Dave & Meredith’s Travel Blog

Well, we left Tuscany over two weeks ago but with everything going on, I’ve had less time than usual to devote to working on photography. Better late than never: a gallery of pictures from Umbria and Tuscany is now here. As usual, the Photo Galleries page is also updated. I hope you enjoy them. Stay tuned for plenty of photos from Cinque Terre, Lake Como, and Venice.

- Dave

Well, it’s probably about time to tell you about what we did a couple weeks ago, right? We’ve been off of our normal blogging pace for the last week or two so we’ll try to catch up in the next few days.

After the week in Umbria, we spent a week in Tuscany near San Gimignano and it was wonderful.  Our villa was really nice and the people who ran it were fabulous.  They served a great dinner three nights during the week we were there and it was some of the best food we’ve had on the trip.

During the week, we visited Volterra, Lucca, San Gimignano, Siena, Pisa, and some wineries in Chianti.  Of these towns, our favorites were San Gimignano, Siena, and Volterra.  Here are some snapshots from that week; Dave will also post a gallery of the nicer shots from our time in both Tuscany and Umbria [Sometime real soon now! - Dave] :

Above: A view of San Gimignano from the road our villa was on. The approach to most of the hill towns looked similar with a walled city up on a hill. San Gimignano though is known for its towers since, in many hill towns, the towers have been toppled or torn down over time.

Above: A typical view of the surrounding countryside from the inside of a hill town. Sweeping views look beautiful to us but in the past were practical for city defenses.

Above: A typical steep, winding street through a hill town. Many are too narrow for vehicles. This was in Volterra on the day we traveled from Umbria to Tuscany. Notice how there is no one on this road. It was a Saturday (see next picture).

Above: The main street leading up to the city center of San Gimignano. This was taken on a Monday. Notice the difference in the crowds in the street compared to Volterra above. San Gimignano is beautiful and definitely worth a visit but it’s also one of the most well known hill towns in Italy so be prepared for crowds.

 Above: A view of Siena’s Campo de Fiori surrounded by a typical spread of buildings with red tile roofs.

Above. The ceiling of the Piccolomini Library, a room off the side of the nave of Siena’s Duomo. This is over 500 years old and the colors are still incredibly vibrant. Definitely worth a few minutes’ side trip if you visit the Duomo.

Above: The countryside around Tuscany is an endless view of vineyards. This was on a foggy morning in the vineyards below our villa looking back towards our room.

Above: When we left Tuscany to head to the Cinque Terre, we went via Pisa and spent a few hours there in the middle of the day. The guidebooks are correct: there isn’t much to see in Pisa besides the Leaning Tower. The other two things to see are right next to it: the Duomo and the Baptistry. All three are related: the Leaning Tower’s official name is the Campanile which is a bell tower for a church. It costs 15 Euros to climb the tower so we didn’t bother. It wasn’t worth $50 for two people.

Above: In my opinion, the Baptistry was more interesting than the Leaning Tower. It’s enormous and the inside was deliberately designed for great acoustics. Every 30 minutes, one of the park officials would close the doors, walk to the center of the first floor, and sing for a few minutes. The echoes last so long that it is possible to for someone to sing a 3-note chord with themselves. We saw (heard) the park official do this several times. Very cool! Most tourists left before they closed the doors, seemingly unaware that they’d see this if they stuck around for just another minute or two.

By the way, if you go to Siena, go to a little shop called “Pizzicheria De Miccoli” right in the center between the Campo and the Duomo.  A man named Antonio will make you amazing sandwiches to eat there or take away.  We ate while standing in a corner of this small shop and watched people come in and buy salami, cheeses, wine, cookies and cakes (Antonio gives samples freely so you know what you’re getting before you get it).  My sandwich (roast pork and pesto) was the best sandwich in the world.  And it was huge.  I dropped a little on the floor (klutzy), and Antonio made me a platter with cheese, salami, a cheese brioche and an artichoke to replace what I had dropped (it was like a second meal).  One of the most fun lunches I’ve ever had.

- Meredith

Here is the view from our window in our villa/apartment in Tuscany:

- Meredith

Our strategy for Tuscany and Umbria was to base ourselves in two separate villa apartments over two weeks (one east and sort of south and one west and sort of north). The way most of the villas and farmhouses work here is that you rent a place for a week starting and ending on a Saturday. So, the first apartment we stayed in was from May 3 - 10, and the one we’re in now is from May 10 - 17. Here are the two locations on an interactive map:

View Larger Map

Villa #1 was in Umbria, just over the Tuscan border. That allowed us to see some of Umbria, as well as visit some of the hill towns in Southern Tuscany. Here are some photos of it:

Our Villa in Umbria

Our Villa in Umbria

Using this villa as a base, we visited the towns of Assisi, Spello, and Citta della Pieve in Umbria, and Cortona, Montalcino, Pienza and Montepulciano in Tuscany. Although there are so many hill towns to visit here, each town has a different combination of character, sights, and charm. Of the towns we visited during our first week, Cortona, Montepulciano and Spello were our favorites (see pictures below). One of the nice things about this area is just picking a destination for the day, getting a map at the Tourist Info center, and then just wandering around. We stop for food, wine and gelato at various points in the day, step into churches and enjoy the art and architecture (I try to guess the century based on the style and then read any signs posted in the church to see if I’m right), and wander around tiny alleys until we get to a point in town that has a fabulous view of the surrounding area (usually up high or out on the city walls). It’s a pretty chill way to be a tourist. It’s working for me, especially after the craziness of Rome and Florence.

Typical Street in Spello

Typical Street in Cortona

View of Cortona from Santa Margherita Church on top of the hill

View of the countryside from Montepulciano

Villa #2 (where we are now until Saturday) is about 4 kilometers from San Gimignano in Tuscany. We’ll provide a report at the end of the week about the towns we visit from here (obviously San Gimignano, Siena and Chianti country are on the list, but we’ll get to some more out of the way places too).

- Meredith

Meredith has her series of posts about the views from our windows but I was moved on our first day in Umbria to show you what really counts. Here’s the view from our first villa’s crapper:

- Dave

The first day in our villa in Umbria, all we did was chill out and do laundry.  It was so nice not to be racing around, and we really needed to wash our clothes.

Macchina Lavanderia

- Meredith

Here is the view from our window in our villa/apartment in Umbria:

- Meredith