Florence
Ah, a bit of winter Sun! Well, that's what Wendy said, "I'm going to book a break for February - we need a bit of winter Sun". "OK", I said, "where are we going?", "Tuscany in October" came the reply. Fair nuff - who am I to argue? So, off we go. We land at Pisa and straight on a train to Florence. Now, a bit of advice, if you're going to Florence (and this was low season remember) then book your hotel in advance. We found it difficult to find a reasonable hotel and settled on the Hotel Desiree, which was fine and a snip at €100 per night. It's (literally) 5 minutes from the Santa Maria Novella (i.e. main) railway station so not too far to drag the luggage. It was clean and comfortable with a fantastic lift - one of the old ones wth a metal grille that you close before the inner door and then press the button. It reminded me of the first flat I rented in France. Happy days, Hawkins, Happy days!
There is also a small, friendly trattoria nearby (Trattoria Guelfa, 103 Via Guelfa) about 5 minutes walk from the hotel that did a 3 course tourist menu including 25cl of wine for €12.
So, four days in Firenze. It's not a big city and the main areas are all within a 10 minute walk. It's also quite low rise, but with narrow streets and even narrower pavements (typical of old cities) - many a time you have to step aside for someone dragging a larger suitcase to their hotel destination. No problem but watch out for the Italian drivers!
A bit of advice, if you want to do the culture vulture thing (which we did) then book in advance even though it will cost you more. Odd really, the entrance price to a museum is (about) €6.50 - but if there is a special exhibition on it rises to €10 and if you book online or at the various agencies you pay €3 more - so a €6.50 ticket (to avoid the crowds) cost use €13, each. Why do you pay more for online ticketing - no idea! However, the queues are daunting if you just turn up! We were told (by the chap on the door on the Saturday) that we can't get a ticket until Tuesday because Museums are closed in Mondays unless we appear very early on Sunday morning. Well, we don't have that much time so we duly turn up at the Academia at 08:30 on Sunday morning and get in by 09:00.
The Academia is the museum that houses Michaelangelo's David. To be honest, that's the only thing it does house. It's quite a small museum and starts with renaissance religious icons then you turn a corner and 100ft away is David. It's stunning even from that distance and dominates the entire space. How do you create a work like that? Do you start with a solid block of marble and roughly hew out the form and refine or do you just start at the top and continue down? In this case a bit of both! In the same hall are other Michaelangelo works that are blocks of stone with figures emerging. However, this piece of stone was 'discovered' by Michaelangelo Buounatti as a single piece started earlier and described as "a poorly hewn rought form" - well, there's no doubt he improved on that!
It's just astonishing. As you approach the staute you see the detail - veins on the hand and arms, anatomically accurate musculature and looking as good now as when it was created in 1501-1503. There are two copies - both exterior - one in the Piazza Del Signiora (where it originally stood) and one at the Piazzale Michaehanglo.
Talking of the Piazalle de Michaelangelo, it's on a hill just outside the city (number 12 bus) and offers fantastic views over the city. In the city, the Doumo doesn't look that big but from this viewpoint it is big, really big. We decided (on the Monday) to take a picnic up with us. In the centre of Florence is a large indoor market with all you could require for such an outing: delicious salami flavoured with fennel (a really delicate but fragrant taste), parma ham, pecorino cheese, olives and (of course) a chianti. When you get off the bus just walk up to the Monastery for exraordinary views.
The most curious thing I saw as a beggar with a mobile phone! How does that work?
We also went to the Uffizi Museum, which I found disappointing. They are undergoing a renovation at the moment and have shifted the paintings into the other rooms, but they forgot to take many of the plaques that tell you who that artist was or what it's called! The most famous picture is (arguably) Giotti's Birth of Venus, but it looked quite faded and washed out like it might be in need of a clean.
Siena
So, after four days in Florence we decide to hire a car and pop down to Siena. If you're just doing the towns you don't really need a car since the trains are frequent and quite cheap. For example, an adult single from Pisa to Florence was €5.40. It takes an hour. The biggest problem with driving is, of course, Italian drivers. They are really bad. I saw one going a three point turn in the centre of a busy intersection and another reversing in to main road and into oncoming traffic. It's suprising that there are not more accidents.
You can't drive into the walled city of Siena, so we found the Palazzo di Valli just outside the city wall. A nice place for €100 per night and it has been restored to it's former glory. There's a bus stop outside and a ticket is about €1 - you buy them from the Tabbachi and then just stamp them on the bus. Once stamped it's valid for 1 hours travel so you could go quite far. For this journey you could also walk it since it's only about a mile. Siena is very, very old and hosts the famous Il Palio each year, a ferocious horse race around the Piazza del Campo and the winner takes the flag for their Contrade. The Campo is the centre if the town and is shaped like a shell. It seems quite a small place to hold a horse race!
San Gimignano
Well, we've got a car so we might as well stay somewhere more remote and get the benefit. We go to San Gimignano and find a farmhouse B+B in the nearby village of Radducio. It's a lovely place with it's own pool and a great view across the valley to San Gimignano itself. It's only B+B so you have to drive around to find an evening restaurant, we went to the "Vecchio Mura" (on the advice if the B+B proprieter) and it was fine, but it only does evening meals - we found a cafe in the middle of San Gimignano for lunch. San Griminano is again a walled town, and again you can't drive into it but there plenty of parking outside the walls. When I say you can't drive into it - we were in the square and a (new) Alfa Romeo came into it with smoke pouring from under the bonnet and a bad smell of burning rubber and metal, I think it was his brakes. It's only a small place and quite picturesque.
Pisa
Finally, take the train back to Pisa, it's only an overnight stop and a look at the Tower. It's quite small or at least it looks small. You can still go up it. On foot. All 250 steps of it. we stayed at the Hotel Francesco. which is just 100m from the Tower and Cathedral.
