Siena
Piazza del Campo, shaped like a hollow shell, this piazza holds the famed Siena horserace annually. It is known as one of the most beautiful squares in the world. If I weren't on the tour, I would drop everything and gladly stay there to have a cup of coffee and soak in the sun at the square.
The color Siena, is supposed to have come from this city due to the color of its rooftops under the summer sun. Didn't really see it, but hey, it sure makes a good story.
Cathedral of Siena - The facade looks grand, but what I loved more was the marble sculpturing on the ground. Due to the wear and tear, it was open only for a few months in a year and mainly under restoration. Thank goodness, this time round my timing was good, and the floor was completely restored when I was there.
The tour stopped for an hour at this vineyard for lunch. Lunch was some salad with grated cheese, tomato fusili, desert was port with amaretto biscottis (almond flavored cookies) and free flow of white & red wine. The food was very home-made and rustic. I kept hitting the baskets of amaretto biscottis. They were so good !!
Next stop was San Gimignano, where my agenda was just to hit one of the best gelato in Italy. Now, practically most of the gelato i had in Italy was good. Not to say that the ones in Singapore like Island Creamery is bad, in fact, proud to say that those are comparable to the ones that I had in Italy. It's just the sheer variety of flavors that I could find in Italy was mind boggling.
Then, I had the gelato from this place. I was stuffed.. really STUFFED from lunch & those biscottis. But I had two ice creams from this place because it was just that good. If I remember correctly, I had grapefruit, amaretto, rum and Vernaccia(the local wine). I could get 2 flavors in a scope. The difference, the true difference, was that it was so light and creamy, I couldn't taste the ice in ice cream at all. It just felt like solidified cream without the heavy or rich feeling. It was not like Hagen Diaz, rich, thick and creamy. It just felt lighter, and not because someone whipped in alot of air or added alot of water. (If that description makes any sense at all, my power of description is truly appalling)
San Gimignano was not just all about the ice cream. (But for me, it pretty much was!)This town used to serve as an important relay point for pilgrims travelling to or from Rome. The powerful families who controlled the town built around 72 tower-houses as symbols of their wealth and power. But only 14 have remained.
Again, the bad point of the day-tour or any tour is that you only get the highlights. The churches and the art within Siena, there was simply no time to check them out and we were on our way to Pisa.
We reached Pisa a good 1-2 hours before sunset. After Rome, Florence, Assisi, Perugia, I have never felt that Italy was a touristy country until I reached Pisa. In fact, Pisa did not give me a good feeling at all. It was dirty, didn't feel very safe, illegal vendors were all around the place hawking wares on the streets. Even our tour guide was warning us about pickpockets. Talk about making a bad impression.
Both me and my friend declined to head back to Florence and stayed in Pisa for the night. Unfortunately, because the hostel rates in Pisa were really expensive and limited, the cheapest hostel that we found, we did not realise how far it was until we started to make our way there. We took close to 2 hours of frantic walking to get to our hostel, which was actually a home, with a room rented out. We missed the opportunity to climb the tower of Pisa at sunset.
The hostel made it up the next day with a free breakfast inclusive of our room.
It definitely made up for the 2 hour trek, we had a good breakfast of milk, coffee, tea, bread, cheese, cereal. There was a whole load of food to start a good day.
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