I love the tuscan countryside more and more each day. I cannot put into words how beautiful this place is, so I won’t. I’m going to attach photos instead.
Today was the day I went to Siena and San Gimignano. Siena is a town that held as much power as Florence way back in the day. Until Florence came in and took it over. Or something like that. I was so busy looking around that my attention to the tour guide went in and out. Nothing new for me.
The piazza in Siena is cool, it’s shaped like a shell and it looks like most of the town circles around it. If I had known how beautiful it was, I might have stayed there instead of Florence.
We had a tour of the church there. Or what’s left of it. At one time, it was larger than St. Peter’s Basilica. Now, only one wing is still intact. It has Michelangelo and Donatello statues in it. The floor will make your jaw drop. It’s all inlaid marble with the most amazing scenes. Thank god they don’t let you walk on it.
After our tour, we had awhile to lunch and look around. I had a nice lunch on the piazza and then wandered around. With gelato of course! I mean look at this stuff! How can you resist?
After Siena, we drove to San Gimignano, a small medieval town that is still mostly intact. It was just awesome. Oh, and I had some gelato there too! I had to, they have won awards. It was good, but it wasn’t as good as the one I had at Vivoli in Florence.
There were many stuffed boars in San Gimignano. They all had funky things going on. This one was wearing a hat. I saw another that was eating a piece of corn on the cob. Silly town.
On the tour I met a nice woman from Argentina. She’s traveling with her parents to help them out. She started in London and has done almost the same trip as myself. We talked about how we are 20 days in and are a little homesick. It’s true, I miss home, but I am also enjoying myself immensely here. We laughed at what a hard problem that is to have. 😉
I cannot believe I only have a few days left. It’s been a long trip that seems to be flying by. I’m really excited to get to Rome. I want to finally see this “outside museum.”
