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A Palace and lots of wonderful food!
When in Florence, a visit to the Pitti Palace is not to be overlooked! While the Medici family did not build the oldest part, they added to it and lived in it for many generations. It is known as a Medici work of art. I walked by the Palace on my first pre-tour day, and…
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Florence revisited
Our final stop on this Tuscan tour is Florence. Gillian and I both started in Florence but most of our tourmates did not. So Florence was a wonderful surprise for them. We took a public, scheduled long distance bus from Siena to Florence – about 1.5 hours. It was too early to check in, so…
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The Palio and more
This morning we learned about the most bizarre Sienese ritual – the Palio. The Palio, which dates back to 1208, is a ten-horse race run twice a year – July and August – around the Piazza Del Campo. Randomly assigned jockeys representing ten of Siena’s contrada – all 17 outlined in this map – race,…
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Bagno Vignoni, Pienza and Cheese!
From Siena, we ventured forth to two adorable towns and an organic Tuscan cheese farm. Bagno Vignoni is known for its hot springs though I didn’t see anyone swimming. We wandered about, drooling over the Tuscan countryside, enjoying the small lanes and attractive homes. One of our (married) group members announced that she wants to…
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On to lovely Sienna
We left Lucca this morning, heading for Siena. On the way we stopped at the Florence American Cemetary which is the resting place for 4,392 American soldiers who died in WWII in Italy. It’s a striking site, beautifully kept and orderly. On a wall are carved the names and ranks of the fallen. It reminded…
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A final day in and about Lucca
We spent most of our final day in the Lucca area investigating marble production. There are three sites of marble extraction around the small city of Carrara so that is where we headed out to. Anyone who has read about Michelangelo will know of his obsession with Carrara marble. It is white which sets it…
