Highlights of Tuscany–San Gimignano

Its Saturday and today we have two excursion by coach, we started off going to yet another hill town, San Gimignano for the day. Access to the town by coach is tightly controlled  and needs a pass to even get to the carpark and drop off point, from here you have to walk up to the old town gates or take a taxi.

Like most of the old towns it is surrounded by high walls with a few small gates taking you to the outside world. You can just see one of the gates in the middle of the second picture just by the end of the row of cars.

     Some gates are only big enough for pedestrians to pass through the wall like this one. The town is famous for two things, its towers, these were a sign of power and wealth so anyone who was anyone wanted a taller tower than the rest.

The other claim to fame is the Gelato and this small shop in the town square is reputed to be the best, we never saw the queue get any shorter whenever we passed. The photo on the right is the second best, that was a constant queue as well. 

     In one of the squares in a covered area this man was playing a pair or Handpan drums which look like up turned woks with dimples hammered into them. I found the sound it produced quite pleasant and we bought his CD. 

There are some spectacular views from the town looking out over the valleys to the surrounding mountains.

The town itself not only has narrow streets but long flights of steps, OK for walking or with a donkey but not so good if you want to get a cart up there, then its a case of taking the long route.

At 4pm. it was time for us to leave and we walked down, back to the coach stop to wait for our coach to return from the rather remote coach park about a mile away. We were now off for what was described as wine tasting with a meal at
Castello di Verrazzano.

Highlights of Tuscany–Castello di Verrazzano

After leaving San Gimignano we headed to more mountains, this time not a town but just a private dwelling on the top of a hill surrounded by its vineyards, this took about an hour. We went through the gate from the road down in the valley and slowly our coach climbed the single track drive to the Castle. 

We were met by a guide when we left the coach who explained that the owner still lived in the castle and most of the workforce lived on the estate, some had been working there for generations. Giovanni da Verrazzano was born at the castle, note its the family name and he is famous for discovering New York way back in 1524. After the guide had told us all that we were then shown round parts or the property.      

The castle not only produces wine, but they hang the grapes for several months inside buildings where they control the air flow to make  Balsamic Vinegar. 

This is fermented in very small barrels for 12 years and is much thicker and sweeter than other Balsamic vinegars that I have tasted also a lot more expensive at £45 a bottle but we did get to try half a tea spoon full with our cheese. They also make Olive Oil and cure hams.    

Now down to the serious bit, the wine tasting, this wasn’t like other wine tasting visits I have been on, we didn’t all stand around with glasses getting a dessert spoon full of wine to taste. We sat down for a three course meal with a different red wine from the vineyard served with each course, the prices running between about £12 and £50 a bottle, starting cheap and working up. Most of us didn’t notice the difference.We also had a small portion of cheese to dip in our Balsamic Vinegar, which I didn’t think did much to add to the cheese. It was all finished off with a dessert wine and biscuit.
I think we all thought it was a very enjoyable evening, well that’s apart from the coach driver who we kept hanging about for an extra three quarters of an hour. So we were late getting back to our hotel and he was late leaving off.

Highlights of Tuscany–Siena

On Monday we had an outing to Siena another very old town, a good hour and a half coach trip each way. Once we arrived we were met by a local guide by the fort and taken round the town. There is a good view of the town from the fort. As you can see its a good walk to the old town from where the coach dropped us.

The first place we visited was The Basilica of San Domenico which is dedicated to Saint Catharine of Siena and is one of the most important churches in Siena. They don’t allow any photographs to be take inside the building, but like many other buildings they have some very interesting out side lights.

     
The town is very famous for its horse racing that takes place every year in the centre of the old town at Il Campo. Its a crazy race as can be seen HERE The crowd congregates in the centre and the horses race round on a dirt track laid on to of the pavement as can be seen on this poster held out by our guide.

The town is a real maze of narrow streets and walkways and I think its only thanks to the app, Maps.me that we found our way back to the coach on time.

On our way to the Il Campo we passed the cathedral, there were plans for it to be much bigger and the end wall of the new wing got built, but then the Black Death swept through the region killing a high percentage of the population so the work was never completed and the end wall stands there in all its glory.

As well as the Cathedral, like many Italian cities there is the Baptistry, in this case the Baptistry of St John or Battistero di San Giovanni.

All around Siena there are images of a she wolf suckling two small boys, some white, some black. In some cases it looks as if the wolf is looking forward protecting the children, in others looking back to make sure they are safe under her. I expect you all know the tale of Romulus, founder of Rome, and his brother Remus.

We had to be back at the coach by 3pm so after the guided tour finished we found a nice little café to have lunch outside. This was a leisurely affair and it was a brisk walk back to the coach afterwards. We did arrive back in time for a brief walk round the fort, there is only one entrance and in the centre a large amphitheatre and a single building. Other than that the ground level is within a meter of the top of the walls.  Walking round to the coach it started to rain quite heavily, the only rain we had in 10 days.

Highlights of Tuscany–Heading Home

We said goodbye to the lovely staff at the hotel, I must say they have been really charming, friendly and helpful all week.
At 0815 the coach was waiting outside the hotel to take us to Viareggio to catch a train, the start of our journey home, our party was depleted slightly, two people had left us at Siena to continue their holiday in Italy for a bit and three Americans would be flying home from Florence airport.
We had to change trains at Genoa which gave us the opportunity to get something to eat on the station. The station is a real mixture of old and new and is situated right on the mouth of a tunnel. Italian railways spend a lot of time going through tunnels.

Beside platform one I spotted a train made up of old carriages and trucks. Unfortunately it was coupled to a modern engine, that would have been the icing on the cake if it had been a working steam engine. One of the trucks was carrying a gun carriage and several old rifles. Unfortunately I didn’t spot this until we were waiting for our train to Nice so couldn’t get any more information.

At Nice a coach was waiting to take us to our hotel for just the one night, we were greeted with nibbles and wine up on the hotel roof terrace and given information about the town. The hotel have managed to fit a small lift within the shaft of the original lift, the only problem was it could only accommodate 2 people.  
 

We have stayed in Nice before and this church is a very good landmark for spotting how far up the main street you are  to get back to the hotel.

The views from our third floor window weren't’ great but they did show the local architecture quite nicely.

      The next morning there was a coach to take us to the station, but it was only a small coach with no luggage hold so the driver insisted on taking all the passengers to the station first and then going back for the luggage and Kate while we stood outside the station. It would have been OK if they hadn’t missed a bag and had to do a third trip to find it. With the one way streets and traffic it would probably have been quicker to walk and get it. Thankfully Kate being well organised had us at the station in good time to catch our train to Paris. We were traveling first class on this part of the journey which was just as well as it was around 6 hours long, The coach was waiting to take us to Gare du Nord where we caught the Eurostar back to the UK, this one was on time. As it was well into the evening we had booked into the Euston Rd Premier inn, The staff there were the most friendly I have come across in the UK.
Next morning it was a Minicab across to Victoria Coach Station , this was frustrating with the traffic and then waiting for the mounted Horse Guards to pass, only to get behind 3 horse drawn open carriages heading for the back gates of Buckingham Palace. As our driver said, the newest emission free transport stuck behind the oldest .
Things didn’t end there, as our coach was late getting in due to the weight of traffic and our driver needed a break before his return journey to Norwich. When we did finally arrive in Norwich, the coach station was full of police cars, armed officers and dogs looking for someone who had robbed people armed with a knife.