Pisa

On our final day we drove to Pisa for a quick visit before heading back to Florence to catch the train home. The drive was largely uneventful, except for the crazy Italian drivers who thought they were in a Formula One race.

Once in Pisa we found a parking spot along the river Arno. It wasn’t clear how long we could park there or whether we needed to pay, so I asked Emilie if we needed to worry about getting a ticket or getting towed. She responded that “it’s Italy and it’s Sunday.” Enough said, I guess.

As we didn’t have very much time to visit the city, we headed straight to the Piazza del Duomo to see the Torre Pendente (Leaning Tower) and its adjacent sites – the Duomo (cathedral) and Baptistery.

We unfortunately weren’t able to take the tour to the top of the tower, but the view from the ground was impressive in itself.

I was most impressed by the Duomo (a.k.a. Santa Maria Assunta), which dates back to the 11^th century. Both the exterior and interior were very nice, with far less “austerity” than the Duomo in Florence.

The adjacent Baptistery dates to the mid-12^th century and is the largest baptistery in Italy. It is noted for its acoustics, which we learned when a member of the church started singing. At first I thought it was a professional recording.

From the top floor there is a very nice view of the Duomo and (part of) the leaning tower.

For the balance of our time in Pisa we just walked around and saw some interesting churches and piazzas along the way.

We also walked along the river for a bit and I’d have to say it’s not one of the most scenic riverfronts that I've seen. I liked the colors of the buildings in this picture, though.

 

Certaldo

 

 After Volterra we went back to the hotel for a brief stop before dinner. To give you a feel for why we had such a difficult time finding it the first night, here’s what the “road” looked like.

And here’s the hotel itself…

As we headed back out, we had a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside and San Gimignano.

 

For dinner we went to Certaldo, a city whose old town sits atop a hill and is surrounded by fortified walls. To get to there we had to take a funicular as cars are not allowed except those of residents. The following are pictures of the exterior wall as well as the view looking back down from the top of the funicular.

Since we had some time before dinner we walked around a bit and easily covered the old town in less than an hour. Here’s the view of the main street in the center of town as well as some pictures that I took during our walk.

The restaurant where we ate for dinner was very nice and was relatively empty since it was a Sunday night.

During the ride back to the hotel we had a nice view of San Gimignano at night. Everything was completely back, except for the towers.

Volterra

Our second stop of the day was Volterra, a town that was inhabited by Romans as early as the 1^st century BC.

The view of the surrounding landscape was very impressive, and highlighted the strategic importance of the city’s hilltop location.

As with San Gimignano, we spent a lot of time walking around the narrow streets and found a lot of interesting architecture / design.

We decided to get lunch at a small place hidden away down one of the side streets. The outdoor area only had four tables and allowed for a relaxed meal.

The outdoor seating was along the wall to the restaurant, and I wasn't quite sure if these dried flowers in one of the "windows" were intentional or not. I assume they were as they looked pretty artsy. If not, the restaurant lucked into some nice décor.

After lunch we walked around a bit more, and were able to see the former castle (which I think is a prison now) as well as the city’s ancient Roman amphitheater.

San Gimignano

The hotel had a fantastic view of San Gimignano, as can be seen from the photo below. Unlike most towns in Italy, its Medieval towers have largely survived in tact and make for a recognizable skyline.

To give you a feel for the remoteness of the hotel, here are some pictures of the surrounding countryside.

San Gimignano definitely lived up to its description as a fortified city. In order to enter you had to pass through this gate.

We spent most of the morning wandering the narrow streets and admiring the massive towers. It’s amazing that such old structures have been able to stand the test of time.

I particularly liked the architecture among the endless sea of stone buildings.

Here’s one of the main squares. It was nice how all of the retail stores and restaurants at the street level just blended into the buildings that housed them. Without the small signs on the exterior walls, you would have trouble knowing exactly what you were walking into.

 

I have no clue what the following gentlemen were discussing, but they seemed to be having a great time. You can’t tell from the picture, but they had the prime real estate in the main square with a perfect view of everything that was going on.

 

And I have no clue what this guy was doing. He seemed to be holding some sort of religious ceremony, but he was all by himself in a random spot with not a single person around him except for the random passerby.

Florence - Day II

 

Our second day in Florence greeted us with a light rain in the morning. We were up early to visit the Santa Maria del Fiore and succeeded in beating the crowd. Unfortunately, however, we had to still wait 30 minutes because we also managed to beat the church’s scheduled opening time as well.

I have to say that I very much preferred the exterior of the Basilica to the interior, which was a bit bland and was supposed to correspond to the “austerity of religious life.”

We then walked around for bit, just wandering the streets. The following shop caught my attention. I can only imagine how much time it takes each day to set up / take down all of the goods on display just outside.

And here’s the place where people apparently like to lock their locks when they no longer want / need them anymore. It'd be interesting to know when the first lock was attached to the (no longer visible) chain.

Our next stop was the Basilica Santa Croce, a Franciscan church built during the 14^th and 15^th centuries.

While the interior was a bit austere as well, the church is very culturally significant as it serves as the final resting place for many notable Renaissance Italians, such as Michelangelo and Galileo.

Here’s a picture that I took of the church dome. Usually when I try to take pictures like this, they're never properly aligned. This one turned out pretty good, though.

We then visited the Galleria dell’Accademia to see perhaps the most renowned Renaissance masterpiece – Michelangelo’s David. I had high expectations beforehand given all that I had heard, and the statue far exceeded them. In fact, it is easily one of the most impressive works of art that I have ever seen.

As pictures were not allowed, I had to pull the following from Wikipedia.

In the afternoon we rented a car, as we spent the balance of the trip in the Tuscan countryside south of Florence. While heading out of town we stopped at the Piazzale Michelangelo and nearby San Miniato al Monte church. They’re in the hills above Florence and offered a very nice view back down on the city.

 

The graveyard of the church is apparently the burial place of Carlo Lorenzi – the author of Pinocchio. I did not know this at the time but thought it was an interesting fact. Here’s a picture of one of the graves that stood out.

We planned to spend the final two nights at a B&B just outside San Gimignano, a fortified medieval city roughly one hour south of Florence. During the drive down we stopped in the small town of Castellina di Chianti, which offered some nice views of 14^th and 15^th century architecture.

 



By the time we arrived in San Gimignano it was beginning to get dark and we still needed to find the hotel. Unfortunately, this wasn’t as simple as just following a map – the hotel was about 10 minutes outside the city in the middle of the countryside where the “streets” weren’t clearly marked (to the extent that they existed at all).

Thankfully, Emilie’s sense of direction in the Italian countryside is much better than mine, and she was ultimately able to find the one-lane dirt road that led us to our destination, which was literally in the middle of nowhere.