Our whirlwind tour of Tuscany...

After a nice relaxing stretch in Venice and then in Corniglia we felt like we were well rested and ready to go into crazy tourist mode. We woke up ridiculously early (5:30!!) to be out of the house by 6:30 (this was the one and only time the entire trip that we forced ourselves out before 9:30 so this was quite an accomplishment) and catch an early morning train. The only problem being that the shuttle down to the station didn't start running until 7:10 and our train left at 7:20. So we carried our suitcases through the tiny main street of Corniglia (it's only about 5 feet wide, made entirely of cobblestone and more of an alley than an actual street so we didn't dare roll them and make too much noise) and then rolled them down the long winding mountain road to the train station. It was beautiful being out that early and watching the sun come up.

BREAKFAST IN PISA

Pisa was not on our original itinerary. But when we saw that we had to switch trains there between Cinque Terra and Sienna we couldn't resist a quick side trip to see the famous tower. So we hopped off the train, checked our luggage at the station and walked to the other side of town to check it out. I'll be honest and say we were just seeing it to say we saw it, but I was surprised by how amazing it was to see in person. That thing is really leaning!



We tried to do one of those goofy pics where it looks like I'm pushing over the tower but it really didn't turn out....so here is our do-it-yourself shot of us at instead.

LUNCH IN SIENNA

A few train rides later we found ourselves in beautiful Siena. This side trip got of to a rocky start. We had read that there was no luggage check at the train station but that the bus station had one. So our plan was to catch a bus to the bus station, check our luggage and then go check out the town. We ended up not catching a bus and walking instead....with all of our ridiculous amounts of luggage....aimlessly....ok, we had an aim--we just didn't go in the right direction...for over an hour looking for that stupid bus station.

We were ready to throw in the towel, give up and head back to the train station when one of our wrong turns finally led us to the main gate into old Siena. We were totally hooked and knew we had to check it out, even if we had to carry our luggage the whole way. Luckily we did finally find the bus station and were able to get rid of our suitcases for a bit.

Siena was definitely worth all that trouble. It is relatively small and has a very gothic, mideivel feel that was really cool. This is the main cathedral there, you can't really tell by the picture but it was one of the most beautiful and ornately decorated ones that we saw on our trip.

The other main feature in Siena was Il Campo, the towns main square. It is huge and they still hold massive horse races there a couple times every year. As a tourist it is the perfect spot to grab lunch, yet another gelato, and people-watch.

Our final train ride that day took us to Florence. We got there late and went straight over to the B&B we had booked pretty close to the train station. After being so charmed by Sienna earlier that day my initial reaction to Florence was disappointment. We had heard so much Florence-related hype but to me it just seemed huge and overcrowded with enough scooters flying around to rival even some cities in China. The couple who ran our B&B though were young and really nice and even gave us a ride to dinner. That was a plus after a long day of walking.

The next morning we checked out, took our luggage to the train station and went to see what all the Florence-hype was really about. Florence is famous for having the best gelato in Italy....it was really good but I'm still partial to our little gelato shop in Corniglia. Here is a pic of the Florence gelato:

This is the Ponte Vecchio, Florence's famous and very beautiful bridge. Florence is the birthplace of the renaissance so the history there is absolutely amazing. We spent the morning at the Galileo Science museum, it was incredible to see the huge strides made in science in such a short amount of time. I was surprised to learn how many famous artists were contemporaries in Florence during the same time period too. It was super crowded that day so we weren't able to get into the Uffizi Museum which is supposed to be pretty incredible, but we had fun wandering around. By the end of our day there I had definitely warmed up to Florence and would love to go back sometime.