Day 7- Day Trip Part 2- San Gimignano and Pisa

Our next top on our day trip was to the hilltop town of San Gimignano. This town is tough enough for an English speaker to pronounce sober, so in our tipsy state we quickly gave up and called it “San Quibbus” for the rest of the trip. Not sure where it came from, but it was funny at the time and it stuck. The term “hilltop town” is extremely literal, and we had to do quite a bit of climbing to get to the main part of town, which, like most towns, included a main street with lots of shops, leading up to a square and a church. Once we reached the top, we saw quite the view:



We stopped and got gelato at our guide Stefano’s uncle’s shop. This was one of my favorite gelatos of the whole trip. They had really interesting flavors at this place. I ended up mixing 3: grapefruit champagne, raspberry rosemary, and blackberry lavender. They were all really interesting and delicious.

Here are the steps in the square where we sat and ate our gelato:


Here is Ilya with his gelato in his favorite flavor: chocolate!


Here I am wandering about the town:


I think we also went into a cafe and got a hot chocolate so we could use their bathroom. Here is a picture that shows just how steep this town was:


We ducked off on a side street and found an overlook with a really nice view of the countryside and saw a kitty. After our short visit to San Quibbus, we made it back to the bus to head over to Pisa. This was a bit of a long drive, and as the wine wore off, everyone was pretty sleepy. It was a struggle to stay awake, but the scenery outside the bus was too good to miss. It was just endless rolling hills. Once we arrived in Pisa, Stefano got very excited because we were going to ride a “choo-choo train” into the main area of Pisa, and it is one of his favorite parts of the day. It was this little dinky...car type thing with a few “train cars” attached, and it drove us around on the streets. It even said “Tchoo-Tchoo Train” on it, and Stefano sat in the front and yelled choo choo into the microphone and we all giggled. Once we got to where all the action was, Stefano showed us around and gave us a little tutorial on how to take the best picture of yourself holding up the tower:



Oh Stefano!

Here are our best attempts:




And here is the scene where tons of people gather to get the same shot:


It is quite leany!



Lots of people opt to climb the tower. Not us! We wandered around a bit through the town. There was a public garden but it was closed for All Saints Day. To be honest, Pisa was a bit boring. I am glad we got to go and take pictures and see the tower, but that’s about all there is to do there, so I’m glad we didn’t spend any more time there than we did.


We played around and tried to get some pictures of Ilya mid-jump, with varying degrees of success:




On the ride back to Florence, the Texan honeymooners sitting in front of us overheard us trying to figure out where to eat dinner. They turned around and recommended a place they had already eaten at twice, called Ciro and Sons. We decided to give it a try, and we headed over once we got off the bus. We got a little lost on the way but actually ran into the same couple who had just left the place -- they stopped by a third time to buy a bottle of the house wine to take home and drink on their first wedding anniversary -- and they pointed us in the right direction. We sat outside and enjoyed a nice meal. Of course, we shared a bottle of house wine that was so highly recommended to us. I got the tomato soup to start:


and I finally got to have pesto pasta as my entree:


That’s nutmeg around the rim of the plate. My second nutmeg-laced meal. Ilya got some wacky seafood pizza:


After this we did our usual walking around. I am sure we got gelato before heading back to our hotel to call it a night after our favorite day of the trip.

Day 7- Day Trip Part 1- Siena and Wine Tasting Lunch

This was probably the day we looked forward to the most the whole trip. We took an all-day bus tour of Tuscany called the Best of Tuscany tour. We had breakfast at our hotel and then had to meet a bus at the nearby train station around 8:30 AM. Our guide was a native Italian in his late 20s named Stefano, and he was very endearing. Our first stop of the day was a walking tour of Siena where we met with a separate guide to show us the sights. Siena is a charming old town with a lot of history. One of the first stops we made was here in front of Monte Dei Paschi Bank. This particular branch is the oldest operational bank in the world. There were businessmen coming in and out of it while we were there:


Here are a few more pics of this area:



I like the different public figures sticking their heads out of this building:


Here I am in the Siena town square:


This square is the venue for the annual horse race. This square is full to the brim with people in the summer heat, and they all go bonkers cheering for their municipality’s horse. It’s a pretty big deal. We watched a video about it on the bus. The race is usually fixed or people are paid off to lose on purpose, and that’s just all part of the tradition. Here are a few more views of the square:



Here is a random picture of one of the countless narrow streets:


And here is a pretty view we found:


One of the last things we did on our Siena visit was see an old hospital that had been converted to a museum, called Santa Maria della Scala. Directly across from it was this beautiful church:


We had some time to kill before we had to meet up with our group again in the square, so we once again decided to get a hot chocolate...this time with a cookie to dip into it. This hot chocolate was nothing special, but it was a nice little treat. Here I am enjoying it in the square (look for the red jacket in my lap):


Next, we got back on the bus and headed to the winery for lunch. The drive was very scenic, and we had a great time just staring out the window. Once at the winery, we couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. Pictures really don’t do it justice:



We had a quick tour of the actual wine-production parts of the winery, and then we entered the dining room where our first course was waiting for us. We were told that the food was all organic, and each component was grown and produced at the estate with the exception of one type of cheese. The first course was garlic bread with olive oil, paired with a white wine:


We sat right there on the end, and this was our view:


Those little shrubs peeking in through the fence are rosemary. The next course was a pasta with meat sauce, paired with a red wine. Here is happy wine-induced Ang getting ready to sop up olive oil and/or pasta sauce:



After the wine was flowing, everyone stopped being shy and started talking to the folks around them. We chatted with a young couple from India, another couple of honeymooners from Texas, a single woman from Australia, and another single woman from New Zealand. The next course was a salad with some really nice meats and cheeses, paired with a second red wine.


The dessert was almond cookies paired with a sweet wine. Our guide Stefano was kind of funny about this. A few times on the bus before we got to the winery, he talked about how we simply MUST dip the cookies in the wine. He begged us over and over to make sure we dipped the cookies. I realized on this trip that I really enjoy dipping things, and I was more than happy to dip a delicious cookie in delicious wine, with fingers daintily poised as always:



After lunch we had about 20 minutes or so to soak up the beauty of the winery and take some more pictures. Everyone on the tour was VERY wine-soaked at this point. Giggles galore!





Stay tuned for part 2 of our day trip!