Just back from a week’s holiday in Tuscany. A magical place. Simply stunning. The photo story unfolds below.

I always get a bit of a blood rush when driving in continental Europe (some say it’s just the hair), and an accelerated one at that when faced with the prospect of driving in Italy. Yes, Italian drivers do have a reputation, and having experienced Palermo traffic first hand, I can verify they draw their driving prowess from Fangio and their demeanour from the proverbial nut-bag. Add to the pressure cooker, the fact that I was sporting bruised left ribs care of a touch rugby mauling the previous Monday, the fact that my wife was a substitute Sat-Nav with a penchant for car travel induced narcolepsy, and did I mention the fact that I was also responsible for the safe passage of not just my wife and I, but also her mum and aunt. Yes, I took the ultimate of all bloke challenges and brought the mother-in-law on holiday. I guess you could say I was a little bit anxious on leaving Pisa’s Galileo Galilei Airport, hurtling along in our maroon Lancia bound for the countryside of Tuscany.

My anxiety was unfounded though. Apart from some bumper-to-bumper traffic where the routes from Pisa and Livorno join the main drag to Firenze (aka Florence), then it was actually relatively plain sailing, which was quite something since I was driving. About 15km from Florence, we exited the LI-PI-FI auto-strada at Empoli and was pleasantly surprised by the near relaxing Sunday evening jaunt that unfolded. Everything went to plan. We came upon Certaldo, notable for it’s hilltop adorned with medieval village – and hung a right in search of San Gimignano. This was where the directions got a little quirky though. Our accommodation, was somewhere between San Gimignano and Ulignano. We kind of figured that if we got within earshot of Ulignano, then we would just kind of come across this place. Our accommodation was also a farm, so someone was bound to have heard of it.

The searching drive from Certaldo was actually relaxing, in spite of the fact that we weren’t 100% sure on where we were going on a couple of occasions. Tuscany had started to reveal itself as a wondrous undulation of rolling green hills and vineyards. So we were all quite happy to take in the scenery. Eventually, we came upon Ulignano, which according to our scrawl come map meant we had overshot our destination. We reversed and headed back the way we came. Took another route to San Andrea, before deciding to stop and phone ahead. As it turned out, we had stopped 1km shy of the farm. Arenzo one of the farm hands came to greet us, and sure enough we had arrived at Fattoria Poggio Alloro, our Tuscan farm accommodation for the week.

Fattoria Poggio Alloro (literally meaning Bayleaf Hill Farm) is an incredible place, and credit has to go to my wife Margaret for the painstaking hours of Internet research to find this little gem. Perched on a hill-top, as it’s name suggests and as is quite common for a Tuscan farm, this Fattoria has a spectacular view of the fascinating tower-scape of San Gimignano a mere 5km away, and everything in between are sloping green fields, vineyards and a scattering of trees. Poggio Alloro is a fully functioning farm, producing everything from Chianini beef, wine (Vernaccia and Chianti), honey, through to olive oil and saffron. They grow vegetables to sustain the family and naturally sell the wine, olive oil and beef. This was evident at the evening meals, which were a 5 course affair of prosciutto, crostini, bruschetta, grilled polenta, through to risotto, pasta, riboletta, bistecca Fiorentina and even wild boar. Now the latter may have been the exception to the everything we eat is from the farm rule. Every evening meal was capped off with coffee, Vin Santo (dessert wine) and cantucinni (biscotti), and did I mention the obligatory shot of Limoncello and Grappa (or both if you were keen). Perhaps I didn’t mention the local wine during the meal, a choice of the local Vernaccia white, and the Chianti red. Yes, a fabulous meal.

Our first day in rural Tuscany, and we decided to do the 5km undulating walk to San Gimignano. San Gimignano was not easy to miss from the farm. So all four of us, took the morning stroll. The distance was a little deceptive, and took longer than the hour expected. The road was quite steep in parts, much to the chagrin of some of my party, but this was the first of many steep climbs that this little Tuscan crew would have to endure on this trip. But despite this, the walk was very pleasant. The glorious sunshine and scenery of rolling hills and vineyards made it a good morning’s hike. We made it to San Gimignano by lunch time, and took in this fascinating town. The towers of San Gimignano make it truly unique. Apparently, they were constructed by a number of barons who were competing against one another for the highest tower, and now the place resembles a medieval Manhattan.  We spent the day taking in it’s two magnificent piazzas, Piazza del Duomo and Piazza della Cisterna. Like all Italian towns, a magnificent church needed to be explored, in this case it was the Collegiata, so we had a look around at this impressive cathedral, taking in the amazing frescos by Bartolo. Some of the frescos were actually quite violent. Unfortunately, no photos allowed in this place, and Margaret even had to don a blue plastic shawl as her dress wasn’t up to the spec.

The Streets of San Gimignano, Tuscany

We also had a look at the Sacred Art Museum, but then spent the afternoon taking in the atmosphere of the Piazza Il Duomo, and ascending the Rocca to admire the panorama of the surrounding country side. Now, at this point my crew were a little tired from all their walling exertions, so the steady climb to the Rocca for a panoramic view was met with some consternation and according to Mary, a panoramic view was merely a bird’s eye view of a pig’s arse in the moonlight. Gotta love the Irish for their quirky phrases. I had a good chuckle at that one. In any case they all made it. There was some talk of making the walk back to the farm, but we blagged a lift from an unofficial taxi driver, well a local who just happened to be standing near Porta San Mateo.  So we quite happily made it back to the farm, without having to do another 5km walk. I took the opportunity to have a swim in the farm’s swimming pool, as the weather was that good. That, followed by attempting to photograph the local green skinks that were seemingly everywhere you looked. A good day ended with a fine meal at Fattoria Poggio Alloro,  watching the sunset over the San Gimignano hills, and then also taking great fascination at the local fire flies. Now there was a first.

Tuscan Lizard, Fattoria Poggio Alloro

The following day, we braved the Tuscan roads once more, and headed south to Siena. We talk the long way round. I figured out later that it was a bit of a dogs leg to head from the farm into San Gimingnano, and then out to Poggi Bonsi, which seems to be a mini-hub for much of the Tuscan country towns in the San Gimignano area. But we found our way to Poggi Bonsi, and made it to Siena without incident. Although, trying to find parking in Siena was a little difficult and a bit hit and miss. We drove around Siena for a good 20 minutes before coming across the Fortezza car park. It was a great spot to park the car, as you were really a 10 minute walk from the town centre. Siena had the foresight to ban all cars inside the town centre, apart from official vehicles, so wandering the streets of this old town was a great experience. Actually, the roads in medieval Siena are pretty narrow and steep, so introducing traffic into this would have been a disaster. I enjoyed Siena, I really liked the vibe of the place. Il Campo, the main square was really cool, and my only regret was not being in Siena for the Il Palio, which is where they conduct a horse race in the piazza. Competing jockeys represent the different boroughs of Siena. Seeing photographs of this event look amazing, and so a good reason to go back to Siena I think. Apparently July 2nd and August 16th are the dates to go, but you need to get to Il Campo very early to gain a good vantage point. But we had to be content with soaking up the tourist atmosphere of Il Campo, admiring it’s Palazzo Commuale, and it’s novel little fountain, Fonte Gaia. Took this photo below of some of the fountains pigeon residents.

Fonte Gaia, Il Campo, Siena 

Siena Cathedral, or Il Duomo was also very impressive. It’s imposing black and white marble structure and intricate facade is as impressive as it’s pillared and blue vaulted ceilings inside. Naturally, the artwork and sculptures inside, and indeed the pulpit in particular are amazing. Kind of makes you think, if any of this kind of work is being produced today by sculptures and artists today. We capped off the afternoon with a coffee and pastries in Siena’s famouse institution, Nannini. This, before hitting the road and successfully navigating our way out of the city towards San Gimignnano. I say successfully, because the road signs aren’t all that clear to take you to North or South Siena. The roads out tended to want to direct you to Arezzo or Roma. But after some patience, we found the motorway to Florence, ducked off that at Monteriggioni, before striking for the nondescript Poggi Bonsi, and then onto our San Gimignano farming paradise.

Inside Siena’s Il Duomo

Wednesday, we took a tour of the Fattoria. Our host for the tour was Sarah Fiorini. The Fiorini family run the place and have done a remarkable job since acquiring the place in the 1970s. They farm Cainini cattle for beef. Cainini are quite unique to Tuscany and are pure white in colour. The winery was equally impressive, and they now produce up to 200,000 bottles a year. They don’t seem to have lost their place in the community either. They very much have their family as no.1 and look after the interest of the local community in their farming and practices which was really nice to see too. Of course they also farm saffron (zafferona), and they even keep bees for honey production.

After out tour, we took a 30 minute drive out to the hilltop town of Volterra. This is a quaint little town, and is not as thronged with tourists as San Gimignano. So it was kind of nice to stroll it’s relative quiet streets. And of course, like all Italian villages we paid a visit to it’s basilica. Yet, even more impressive artwork here. What drew me most, was the polychromatic sculpture of the crucifixion. Below are a couple of photos that I took while in Volterra for the afternoon.

The Streets of Volterra

The Crucifixion, Volterra Cathedral 

We capped off the day with a meal at a Pizzeria in the small village of Ulignano. Right off the tourist trail, this was nice to mix it with the locals.

Our 4th day into our Tuscany experience, and we headed to Firenze, aka Florence. I had visited Florence before, on one of those whirlwind city highlights trips of the tourist coach persuasion in 1996. My memories of Florence were still quite vivid, and it was nice this time to take in the town at my own pace, although a day’s visit to this place is barely enough time. We made the sensible decision not to drive to Florence, as some intel suggested that navigating Florentine streets and finding parking could prove an apoplectic experience. So instead, we drove to Poggi Bonsi, parked up outside it’s train station and took the hours train journey to Florence. Was a great way to get into Florence I have to say. The Santa Maria Novella train station pretty much puts you in the city centre and you can take your pick of local attractions from there. I had mapped out a bit of a walking tour for the day. First up it included making our way across the river Arun, via the Ponte Vecchio. A rather unusual bridge as it is adorned with jewellery shops and thronged with tourists. I hadn’t walked across this bridge on my last visit, so made a point of doing it this time. After that, I took the Tuscan crew for a good hike along the river, and up to Piazzale Michalangelo, where once again a panoramic view was on offer. Given the short climb up to the piazzale, then there was some references to Mary’s earlier definition of a panorama made. But, the view at the top was worth it, this despite the rain. We had to while away some time in a cafe, while the rain abated and allowed us to get some photos of the terracotta roof-scape that is Florence. A roof-scape that is dominated by the magnificent red dome of Santa Maria del Fiori cathedral. Below was one such photo.

Florence by rain

Afterwards, we descending the Piazzale down to the river bank once again. We retraced our steps somewhat, but then crossed the Ponte alle Grazie bridge to get back into downtown Florence once again. Next stop on the walking tour was San Croce basilica, famous for it’s beautiful white facade, and the fact that this church plays host to the crypt of Michelangelo, and also a number of monuments to a number of other Renaissance glitterati, including Dante and Galileo.

No rest for the wicked after this visit, and we made our way to Santa Maria di Fiori, Florence’s magnificent basilica. Now, this is where the tour went a little awry. We had every intention of visiting the nave of the church and given the walking we had done, it wasn’t the intention to do any strenuous climbing. But, when we arrived we noted a hoard of tourist groups entering the front of the church, and further along, there was a queue forming, which I took to be for independent tourists. Well, that was a little incorrect. Well, the front entrance was for the nave, and the entrance we queued for was to visit the dome, which literally meant climbing up 200 steps to the cupola gallery, and then another 100 odd steps to the top of the dome. We only discovered this fact after buying tickets and then beginning the ascent. I felt quite bad about the mistake, as it was a one way route, no turning back and Mary and Nancy weren’t too impressed I say. To their credit though, they made the slog up to the gallery, and were able to get that bird’s eye view of the magnificent painted cupola. The artwork was incredible, and these artists did have a thing for depicting heaven and hell. The hellish scenes were quite macabre I have to say. At the top of the gallery, Margaret, Mary and Nancy decided to head down, and I took on the further steep claustrophobia that is the climb to the top of the dome. It was a little bit harrowing, more for the fact of the number of tourists vying to get to the top of the dome, and then descend the same narrow route. I did make it to the top, much to my relief and the view was spectacular. Below were a couple of snaps of the Firenze panoroma from the dizzying heights of Il Duomo.

The red dome of Brunelleschi’s Santa Maria del Fiori 

Il Campanile, Florence  

I did eventually make my way down, after some precarious moments trying to hustle and bustle away through the tourist throng that seemed to be pouring out onto the top of the dome. I and others were concerned that there was no one directing traffic. I kind of wondered whether this dome had a weight limit at one stage. But. I made it down, and found a more relaxed Mary and Nancy at the bottom. I apologised profusely about the error, which lead them on their journey of pain. Outside of the cathedral, and we did take a look inside from the more sobering ground level stand point. A truly magnificent cathedral it has to be said.

Our Florence itinerary was not quite finished. We had pre-booked tickets to visit the Galleria dell Acadamia, to go take at look at Michelangelo’s statue of David. This is a major tourist draw card, and so pre-booking tickets was a must. Otherwise, we would have probably had to queue for an hour, judging by the length of the tourist hoard that snaked it’s way down the street. This was my second time visiting this place, and it’s amazing what you forget. I seemed to have forgotten how big this statue of David was. 5 metres high and 19 tonnes of white marble. We spent about half an hour in the Galleria before fatigue took hold and we grabbed a bite to eat in Za Za Trattoria near the central market. It was a good long day, but not quite finished yet. My female contingent had a penchant for hand-bags, and so the Florence day trip finished trawling through some of the market stalls. That, before making our way to the train station and heading back to Poggi Bonsi. Remarkably the car was still there. I was expecting it to be fined. Free train station parking in Poggi Bonsi. Cool! All in all, a knackering but great day out in Florence.

More rain the next day, which curtailed our travel plans a little. We set off a little later after much deliberation. We visited the old town of Certaldo. Took the cable car up to the old medieval village. This was quite civilised really, and no doubt a major requirement given the amount of unprovoked climbing that my travel party endured the previous day in Florence. It was raining quite heavily, and we purchased some over priced umbrella’s in the town before making our way up to the top. Had a nice bite to eat of porcino cheese bruschetta in a local enoteca (an Italian bottle/liquor shop) before descending to the main town and making our way to the beautiful country side of Il Chianti. As it’s name suggests this is where the official Chianti wine comes from. The Il Chianti region blossoms as soon as you ascend the foot hills from Poggi Bonsi. The pine and cypress trees seem to multiply in a seeming explosion of green as you ascend the winding pass towards the first major town: Castellina il Chianti. The place has an alpine air about it. We arrived at Castellina and made a bee line for the tourist office to check out times for local wine tasting. Having done this, we made our way to a local wine tasting place in the main street and then I discovered that my crew weren’t too keen on red wine tasting, so that put pay to that little plan. Nonetheless, it was a nice way to spend the afternoon, driving around Il Chianti. I did a bit of a circuit taking in the township of Radda il Chianti, and thinking what a beautiful spot. Vineyard upon vineyard nestled amongst wooded hills. A place I would love to go back to and do some walking. Below was one photo of this magnificent region.

Il Chianti Countryside

We finished the day off with dinner in San Gimignano. We went to a great restaurant in the Piazza della Cisterna, which had magnificent views of the surrounding countryside. I took in a meal of walnut spaghetti and some wild boar for the main dish. San Gimignano takes on a different air at this time of the day. The tourist throng is gone, and it’s very relaxing to observe the city by night. I went back to the Piazza il Duomo and took a couple of night shots. One photo is below. My only regret is not having brought a tripod, although having my cable release proved a boon.

San Gimignano by Night 

The following day was Saturday, and this time we were heading further afield and south of Siena, to a couple of thermal spring towns, notably Bagni Vignoni and Bagni San Filipo. This was to be capped off with a visit to the pretty town of Pienza, which came highly recommended to us. This drive proved to be one of the highlights of the trip. Not for the navigational confusion that arose when hitting Siena again, but for the glorious scenery that we experienced when we did eventually find the SS2 road south of Siena which leads you to the aforementioned towns and eventually to Roma if you are so inclined. For some reason, the people who have erected the road signage in Sienna, assume that you either are visiting the town or want to go to Arezzo, or to Rome via the super strada motorway to the east of the city. So, it took a good 15 minutes to find the road we needed. Perhaps a case for a Sat-Nav maybe, but we found it sure enough. What a drive though. We came across a number of idyllic photo opportunities. Fields upon fields of glorious red poppies, with horizons flanked by the cigar shaped cypress trees which are icons of the Tuscan countryside. We stopped on one occasion for such a photo opportunity, only to be summarily told off in Italian by a local farmer. Well, we had blocked the entrance to his drive. None the less, we just lapped up the scenery. A couple of shots below.

The Tuscan road from Siena to Roma

A Picture Postcard, Tuscany 

So we spent the afternoon experiencing the thermal springs of Bagni Vignoni and Bagni San Filipo. Bagni Vignoni was fascinating, as there are remnants of an old mill, which made use of the thermal waters. Now there are a couple of conduits which carry the warm sulphorous waters, and tourists can sit and dangle their feet, as we did. I am withholding the photos of the swim that we all took at Bagni San Filipo, to protect the innocent. Although, the waters here were not as warm as one would have hoped.

Late afternoon after having a belated lunch at Bagni San Filipo, we headed for Pienza. Yet another magnificent hill top medieval town with yet more stunning views of Tuscan countryside. We literally spent an our here. It would have been nice to spend a few days in this area actually, as the scenery was that spectacular. The photo below, I took from the Pienza city walls of the unfolding countryside.

Tuscany Magic, as viewed from Pienza

Our day concluded with the 2 hour drive back to Fattoria Poggio Alloro, and yet another magnificent meal. This time around Ribolitta and Florentine Cainini steaks were on the menu. And of course it was Nancy’s birthday. As all meals at the farm are convivial, which means you get to share it with other travellers and locals, it was a great occasion. Yes more Vernaccia was consumed. Yes more limoncello and there was even some complimentary birthday Spumante thrown in. It was all capped off with the paternal figure of Amico, giving Nancy a birthday hug. Amico Fiorini runs the farm, and sits down to eat with his guests every night. A great host and a great night indeed. There may have been a sore head or two on route to Pisa the following morning.

Alas, all good things do indeed come to an end. Our trip concluded with a return journey to Pisa, but not before taking in it’s draw card, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The last time I was in Pisa, you could not climb the tower. I guess physics must have come along leaps and bounds since then, because the tower is still leaning precariously, but now tourists can climb it. We pre-booked our tickets online, and Margaret and  I took the 300 step climb on, while Mary and Nancy opted to avoid competing with gravity for the sake of it. It was a remarkable climb, and quite disorientating at times.  I wanted to know exactly the point where Galileo conducted his famous gravity experiment, but figured it was somewhere at the top. The view was spectacular from the top as you’d expect, and what was most useful was clocking the fact that the airport was a near stone’s throw away – well 2km away. Don’t think even Galileo could have pegged a ball bearing that far. In any case, all I had to do was head south of the river, and I should hit the airport. After our Pisa exertions, we had lunch, then made our way back to the car. We had parked in Piazza Carara which was free on Sunday’s so that was novel.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa 

And so concluded a fabulous week in Tuscany. I’d definitely return, and perhaps that’s why we met some people at Poggio Alloro that keep coming every year. Italy continues to amaze both Margaret and I. We loved Sicily, Lake Como, and Golfo di Napoli – and now we can add Tuscany to the list. Italy is definitively our favourite European destination. Such diversity of natural beauty, astounding history, amazing food and wine – and all in that one boot and football. Tuscany, you simply have to go.

You can check our more of the photos from the trip in the albums Urban Tuscany, and Rural Tuscany