Tuscany - days 5 and 6

There was one must see place left we didn't visit yet - San Gimignano. So on Tuesday we drove there. This is again a very touristy spot, so this was the third time we had to pay for parking, after Monteriggioni and Florence. But we parked right by the walls that surround the old town.

Old town is very charming and there are many cute stores there. The wild bores are a big thing in whole of Tuscany and one sees many stuffed ones around. In similar store I bought some guanciale, cured pork cheeks. When we tried it later back home I was sorry I only bought one piece.

A bit up the street there is another gate to the inner part of town and where all the towers are.

This is part of the famous triangular Piazza della Cisterna. Can it be still called square if it's triangular? In the middle of it there is a well that provided the town with water in the old days.

San Gimignano is known for its many towers, I think now there are 14 left, but in the haydays there have been some 72 of them. They were a result of two rich families competing in building yet another one that was higher than all of what other family had.

But beside the towers there are so many pretty medieval buildings there...

...with bells and frescos.

This is the tallest tower in town, at one point the city council decided to stop the tower rivalry and forbid building towers higher than this one.

I can't even imagine, how the town must have looked with 72 towers.

But also the other buildings are pretty awesome.

And here is another awesome thing San Gimignano is known for - the ice cream. There are several ice cream parlours there, one even got a title for world's best ice cream in 2024. The awarded ice cream was the saffron one with pine nuts on the left, but I liked a basil one with tomatoes on the right even more.

This is me sitting on the stairs of the well in the square...

...while Tomaz went to get the second ice cream.

After the short ice cream break we continued to explore the town.

Again we could see many alterations on the buildings that happened through the centuries - new windows were put in, the arches were lowered, some doors and windows closed...

We found some arched stone and brick passages...

...that led to the town walls and of course to the great views.

This facade and the doorway were quite different from the rest of the buildings...

...and right next to it I found this pretty ornament. Unfortunately I don't know the meaning of it or what kind of building this was.

After couple of hours we went back to our car...

... and drove back towards our hotel. After all the pretty places we visited in last few days we were so full of impressions, we decided we need some "dolce far niente", or "sweetness in doing nothing" or "blissful idleness".

On our way back we had to drive through Panzano and we realised that it wasn't 3 o'clock yet and that Ceccinni food truck was still open. So we made a stop and ate really delicious burgers there. We forgot to make a photo of our food, but made a photo of friendly staff that worked there.

Here is some more of very Tuscan scenery from our drive back.

In the afternoon we spent some time in the garden of our hotel.

There was also a pool there, but it was quite chilly even to sit in sun on a lounge chair yet alone for swimming. So we were full of admiration of a young woman who took a short plunge in the pool.

I had to make some more photos of the hotel buildings...

...and some ornaments on them.

Next morning we packed our things and went for a breakfast. And I got a lovely surprise - it was my birthday and staff brought me a delicious cake, a light brioche topped with vanilla custard with truffles. It was sooooo good! And yes, there was a glass of champagne with it as well.

After the breakfast we started a journey home. It was again a five hours drive, we only stopped once shortly on a gas station to have s drink. Back in Slovenia the highway was congested as always in the afternoons, so we took the local road through Kal and Godovič and we saw these pretty flowers along the road - the Blue-eyed-Mary (spomladanska torilnica or popčki or Omphalodes verna).

What a lovely trip this was! We had so much luck with the weather, it was quite chilly, but sunny and perfect for long walks that we like to make. And hotel was perfect too, so much history, great restaurant and what a great wine! Needless to say we took couple of bottles home with us. While wine was quite pricey, the hotel was very reasonably priced. And I think we chose really nice places to explore, and also found such delicious food on the way. I am seriously considering of doing another such trip again next year, maybe we'll look for a hotel a bit more in the South, around Siena, and explore that part of Tuscany.
 

Tuscany - day 4

On Monday we drove to Florence. We were in dilemma whether we should visit it or not, but then decided to do it. Mondays most of museums and galleries are closed, so we hoped there would be less tourists in town than usual. And we didn't have any plans to visit museums and galleries, we didn't have very much time and we would need to buy tickets for that well in advance anyway. We were a bit nervous about traffic and parking, but it all went better than expected.

We decided to park in the parking on the North side of old town centre (and no-traffic zone). We drove by the Piazzale Michelangelo, a famous spot where people gather in the evenings to watch the sun set over Florence. We stopped for few moments and even without a sunset the view was great.

There was a 15 minutes walk from our parking to the centre of Florence. The buildings here were much bigger, taller and grander, and mostly also more modern than what we saw in Certaldo or Volterra.

This is the most famous church in town, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. It is all covered in multi coloured marble.

There was a huge line of people waiting at the entrance.

The buildings around the church are also very pretty.

This is the back of the church, with less people.

I found it interesting that the bell tower wasn't attached to the church building.

There were also some more medieval buildings around, like this granary.

We also saw some very nice facades.

This is another must see building in Florence, the Palazzo Vecchio or the old palace.

In front of it to the right there is an open building with many famous statues, most of them depicting beheadings or rapes. Life must have been pretty cruel back then.

In front of the palace there is a copy of Michelangelo's David, right on the place where the original used to be. Even the copy is pretty impressive.

But I also liked this Fountain of Neptune by Ammannati.

The Pallazo Vecchio has a very high tower and we were tempted a bit to climb it, but then decided to just explore the streets.

Next beautiful thing we found was the famous bridge Ponte Vecchio. 

This was probably the most crowded part of the town. And I managed to resist the temptation of all the jewelleries that were on both sides on the bridge.

We walked to the next bridge to the West, the Ponte Santa Trinita, from where there was again a great view of Ponte Vecchio.

We were getting a bit tired and hungry and decided we have enough energy left to walk to the central market and get something to eat there. On the way there we saw some more pretty buildings...

...and we found another church with facade made of multi coloured marble.

The stalls on the ground floor in the central market were already almost empty, but the food court on the first floor was full of stalls and people. We walked around a bit and found several places where the food looked and smelled delicious, but then we came across this one with great selection of Fiorentina steaks. We asked if they are still open, as it was already passed 4 in the afternoon, and they said of course. And we decided - it's now or never! 

 

We ordered the smallest steak we could and it was still 1.2 kg.  When we saw it on the platter we though we will have to ask for a doggy bag to pack all the rests, but once we started eating it it was so delicious, we managed to eat it all! It was also helpful that we didn't ordered any potatoes with it, just some grilled veggies.

After so much meat and a bottle of wine we were done for the day. We slowly walked back to our car, by on this pretty Porta San Gallo and drove back.

But while driving by on Piazzale Michelangelo, we had to make a stop again. Here there is another replica of David, this time in bronze.

It was much more crowded than in the morning, but it was worth the stop - the views over Florence in evening light were quite spectacular.

Then we drove back to our hotel and went to bed early.