When my alarm went off at 6:30, I wanted to bury it and never hear it go off again. Instead, I woke Mom up and got back in bed for 15 more minutes.. haha
We got ready to go back to the same bus station from yesterday, for a Best of Tuscany tour, that had an 8 am leave time. A whole 30 more minutes! Yay! We walked a bit slower to the station and got the same McDonald’s for breakfast, don’t tell anyone-but I’m about all croissant-ed out. I ate, mom chose not to, and then we met up with our group. We were so worried today would be much like yesterday, being rushed and frustrated and missing the beauty of the excursion.. only time will tell.
It was about half the size of yesterday’s tour.. so that’s a plus. Our guide asked if he was too loud on the speaker (yes), he fixed it.. so, two checks in the better column! Ok! Not too bad at all! The group was quite a large mix and while some folks were a bit loud, and it still really wasn’t bad at all.
Our first stop of the day was in the city of Siena. A local guide from the area did a walking tour of the city with us, she was informative and funny-and we got to go inside the Duomo too. The people of Sienna are “separated” by 17 different districts, each district has a name, like the SheWolf, the dragon, and the Porcupines, which sounds so funny to me. They take their districts very seriously, and you’re born into the district and it can never change. For example, the tour guide was a porcupine, where she and her husband were born. But they moved districts when they married, so their children are in the Forest district. They eat some meals together, they celebrate things together.. it’s like a community within a community.
Siena is also known for their famous horse race twice a year called the Palio. 10 districts of the 17 have a horse entered into the race (it’s a lottery type thing to decide which 10 are in, then it rotates out).. the horse for the district is also by lottery.. they race around the main piazza 3 times and the horse that wins means that district gets to celebrate for months on end, until the next race.. bragging rights, parties, etc. Our guide said in 2019 her children’s district won, the Forest, so for months on end she didn’t see them because they were out at the community celebrations every night.
The marble work of the Duomo is stunning! I stared at the floor for way longer than normal. The floors, the pillars, the artwork and sculptures were made from white, black, green, red, and yellow marble. Incredible! I absolutely LOVE the detail and the patterns, so much so that I want to make crochet blankets with some of these intricate details, maybe from velvet, maybe once the weather cools down at home some.. haha
From there we had free time. Mom and I walked around and then went to a cafe for cappuccinos and snacks. We met back with the group, walked back to the bus, and then had a 45 minute bus ride into the hills of Tuscany, to a farm & vineyard. We got a tour of the grounds-got to see some Sangiovese vines (my fav), spot some baby cows (that were HUGE), and see the barrels and vats for the wine making.
The woman giving us the tour told us the farm is owned by 3 brothers.. they’ve been in business since the 50s, and the one brother is 84 years old and still works at the farm by tending the garden, growing carrots, potatoes, lettuce, etc for the restaurant that they have on site! How awesome! I think the elderly seem much more fit and healthy here in Italy, just like in Spain, because they are so active and many are eating foods that contain so much less preservatives and chemicals, unlike what we have at home. Mind you, many of them drink and smoke.. but even still, they just seem so much healthier! It has to be the food!
Speaking of the restaurant, holy unbelievable. For €30 each, we got at LEAST 6 glasses of wine, pasta in meat sauce, a salad, a salami, prosciutto, and cheese tray, and desert cookies with almonds that you dip into the desert wine. At some point I had to ask the man to please not give me anymore food! (Oh, and bread with olive oil of course!) he even kept refilling my wine glass, not realizing I was swapping my empty glass with mom’s full glass of the red wines.. I’d swap, he’d refill mom’s, he’d see my now second glass going down, refill mine.. it was like a never ending wine cycle, and I was soooo there for it! They were very good! Mom even liked the white wine so much, she asked for an extra glass and even bought some of her own! Wow!
The winery also has a bed and breakfast, a gorgeous pool, a lake, and picturesque Tuscan hillside views with every blink. We ate on the terrace with those views, too. It felt a bit surreal, like someone was going to turn off the background and a green screen would appear any second. When I was planning this trip, I had originally booked us an Airbnb somewhere like this, but the host messaged me to say the pool wouldn’t be open during our stay-so I canceled it and gave us more time in Florence.. as much as I LOVE it here, I know there’s only so much wine and view watching we could do without a pool or something to entertain us for 5 days..
Back on the bus, we went a whole 10 minutes down the street to the town on the hilltop, San Gimignano. We explored the medieval city, snapped pictures of the viewpoints-all of the hills and rows on top of rows of grape vines and olive trees. Truly amazing. We got some wine for me and cappuccino for mom, then headed back to meet the bus. While today did have timelines and meeting points and repeating-it didn’t feel rushed or like we were missing anything because of lack of time. It was perfect!
From there, we were driven to Pisa.. so see, of course.. the leaning tower of Pisa. There’s other buildings there too, like a cathedral which is gorgeous. Mom couldn’t quite grasp the concept of moving the camera to make the optical illusion of pinching the top or looking like you’re trying to stop the building from falling, but bless her for her efforts in trying. She asked someone else to do it for her, and we did get a couple good ones, not *quite* right, but I’ll remember the laughs from trying forever!
She hated all of the ones I took of her, but I love them. I got them within seconds and other people from our bus noted, and then asked me to help them get theirs.. after bending, squatting, lunging, and laughing like hell, they all 3 loved their pictures.
Now, we’re back on the bus for the almost 2 hour ride back to Florence. We are so ready for tomorrow’s sleep in.. we don’t have any plans for tomorrow except to catch up on that missing sleep, and then ship a couple things home that we no longer need and don’t want to keep toting around-I have to lighten my load some, and I think mom does, too. Tonight, when we get back around 9:30, we’ll head home and I’ll run my mile, shower, and snuggle into that perfect bed with the even more perfect air conditioning unit set to 16 degrees (Celsius).
Today has been fantastic. It’s hard to believe we’ve been gone for 2 full weeks now! It’s really starting to fly by, and I’m loving soaking up every moment.
