Our Italian Adventure

After deciding that we would not have a rental car during our Italian trip, the plan was to have guided tours at some of our locations. We realized that some of the best sites and activities in Tuscany were not located in Florence & Siena. After an exhaustive search of our touring options from Siena, we decided on Tuscan Escapes. Our Tuscany day tours would occur in comfortable vans with knowledgeable and personable guides. The size of our two tours were seven adults on the Tuscany towns tour, and eight adults on the Tuscany wine tasting tour. We had a blast on both tours and enjoyed socializing with our fellow passengers. When one travels for a longer period of time, having conversations with other adults that are not your traveling partners is a nice change of pace. Most of Tuscan Escapes tours originate in Siena at a convenient location. I highly recommend this company. After watching our tour guides drive on these narrow back roads with cyclists, and vehicular traffic, I would recommend this option even if you have a car. Besides, with someone else driving, one can enjoy the adult beverages more without worrying about driving.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, our meeting location was changed from in front of San Domenico to the Porta Tufi which was one of the original gates into the city. This distance meant a longer early morning walk, but without having to traverse hills necessary to reach San Domenico. We arrived and found our driver and another couple from California. Soon, a single female from Romania arrived along with another couple from the United States. Even though we spent an entire day with these folks, I cannot recall any other names or where in the United States the one couple was from. We all got along quite nicely for the entire day. Our driver had a good sense of humor and kept the fun facts interesting.

Our first stop was to the very small village of Monteriggioni with a population of fifty residents. This quick stop allows a brief visit to this medieval fortress town with fourteen turrets built in the 13th century to protect Siena from the Florentine armies. It is set upon a hill surrounded by olive groves and vineyards.

Our next Tuscany town stop was San Gimignano. This vibrant village is another hilltop enclave with a fascinating history. There are still fourteen medieval towers standing tall out of the original 72 built in the middle ages. This results in San Gimignano having the highest percentage of surviving towers in Italy. The village is recognized as a UNESCO site of world heritage, which reflects the testimony of medieval architecture. San Gimignano was also on the route that ancient pilgrims walked upon during their pilgrimage to the Holy See in Rome. However, the town doesn’t languish in its past. Today, San Gimignano flourishes with artisanal boutiques of the local trades. They are famous for the “red gold” or saffron spices along with Vernaccia white wine. The history of these wines dates back long enough to where Dante mentions the wine in the 13th century. This period was when there wasn’t a central form of government, so San Gimignano was organized into an urban feudal society with wealthy merchants being the rulers. It was these wealthy families which built the impressive towers. On the day we arrived, the town was alive with many tourists, bicyclists, and a large wine-tasting festival. Although we were tempted, the time restrictions and the fact that we still had a long day ahead of us led us away from participating. Of course we participated in gelato tasting!

Afterwards, we traveled to a private farmhouse where we were served a lovely Tuscany lunch by the owner who we discovered had been recently widowed. The grounds were lovely, and Amy was delighted because a cat joined us for lunch. We had saffron gelato for dessert which now meant Amy had two saffron gelatos on the same day. She was not complaining at all.

Our tour made its last stop at historic Volterra. For those history buffs, here is a fun fact. In central Italy, including the Tuscany area, a very strong and advanced civilization was thriving well before the Roman Empire was even a dream. This civilization was started by the Etruscan tribes. Like the Romans, they were considered well ahead of their times, but alas, after several wars, the Etruscans were defeated by the Romans and assimilated into Roman society. Rome has borrowed many Etruscan cultural practices. Volterra is a city which harmoniously combined Etruscan and Roman ruins with medieval and renaissance architecture. The Etruscans mined alabaster from the nearby hills and artisans crafted the alabaster into vases, urns, sculptures and other objects. On our visit, we had the pleasure of seeing one such artisan work the alabaster into an object.

Volterra was packed to the brim with visitors as they also had scheduled a special event for this Sunday.

Yep, some sort of a Comic-con festival with super-heroes and other characters were taking place in the main square. There were many strange costumes being worn. Since this wasn’t our cup-of-tea, we browsed the other areas in town. On another busy cobblestone street was an bee gathering honey themed event. This one appeared to be geared for kids. This town loved having events because another production was occurring in a theater. We saw a youngster playing a musical instrument. It seemed to be a talent show of some sort. While the town is beautiful, placing that many people in tight quarters didn’t match our laid-back vibes of the day.

The weary group loaded back into the Mercedes van and headed back to Siena. We all talked about our exciting adventures in these small Tuscany towns, and agreed that this region was a magical area always worth returning back to. Amy & I had another wonderful meal in Siena at Osteria Permalico. We were excited for our Tuscany wine tasting tour in the morning.