Under the Tuscan sun

Three days in Tuscany was enough to understand why one would live there.  The landscape, good food, good wine - what more could you need?  Oh right, cheesy photoshoots.  More on that later.

Dad and I stayed in Florence, the capital of the province of Tuscany.  Unlike Venice, which seems to have more canals than streets, Florence is structured a bit more "normally."  That is, we could navigate around much more easily and appear slightly less obviously like tourists (unless you include the times Dad would stop in the middle of the sidewalk, scratch his head, and look at the map, concerned).

We spent the first day walking throughout the city.  The architecture is simply beautiful.  Everything from the Duomo (huge cathedral that looks over the city), to the Palazzo Vecchio, and to the Ponte Vecchio (oldest surviving bridge in Florence across the River Arno), is just gorgeous and reminds you of the long history that this country dates back to.  Walking on the uneven cobblestones on the streets, and sitting inside the old cathedrals takes you back in the Renaissance time. 

The next day, we went to the Boboli and Bardini Gardens, located behind the Palazzo Pitti (palace belonging to some rich banker).  I was a bit unimpressed with the fact that we had to pay to enter the gardens, which were nothing out of the ordinary (aside from a lot of strange statues and stairs to climb).   In the afternoon, we climbed some steep hills to reach the Piazzale Michaelangelo, where we treated our tired and sweaty selves to gelato.  Dad then managed to be persuaded by a vendor to buy a poster of the Mona Lisa ("of all posters, Dad, why did you pick her?!) which he said we could put up on the walls of our house - did you hear that, Mom?

One thing that I've noticed upon leaving Sweden, is that I'm able to spot a Swede even before he or she speaks.  It's really weird.  First, I when I noticed blonde hair, I have suspicions.  Then I look at how the person is dressed - looking more or less well-kempt and dressed, hair not messy, and most of all, Converses, then I'm almost 100% sure that this tourist is from Sweden.  And almost 100% of the time, when he or she starts speaking, I hear "ja-ha!"

Anyway, back to Firenze.  The last day was really the highlight of the entire trip: a tour of the region surrounding Florence.  In other words, a tour of Tuscany and a hunt for Chianti!

Siena is a historic (though which part of Italy isn't historic?) city about 1.5 hours south of Florence.  As expected, it's overridden with tourists, and is home to the world's oldest bank (or so they told us on the tour).  Siena is most known for being the site of the famous Palio, a horse race that takes place twice a year, July 2nd and August 16th, in the Piazza del Campo.  We happened to arrive two days after the recent race, so the clay and mud that is smeared over the piazza ground was still present, and a lot of chatter amongst locals could be heard regarding the race.  The Palio heavily centred around religion, and the 17 horses in the race are considered chosen by fate.  The race lasts just over a minute, yet, people spend hours arriving early to stand in the sweltering heat, waiting for it to begin.

What's a tour of Tuscany without good food and wine?  San Gimignano, a medieval town, is located close to Siena.  Near San Gimignano, we visited an organic farm and vineyard.  My initial assumptions, hearing that it's a family-run farm, was that it would be small and cute and personable.  It turns out that this is a huge farm, and really runs like a business.  I still enjoyed it, though; the view from the farm down to San Gimignano was incredible.  The farm even has its own cows for meat production (t-bone steak).  I didn't have a chance to speak with the farm owners/workers directly because the tour was so rushed, but it was still nice to be able to see the vintage grape vines and olive trees. 

95% of the food that we ate at the farm was produced on-site.  We started with bruschetta (drizzled with good extra-virgin olive oil), salad with fresh and ripe red tomatoes, handmade taglietelle with beef ragout, a selection of prosciutto, salami, and cheeses, and finally an almond biscotti.  We also tried four kind of Chianti wine, including a dessert wine that was similar to ice wine (though I prefer ice wine). Stuffed to the brim with food.  Thankfully, the dark shadow in the picture above masks the works of the lack of asian enzymes..

Though I was full, I absolutely had to try the 2009-2010 world champion gelateria in San Gimignano.  The best I'd tasted in Italy so far.

And then the moment we'd all be waiting for: Pisa!  Yes, we spent all our time in front of the tower, perfecting our stances.  But the best part of it all was seeing thousands of others around us doing the exact same poses - kind of looks like a cult, don't you think?

So there you go, my tour of Tuscany.  I have a feeling that from now until the end of this trip, I'm going to be massively behind on my blogging, since I won't always have access to Internet and I'm sending my laptop home with Dad.  We've just spent four days in Rome, and tomorrow Dad's heading back to Vancity, and very much looking forward to eating "normal food."  As for me, more adventures to come!