Under the Tuscan Sun: Part One

By the time we packed our bags and caught the train up to Siena, we had really begun to hit our traveling stride.  We had developed a system wherein Colby would navigate from place to place, and then I would deal with buying tickets, checking in for reservations, or reading the background on whatever site we were getting ready to visit in our guidebook.  It wasn't until Siena that we really began to make full use of our guidebook though.

Tip #1:  If there is a Rick Steves guidebook for the city, region, or country to which you are traveling, BUY IT!  Lori loaned us their Rick Steves books for Tuscany and Rome, and we had our own Italy guidebook put out by Frommers.  Of course, a guidebook preference is going to depend a lot on what you want to get out of it, but we found the Frommers book to be less informative, a little stuffy, and more geared toward an older audience who was looking to spare no expense.  We weren't looking to blow all of our cash at every meal, and Rick Steves had fantastic suggestions on where to find really great food at really great prices.  There were also self guided tours for most of the sites we visited written in a very informative and humorous style.  By the end of our trip, we were on a first name basis with good old Rick and now we're hooked on his PBS travel show. 

     

So, we left Rome after a 4:45 am wake up call (UGH!) and caught an early train into Siena.  The process at the train station was extremely easy--we bought our tickets at a sort of ticket ATM and then found our train by checking the departure boards.  It was a little tricky at first, but we'd given ourselves plenty of time to figure it out.

We arrived in Siena after a 3 hour train ride, and caught a taxi to our absolutely lovely temporary residence, Villa Elda.  Charming doesn't even begin to describe this beautiful villa, and we were treated to the most beautiful view of the heart of Siena from our bedroom window.  Of course, the top of the Duomo was covered in scaffolding, but even with the cranes and construction equipment, I was immediately in love with Siena.

Tip #2: I don't know if this is true for all hotels in Italy, but we stayed in five separate hotels in three different regions, and none of the rooms came equipped with an alarm clock or a iron and ironing board.  In Florence, we were able to borrow an ironing board and iron from the owner, but we just used Colby's watch to tell time and wake up calls to get us up in the morning.  This isn't really a complaint, but it is something to be aware of, and I probably would have done more ironing before we left and brought along a travel alarm clock if I had known about this in advance.

 

We only had one day in Siena, so we immediately departed our hotel, and made the ten minute walk into the tiny center of Siena.  That was when the hills started--and they didn't stop for the rest of our trip!  I think it's safe to say that we walked a lot more in Rome, and covered a lot more ground, but what we didn't appreciate at the time, was how flat Rome was.  From Siena to Florence to Positano to Capri we did nothing but walk up and down hills.  Some were gently sloping, some were steep and exhausting, all of them contributed to my ability to eat gigantic servings of gelato and three or four course dinners without gaining a pound!

In Siena we visited the truly stunning Duomo, ate lunch on Il Campo, wandered through the maze of streets, and stopped into San Domenico church where I was utterly freaked out by the relics they had on display--namely St. Catherine's head in a small, gilded box.  That is one Catholic tradition that I just cannot get behind!  We had dinner at a sweet little trattoria called Il Tamburino where I ate the most amazing walnut and mushroom ravioli.  A ravioli that I still dream about at night...

Tip #3:  The basic 7 Eur for a liter house wines in Italy are simply amazing.  There is really no reason to spend that much on a glass of wine, or 15-20 Eur on a bottle.  Just as for the house wine and then use the money you save on an amazing dessert or delicious appetizer.  All we drank in Italy were the house wines, and we were never disappointed.

The next morning, we took an hour long bus ride to Florence, and arrived at our B&B, Casa del Garbo, right on Piazza della Signoria, right in the heart of historic Florence.  We took our time settling into our room, and then made our way to the meeting point for our ArtViva! tour of the Uffizi Gallery.  Like Angel Tours, ArtViva! is another tour group that I would recommend to anyone whole heartedly.  Our tour guide at the Uffizi was an American who had lived in Italy for seven years, and I would swear that she knew everything there was to know about Italian history and art.  For me, the highlights of the Uffizi were Botticelli's Venus and Primavera and Leonardo's Annunciation.

Tip #4:  It's true that you are not allowed to take photos in the Uffizi, but don't do like us and leave your camera at home.  There is a beautiful view of Ponte Vecchio on one end of the Uffizi, and on the other end a lovely view of the river with San Miniato in the distance.

We needed another break after hours on our feet in the Uffizi, so we made a gelato stop and then hiked up to Piazzale Michelangelo to visit San Miniato Church and see the sunset over Florence.  We had hoped to see the vespers at San Miniato at 5:30, so we showed up a little early and entered the church to find seats.  To our surprise, the small church was already filled to capacity and it turned out that there was some kind of reading being given that night.  So, we stuck around for about an hour, hoping that the vespers would begin late, but when a group began performing Gregorian Chants we thought that the informal men's group in the Pantheon had far outperformed them, so we slipped out the back door and headed back over to the Piazzale.

Sunset was absolutely beautiful, even through the clouds that had begun following us around Italy, and Colby went crazy taking pictures.  Once dusk had fully set in, we walked back down toward our hotel and just opted for a sandwich in our room while watching some wild and crazy Italian Wheel of Fortune!

The next morning we met another ArtViva! tour group for a walking tour of Florence where we got a great overview of the history of the city and then ended up in the lovely Duomo.  The interior of Florence's Duomo was much simpler than Siena's, but still impressive in its own unique way.  We took a lunch break after the tour, at a very nice and inexpensive Italian restaurant--McDonald's, I think it was called?--and then went back to the Duomo to climb to the top of the dome for another view of Florence.

That afternoon we met up with ArtViva! for the last time to visit David at the Academia.  I think out of all the ancient buildings and beautiful art that we saw in Italy, my very favorite experience was walking up that hallway of Michelangelo's Prisoners and seeing the beautiful, fourteen foot tall David rising before us in all of his glory.  Even after seeing the copies in Piazza della Signoria and Piazzale Michelangelo, I wasn't prepared for how beautiful and elegant David would be.  Every vein was perfectly sculpted, the nostrils were flared delicately as though he were taking his last long breath before going off to face his foe, the fingers were curled tightly around his slingshot, and above all else, his ass was AMAZING!

There isn't much else to see in the Academia, a few paintings and some plaster models, but there was a nice exhibit on 15th and 16th century musical instruments, so we managed to fill the time before we were all kicked out at closing time.  We headed to dinner and then decided to take a walk through the statue filled loggia on the other side of the Piazza from our hotel.  Just at that point, the skies opened up and the rain began pouring down in sheets.  It was really beautiful, just sitting on a bench amongst all of that beautiful art and watching how the rain and light combined to turn the statues into haunting silhouettes.

And thus ends the first half of our time in Florence.  More pictures from the Tuscan leg of our trip can be found here, and I'll pick up next time with our day trips to Chianti and Pisa and our final day in Florence.

Comments

[Cat]

I am so jealous, I love looking at all your pictures. Siena was my absolute favorite city in Italy, although I didn't get to half the places you did.

[Jass]

Oh I love the beautiful art in the churches! I could sit and stare for hours. :-)

What a fun and amazing honeymoon Angela! I can't wait to hear and see more.

[katelin]

I love all your pictures, they're amazing. I seriously want to head off to Italy right now :)

[dreamgrrl]

oh LE SIGH........ only 4 more months till I'm there....... AHH I can't wait for more, then im totally emailing you with any other questions I have!

[Miriam]

I can't get over how hysterical your pictures are :) How did your shoes hold up by the by with all the hills?

[Caro]

Love your recaps. Love your pictures. So beautiful :)

[Tipp]

That is so weird about the alarm clocks!
I would have overslept everyday!

I love the pic of you doing the booty pinching!

[slynnro]

I love the sweater you are wearing in all these pics.

[Bre]

The pictures are OUTSTANDING and I can feel my fingers itching to grab the passport and go!! I'm so jealous, but I'm also quite glad that you clearly had an amazing time!

[Brittany]

Oh Florence, my most favoritest place in the whole of the world!! I guess that isn't fair since I haven't visited a lot of the world... but going off what I've seen thus far... Florence wins!

Your recaps make me so nostalgic... I'm ready to go back!

[CurlySue]

I ooohh'd and awh'd all throughout this. What an amazing time! Beautiful picks!! You'll never forget it. :)

[TasterSpoon]

Amazing.

I'd also like to hear about the shoes.

[sophie]

Looks and sounds so incredible! Love the cute photos. Add me to the list of the shoe curious.

[1218blog]

Thanks for the great tips! You guys seemed like you were on the go a lot. Did you actually get to relax some?

[Fraulein N]

Oh, I'm drooling over these pictures. This is my kind of vacation! I gotta get there.

[RisibleGirl]

Wow, it's so weird to see you in the same places we were almost exactly one year ago!

I think that the Uffizi is a more than one day tour. I was too hurried to really enjoy all of it and wish I could have taken more time there.

You're totally right about the wine. The house wine at the the Trattoria's were my absolute favorites.

I also agree with you about the differences between the Duomos in Florence and Siena. Both beautiful, but two different vibes.

Oh this is so fun! :)

On to the next leg....

[Becky]

Your trip seems amazing and I love all the photos. Whenever I get a chance to book my trip, I'll have to come back here for guidance:)