A week in Tuscany - Part 2

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A week in Tuscany - Part 2... (this is a pretty long blog entry, our longest story so far). You'll need to allow a few minutes for this one!
Tuesday means day of rest... We had mascarpone and gorgonzola over crusty bread for breakfast. Yummy!!! Then we headed off to the local CO-OP Supermarket in Radda to fill our fridge and cupboard with supplies (AWESOME pesto!) And it just bucketed down - like 4pm on a November afternoon in Brisbane. We'd all had enough of touristing in hill towns for a day, so we chose to stay at home (reading, taking photos, lying around the villa) whilst Chris & Shay walked through the countryside for 4 hrs and eventually got to Radda. Hmmm, I think there may have been some navigation issues there! We found them in the gelateria in Radda, and joined them there!
Wednesday means Siena... We got up at what seemed like the crack of dawn for the Siena Markets - not really farmers markets as in France though. The markets are one of the largest in Tuscany and surround the Fortezza Medicea. Lesson to be learned – DO NOT try and drive into Siena on a Wednesday (Market Day) – it’s probably difficult at the best of times, but after an hour of negotiating our way around the morning traffic and Italian traffic cops waving us on, we eventually found an illegal park well outside the city walls. It didn’t end up being too far from the town anyway (thanks to the Fontebranda escalator), and we were soon in the heart of gothic Siena with it’s amazing steep cobbled laneways and buildings crammed with history & tradition. The markets had loads of clothing, fabrics, household & leather goods at cheap Euro prices. And we eventually found the small food section, which was very good and fresh, it has to be said. The cappucino at Cafe Nannini (€1.10 – various locations in Siena), was very good. Strolled around then had a round of 4 drinks (about €18) at one of the terrace cafes on Piazza Del Campo, the very centre of tourist Siena. Joe checked out the Torture Museum (€8): "this series of slightly dank old chambers off a steep cobbled laneway made you glad you weren't around back then – full of suitably nasty implements and spooky music."
Siena is a true walled city, even today the vast majority of the town lives behind the walls, all 53,000 of them. The plague hit in 1348 and took out 100,000 people. The city has always been in competition with Rome, and then Florence for power and control. Clare gave the tower (Torre del Mangia, 102 metres) a miss here, but we did see:
- Piazzo del Campo
- Battistero di san Giovanni
- Santa Maria Della Scala
- Museo Archeologico
- Palazzo Chigo-Saracini
- Oratorio di Santa Caterina della Notte (Oratory of St Catherine of the night)
There is just so much to see in Siena and everything is within walking distance & very little effort (once you've parked your car and are within the city walls). We would go back in a flash. The best place we saw was the Santa Maria Della Scala, founded in the 1100's as a hospice for pilgrims, and a working hospital for 1000 years (until the 1990's), but now a museum/art gallery with a difference. The halls on the entry level have frescos depicting activity in the hospital in the 1400-1500's. Amazing. The old artworks & collectables include a large painting of Herod and the slaughter of the innocents, quite barbaric. Then you descend into the many floors below (with sloping tunnels), which include the Museo Archeologico and the Oratorio di Santa Caterina della Notte, amongst many other chapels and churches of secret societies. Clare: "St Catherines head is in a glass case down there (in the Oratario di Santa Caterina della Notte), and it's quite creepy with a very real ‘presence’ - I felt that her spirit (soul?) was there as well." We got sooooo soaked walking back to the car. We roasted a free range chook for dinner, with all the trimmings (Slow Food)... with some more Chianti Classico vino!
Thursday means Volterra... Volterra was founded by the Etruscan (ie. Tuscan) people long before the Romans got organised. The Romans didn't take the town until 260BC. It also took the Florentine empire in the 1360’s a long while to conquer them - the extreme geography certainly helped. Their heyday was in the middle ages though. The town (village?) is so interesting and has so many shops with interesting things to buy & restaurants full of yummy food. And the place didn't seem overrun by tourists either. A few buses piled in after lunch but still you hardly noticed them - not like San Gimignano, Siena or Florence. So many churches and chapels, all with doors open, and free. Even after days of churches these were all very interesting and each one different to the one before, Clare: "I couldn’t even start to describe all of the architecture styles, variations and eras (I think epochs would be more accurate here)." There's also a Roman theatre (pretty intact), one of the best Etruscan museums in Italy (all local findings) and would you believe a 14th Century jail that is still working today and has armed guards walking the walls between the turrets!!! Joe: "Volterra had an emphasis on the gothic, with yet another torture museum, to shops full of fake gargoyle statues, knives & Samurai swords and other dungeons/dragons related items. I even bought a great moulded skull with drink coasters embedded in the head... A nice touch for Halloween!" All up, a truly excellent way to spend the day. The weather held out as well, and we returned to the villa for a lamb bbq in the courtyard with appetisers, salads, many, many side dishes, and probably a dessert and definitely a few cheeses as well. And of course, a range of wines and spirits for each course.
Friday means Florence... We braved the elements and staggering volume of tourists and hit Florence (it had to be done!) Much to our surprise we had very few navigational issues and even less parking issues, but we did hit weather issues. So we strolled from our carpark into Florence at a reasonably early hour, carefully avoiding Gucci & Prada, and the tourist cafes with 5 Euro pizza slices, and we decided to join the queue (about an hour) for The Uffizi Gallery. We chatted with a student from Melbourne while we were waiting. Was it worth it? Clare: "Well we've seen the Medici family art collection now - but really I much preferred Catherine the Great's collection (The Hermitage in St Petersburg) and everything we saw in Madrid (and we didn't see everything in Madrid, art wise, by a long shot). The medieval artists were just so limited in the subject matter (seemingly about 4 topics all up) and styles (two styles - medieval church art and Medici portraits) and materials used (oil). Bring on the Renaissance and the Impressionists ASAP!" Joe: "Look, I like art as much as the next man, but the Uffizi was full of cherubs, angels, dying Saints, etc, etc. Call me an art heathen but lot of blokes were just ducking for the exit door here. Give me some Andy Warhol - you can only take so much medieval art!" Yet another bloody storm hit within minutes of getting out of the Uffizi, but we'd found the Trattoria Anita by then, way down a dark side street beyond the many Florentine tourists, just in the nick of time. Local food at local prices. In the afternoon we checked out the streets of Florence and took silly photos with the David replica, etc, etc. Chris & Shay got further afield in Florence and saw the original David statue at Galleria dell'Accademia (there are a number of copies), and went up the dome of the Duomo (Cathedral). Joe convinced Clare not to even try that one due to elevation issues (maybe she needs some therapy). For dinner we tried the nearest village and had some very traditional local fare at the Ristorante Malborghetto in Lecchi. Our final night at the villa :(
Saturday means "Disney" Pisa & Ryan's Lair... We cleared out quite early and hit the road (Pi-Fi highway) heading for The Leaning Tower of Pisa. Most of a Disney cruise liner (the first one EVER to Europe) had the same idea. So the Americans, fresh from their Mickey Mouse breakfast buffet, were pursued by quite literally a tribe of illegal immigrant watch sellers flogging fake Rolexes (they must have been bussed in from Florence). So here we were at Pisa, surrounded by a million people. The tower is leaning quite amazingly, and well worth a look, although there isn't a whole lot else to see in Pisa. So we went and found a pizza instead. After some hijinks trying to fill up the Alfa with diesel (during a whopping great storm), we finally got to the airport, right in the town. Joe very, very nearly missed the Ryanair flight back to Dublin!!! (too much daydreaming) Clare had to get the crew to page him and 11 others who were missing. It has to be said that the flight hadn't come up on the board inside the terminal, BUT STILL - bloody lucky Joe, the plane would have gone without you - it was Ryanair after all!
We give Italy 10 out of 10. And without a shadow of a doubt, the best food in the world!