Ca' San Rocco:
We grabbed a quick slice of pizza and our first of many gelatos of the trip before making our way towards the Dorsoduro area and the Ponte dell'Accademia (which Sue thought was the Rialto Bridge until we arrived there later in the day;-). I took about 600 pictures this trip and I think almost half of them were in Venice, and we were only there for 2 days! Every time we crossed another bridge I had to stop for a picture.
Ponte dell' Accademia:
a nod to the Pont des Arts in Paris:
From there we made our way to tourist central, St. Mark's Square. In my opinion, this area is probably the least appealing part of Venice, but the Doge Palace is beautiful and St. Mark's is worth visiting. We went into St. Mark's, not very exciting interior decoration aside from the dome, but interesting to see the original bronze horses which were seized from Constantinople (from the site of the ancient Roman Hippodrome in Istanbul, which Dan and I visited last year.)
Torre dell' Orologio
Campanile:
On the loggia at St. Mark's:
Palazzo Ducale:
After checking out St. Mark's square we were ready for something more relaxing so we took a stroll through the back streets and picked up a gondola ride around the Castello area. It was so quiet and serene it was hard to believe St. Mark's was just a 5 minute walk away.
Bridge of Sighs:
After our gondola ride, we stopped for a glass of Prosecco to refuel and then headed for the Rialto Bridge. Following some quick naps back at the hotel, we went out again for a lovely dinner in the San Polo neighborhood.
Rialto Bridge:
The next morning, after a lovely breakfast on the patio at Ca' San Rocco, we headed again for the Ponte dell' Accademia, stopping along the way at an interesting "Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci" exhibit. We had intended to visit the Doge's Palace but after giving up on the long, slow queue, we instead explored the San Marco area a little more. We picked up some snacks for the road at the Rialto Market just north of the bridge, grabbed another quick lunch of take-away calzones and then headed for the airport to pick up our rental car for the week.
We drove south from Venice towards our villa, which was just outside the town of Poggibonsi, about halfway between Florence and Siena. Being that it was a Sunday and we were worried that no food shops would be open by the time we arrived at our villa, we made an effort to keep our eyes peeled for any open grocery stores along the way. When Phil saw a store that looked like it was open about a half hour north of Florence, we decided to take our chances and exit. Unfortunately, we couldn't find it and after driving in circles looking for a Coop that ended up being closed, we were about to give up hope and resolve to eat cookies for dinner when we drove right by a giant mall/Coop as we were about to get on the highway again. Back on track, we made it to the villa, Il Casale di Villore, around 7pm, just in time to enjoy a glass of wine as the sun set, taking in the gorgeous views from our home for the next week.
our room, the old olive press:
Il Casale di Villore:
The next morning we slept in and spent some more time enjoying the views and walking around the villa grounds. Then we headed off for Monteriggioni, a small walled hilltop town not far from where we were. It is the tiniest little town, still fully encircled by the wall, which has 14 fortified towers; rather excessive it seems for the size of the town but apparently it was built to guard Siena's northern borders against Florence. There are great views from the top of the walls and they were having a market in the main square of the town where we bought some tasty organic wine.
morning views from the villa:
Monteriggioni:
From there, we got back in the car and made our way over to San Gimignano. Another small town, although huge in comparison to Monteriggioni, San Gimignano has a distinctive skyline because of its many tall towers (we had a nice view of it from our villa.) It is known as "the city of beautiful towers" and 14 of the original 76 towers are still standing. After having a lovely lunch, we climbed the tallest of these towers, the Torre Grossa, finished in 1311. The views from the top were spectacular and if we had had our zoom lens we might have been able to pick out our villa. After some stops in the many food and wine shops in town, we headed back to the villa.
Palazzo Vecchio del Podesta:
Collegiata:
Torre Grossa:
The next morning we awoke to beautiful sunny skies again and spent some time by the pool before heading to our lunch/winery tour. We had booked a tour with Rocca delle Macie, mainly because of it's proximity to our location. When we arrived at the restaurant, we saw an "Olive garden" sign on the side of the building that looked just like the US chain. We all laughed thinking it was just a coincidence but later found out that this is actually the place they send the chefs from Olive Garden for their "Tuscan culinary school" and that Rocca delle Macie exports a lot of their wine to Olive Garden, ha. So here we thought we were going to the quaint little local winery and we landed upon one of the largest producers/exporters in the area. Aside from that, the lunch was fabulous (nothing like Olive Garden.) After we finished eating, our server gave us directions from the restaurant to the winery. However, having quickly forgotten what he said by the time we got in the car, we plugged the address I had into the GPS and proceeded to drive 20 minutes on a very dubious dirt road, only to end up in the middle of the town Castellina in Chianti at their wine shop, not the vineyard! We were now terribly late for our tour but we had the woman in the shop give us directions and call over for us and ask if we could still take a tour when we arrived. Once we arrived we had a wonderful tour and tasting and bought lots of wine since we felt bad that we were so late! (and the wine was also very good.)
views of San Gimignano from our villa:
"Olive Garden" :-)
Rocca delle Macie:
After the tour, we went back into Castellina in Chianti to check out the town. There wasn't a whole lot going on and it looked to be on the verge of storming any minute so we just did a quick spin around the town and then got back in the car to head home.
The next morning we were up early to get in a full day in Florence. We parked just south of the river at Piazzale Michaelangelo (free, with great views of the city) and then walked down to the Ponte Vecchio. After checking out the bridge we made our way over to Piazza della Signoria. Here the David replica stands in front of the impressive Palazzo Vecchio. The Loggia dei Lanzi, bordering the square on the other side, also holds some impressive statues including the "Rape of the Sabine Women."
Piazzale Michaelangelo:
Ponte Vecchio:
Ponte Vecchio:
Palazzo Vecchio:
Once we had squeezed our way through the crowds on Piazza della Signoria, we headed for the Duomo. We checked out the inside, opted out of climbing the dome, and then circled around it, taking in the amazing stonework and giant size. As with St. Mark's in Venice, we didn't find the interior to be that fascinating, aside from the dome, but I do think the stonework outside is beautiful.
From the Duomo, we made our way over to the other main church in Florence, Santa Croce. Santa Croce is a 13th century Gothic church famous for containing the tombs of Michaelangelo and Galileo. It also has a beautiful wood coffered ceiling and pretty cloisters.
Michaelangelo's tomb:
Galileo's tomb:
We then made our way back towards the Uffizi, stopping off along the way for a pizza lunch and of course, a gelato. We spent about 2 hours exploring the Uffizi gallery and by the time we were finished, we had definitely had our fill of renaissance art. We then walked through the western end of the city center and over to the Ponte Santa Trinita, which is a lovely bridge in itself but also has great views back towards the Ponte Vecchio.
best gelato of the trip, the flavor I got was just called cookies, spelled "cookes":
from the Uffizi gallery rooftop:
Piazza della Repubblica:
Ponte Santa Trinita:
Ponte Vecchio:
Our next stop was the Pitti Palace on the south side of the river. It is called the Palazzo Pitti because it was originally built for a banker by the name of Luca Pitti, but became the main residence for the Medici family in 1550. We did not go in the palace but instead spent our time exploring the Boboli gardens just behind it. The gardens were beautiful and we even managed to squeeze in a quick nap.
Palazzo Pitti:
Boboli gardens:
L'Isolotto:
We had planned to stay in the city for dinner but decided that we would rather make the drive home earlier. We had intended to try one of the restaurants that the villa owner, Antonio, had suggested but both were closed so we went into Poggibonsi to try our luck there. We drove past a place called "La Posta" which from the road looked like La Pasta, so I suggested we try that. When we arrived we realized, to our surprise and delight, that it was actually a Spanish restaurant. The server suggested we order a tapas selection chosen by the chef and the food was amazing. It was one of the best meals we had all week and a nice change from the all the Italian food we had been eating up to that point.
our last views of Florence:
The next day we slept in and then hopped in the car to head up north to Pisa and Lucca. Our first stop was Pisa. We had not pre-booked tickets for the tower or the cathedral, which is necessary, so we just made a quick stop, taking in all the sights from the outside. We had included the stop in Pisa basically because we wanted to go to Lucca and we figured if we were driving up that way anyhow we might as well stop. I'm glad we did; even though we did not climb the tower, it is an impressive sight and was fun to see.
From Pisa we had a short drive over to the lovely town of Lucca. Lucca is fully enclosed by some of the best preserved walls of the Renaissance era. The walls have been lined with trees and have a lovely path for bike riding or walking. The town has a quaint, relaxed feel but in comparison to some of the other towns we visited, it was not overrun by tourists and had a real lived-in feel which made it one of our favorite cities of the trip. Our first stop was a lovely cafe just off the Piazza San Michele for a delicious lunch.
San Michele in Foro (located in the square which was the forum in Roman times):
We then headed for the main cathedral, San Martino:
each column was a little different:
After checking out the church, we rented bikes, and explored the city walls. It was a great way to see the whole city and a fun way to spend the afternoon.
Anfiteatro Romano, now a piazza of medieval houses, was once a Roman Amphitheater:
We had a relaxing dinner at the villa that night, followed by a lazy day at the pool, a great way to spend our last day. In the morning we took a walk down one of the hiking paths near our villa, then we soaked up lots of sun by the pool and played some bocce and ping-pong.
.jpg)
.jpg)
That evening we drove into Siena for dinner. Our first stop was the Siena Duomo. We all felt that it was the most impressive cathedral of the trip. It was completed in the 12th century but in 1339, the Sienese decided to build a new nave to the south which would have made it the biggest church in Christiendom. However, the plaque hit the city before they could finish it and it was never completed. The south wall is still standing and the side aisle is now a museum. The interior of the church was fascinating. The black and white marble walls were really unique and the inlaid marble floor was impressive as well.
San Domenico:
unfinished nave of the Duomo:
Siena Duomo:
Piccolomini Library:
From there, we made our way over to the Piazza del Campo, another impressive site. The shell shaped Piazza is divided into 9 segments, symbolic of the rule of The Nine, who governed Siena in its heyday. It is bordered by the Palazzo Pubblico which serves as the town hall, and it's bell tower, Torre del Mangia, the second highest in Italy. The fact that this whole piazza is on a slope is just one example of how hilly the town is and very representative of the fact that there are literally no flat spaces in the city.
Palazzo Pubblico:
After taking a break to take in the piazza and watch the many University students in Siena starting their Friday nights, we made our way to a Trip Advisor recommended restaurant, Zest. We had a delicious meal outside with great views of the Duomo as the sun set.
our restaurant on the left:
a nun bringing some pizzas back to the convent ;-)
After dinner we stopped into a bar for a couple of cannolis and then went back to the villa to polish off our remaining wine. A perfect ending to a wonderful trip.
