much more relaxed than people think, especially in summer, this was one case where the person was way out of line and at her age, she should have known better. 

Across the piazza is the old hospital of Santa Maria della Scala.  The earliest official record of this hospital is from 1090, but legends about it go back to 898.  It's now a museum, but when it was built, it was one of the first hospitals in Europe.  It's original purpose was to house pilgims on the way to Rome as well as to help abandoned children and the poor.  It was a hospital until 1996.  If we go back, I would like to spend some time inside.

Now back to that marble floor.  There are many scenes or designs done with several colors of marble. 

My favorites were the ones showing people.  The gold marble is the rarest.

As with most churches of this era, there are many amazing works of art.

These are pictures from the library.

Gotta love that floor.

Large hymnals were on display.

Art of all types is not only beautiful, but also a fine historical research source.  Until I went to college, I knew nothing of art history and not much of history at all, except Texas history, of course.  My first class was a basic art appreciation one and I was hooked.  Both for scene and costume design, the way we learned about how things looked and what people wore was through the art of the times. 

Its not only about the art.  It's about the culture which includes buildings and religion and politics and food and clothing and, and, and...  The dates and battles and rulers were never of interest to me, but the context in which they existed became a fascination that is ongoing.

These are some pictures of the sides and back of the Duomo.

Now we had a blessed downhill walk back to the piazza where we explored and hung out until it was time to go back to the bus.  I had already explored the bathroom at the Duomo.  I knew it would be clean and nice and worth the 1/2 Euro cost.  Trout, Ramona and Aidan did not take the time to do that, so we bought drinks at a bar.  The ticket proof of the purchase allowed them to use the bathroom. 

This is a common practice throughout Europe, especially in very touristy areas.  It sounds money-grubbing to most Americans, but these places would be overrun with lines out the door if they didn't require people to buy something.  Most public bathrooms at tourist sites also charge to help pay for the maintenance of the facility.  If you go to a free public bathroom in most places you will gladly pay the next time.

A wedding was happening somewhere close by.  Trout zoomed in on these cars like a hawk.  Here he is with Aidan.

Can you see Ramona with the camera behind the car?

Our visit to Siena was over and it was getting close to lunch time.  That meant we made our way down the hill and escalators to the bus.  I was usually the last person to get to and on the bus.  More about that in the next posting.

Our next stop was an agriturismo for a tour and lunch.  It was at a farm that specializes in wine and Chianina cattle.  We did a very short tour and then had a lovely lunch at long tables under an arbor overlooking the Tuscan hills.  I was too enthralled to take pictures after we sat down.

At this farm, they "test" the health of the vines with roses.  They plant roses that are susceptible to the same kinds of diseases as the vines, only the roses get them sooner.  So if the rose gets sick, they know to treat the vines right away.

There are some itsy bitsy grapes on this vine.

The cattle were cute.

There were a couple of babies.

You gotta love a place with lizards.

The wine fermentation vats were interesting.

As were these old Chianti jugs -- there only for show, I'm sure.

Ramona thought Aidan would be put off by the cattle smell but she had no problem with the Chianina.  It was the wine smell that she didn't like.

Trout made out like a bandit on the wine.  He got Ramona's and my share since neither of us drank any.  After lunch we were off for a very short drive to San Gimignano.  In fact, we could see it from the farm.  Too bad there wasn't time for a nap.