Siena and San Gimignano

We did an overnight trip to Siena and San Gimignano, staying one night in Siena.  The drive to Siena was pretty straightforward, except that a truck cut me off on the highway near Florence and I missed the Siena exit, and we ended up doing about 60 KM from Florence to Siena through the backroads.  The scenery was very beautiful but both Sonya and Jack were almost car sick.

When we got to Siena, first order of business, gellato in the main piazza:

The stones were warm even in the shade and I got a short nap!

We booked a very nice apartment for our 1 night stay!  Quite by accident.  When I book a hotel I usually sort by price, and then find the first (least expensive) room with decent reviews and in a decent location.  In this case one of the least expensive options was an apartment, not a hotel.  It was a challenge to find, but in the end was worth it.  It had a separate bedroom, living and dining room, and a full kitchen, and a giant soaker tub (room for about 4 people):

But the crown jewel was the shower.  It had jets from 4 different directions, including a waterfall, and had a built in radio.  We're going to do another visit to Siena just to use this shower again!

Here is a shot of the famous piazza:

We bought a combo ticket to see a bunch of the sights, including the duomo.  It was quite impressive, with thick striped marble columns supporting the roof:

Here is the outside:

We climbed up the facade for a view of the city.  Why do I spend all my holidays doing this to myself???  For the view, of course.  Note how I manage to get a good picture even while holding onto the railing with a death grip with one hand:

Next we visited the duomo museum.  Ever notice how in religious pictures everyone has a halo?  Well I guess a lot of statues are given halos as well, because the museum had a whole room displaying just halos.  I asked Sonya to look angelic but I think she looks more regal:

I'm going to send this picture to Sierra so they can use it to update the photo on her company ID card.

Next we drove to San Gimignano, a small town in the hills dating from about 900 AD.

Most of the buildings and the town wall dates from the 1200 or 1300's, before a plague wiped out 2/3 of the population, and the town was taken over by the empire of Florence and the Medicis.

We stopped for a glass of San Gimignano wine.  This was stop number 5 of 6 for the day (breakfast, lunch, gelato, mid-afternoon snack, wine, dinner) and is typical of our schedule on this trip!

Tried to capture a picture of the sunset on the way back to our car.  The photo doesn't do it justice at all!

Overall Siena and (especially) San Gimignano were overrun with tourists.  They are beautiful cities, and definitely well worth visiting, but I think my favourite place so far on this trip is Calci, the small town near our house.