Lots of photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/debstah1/sets/72157622730119774/
6:45am (we turn the clocks back here today): Woke up about 15 min ago after finally getting a decent night of sleep. Went to the bathroom, where I saw this amazing glow coming, so I pulled back the curtains to see one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen - sunrise over the Tuscan hills. I immediately grabbed my camera, snapped some pictures, put on a jacket and snapped some more. One of the most amazing things ever.
8:00pm: Back at the farmhouse after a very long but fun and enjoyable day. We set off for the ruined abbey of San Galgano and the GPS got us there in just over an hour without any problem. It's in this gorgeous flat setting high above the valleys and it's really quite an amazing place. I won't really spend much time describing it since my pictures will do a better job of that. We wandered around, took many pictures, and set off for Siena.
We arrived in Siena shortly after 10am, and since I had a fear of crossing into the dreaded ZTL (electronically controlled traffic gates in many Italian city centers), we parked in the first lot we found, which turned out to be pretty darn convenient for the city center - after going up about 6 escalators! Anyway, we followed the plentiful signs to Piazza del Campo - the mindblowing main square in Siena, when I found it - THE olive wood shop I stumbled into 2 years ago and left empty-handed. It was open!!!! So, this time I wouldn't make the same mistake, I got a small bowl, a cup for pens, and a spatula type thing that will be great with pasta. And my credit card worked again, hooray. This kind of made my day. So we found the Campo and Renee was as amazed by it as I thought she'd be. We wandered around and into many little shops, including a bakery that was open til 1pm, so we got a few different cookies to sample and they were delicious. Around noon we got some takeaway lunch, I had a slice of pizza, and took it onto the Campo where we just sat in the shade and ate it, people-watching on this glorious and warm day.
Then I had remembered I wanted to see if we could find the Synagogue, which was only steps behind the Campo. We found it (despite it being on an almost totally unmarked building) and it happened to be open for visitors on Sundays from 10-5. So we buzzed the bell and a sweet lady opened it up. It was 3 euros and she basically gave us, and a French (or German?) couple a 20-30minute spiel on the history of the Jewish community in Siena in the beautiful little Synagogue. It sounds pretty similar to most of the other Jewish communities in Italy. It has about 50 people right now and she said the community has been revitalized a bit because they brought in a young Rabbi and his family from Israel. During our 'tour' the little girl came in and she was adorable. So anyway, the Synagogue is really lovely and was built in the mid-1700s. Interestingly, the women's section is not completely separated from the men.
By then, the Duomo was open, so we went in there. Luckily, the marble artwork on the floors was still uncovered so we could see all the gorgeous things on the floor again. Also, the little Piccolomini Library is a fantastic room. So after that, we decided our plan of attack. We were going to save a little town of Monteriggioni for another day, but… it's on the way back to the farmhouse from Siena so we figured we'd give it a look-see. So we got a gelato and set off for Monteriggioni. It was maybe 20 min from Siena, and it's a really cute little fortified village on top of a hill, and you can walk from one end to the other in about a 2 minute brisk walk (5 minute stroll). It has a cute little church, a couple restaurants, and a few little shops, and that's about it. So then we went to a town a couple miles away called Abbadia Isola, mostly because it was supposed to have great views of Monteriggioni, and it did. But it also has an important abbey, that of course is closed for restoration.
So, keeping on the theme with getting more done in the day than we'd planned, we decided to go to San Gimignano for a couple hours and have dinner there since it's a touristy place, we figured Sunday dining should be no problem. It was pretty busy and we had to drive around the walls to find parking but we found it in the end and it was fine. In the town, everything was open pretty much, you'd never know it was a Sunday in Italy in San Gimignano. So we wandered around in and out of lots of ceramic, jewelry, and wine shops and the like. Very busy indeed. We sat in a square and thought about dinner. One of the places Rick Steves mentioned actually sounded pretty good and he said it was open continuously from 11am through dinnertime so we figured if we could find it without too much trouble we could give it a shot. So we did ultimately find it and around 6-6:30, we went in. It was down a few stairs, almost like in a cellar. Maybe 10 tables, probably less. I had a mixed salad and STEAK! It was only 8 euros so I knew I was taking a bit of a risk. It was thin and maybe not the best steak ever, but it hit the spot and was what I needed after so much pasta and pizza and sandwiches. So then we walked back through town and got a gelato at a famous place that is supposed to have some of the best stuff in Tuscany. It was good, but not necessarily any better than other good homemade places.
Then set off to get back to the farmhouse. Thankfully, we had saved the RIGHT location of the farmhouse in the GPS so it got us back with no problems in about 15 min. So it was a nice and early night and now we're just going to look at pictures and make some panoramas and maybe watch some TV shows!
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