At the end of May were were so excited to get visitors again! My cousin Todd and his wife Laura came out for a week to see Italy (and us) which is always a great excuse to go out and see some new places. Laura had said that she wanted to visit Tuscany, so I set to work finding some places for us to visit the first couple of days they were here. We picked them up at the airport and went directly to San Gimignano, a beautiful old city located among the Tuscan hills and vineyards.
We stayed at an agroturismo about 1 km outside the walls of the town which had beautiful views of the countryside and a big yard and pool area.
When we arrived, we spent a few minutes relaxing and exploring the grounds.
Then we walked up the hill to the city to check out the city and find some dinner.
San Gimignano is another old, Italian walled city. Here's the outside wall with plants growing on it:
The view of the hills:
I think this was one of the most stereotypically "Italy" towns. It's a little touristy, but it wasn't packed wall to wall like Florence and Venice usually are. It had lots of cute shops and narrow alleyways with laundry hanging from the windows, and the towers were lovely. It was fun to be able to walk around and explore a little bit after we ate.
Robbie ended up having to take Michael back to the hotel a little early, but Todd, Laura, and I walked around a little bit to enjoy their first night in Italy. We got some gelato (of course), took some pictures around town (which are all on their camera since Robbie took ours) and then headed back to the hotel in the dark. And there were fireflies! It was the first time I'd seen fireflies in Italy, and it made the night even more lovely.
We woke up the next morning, and went to have breakfast back up in San Gimignano, and see more of the city in the daylight. This is the view out the window of our hotel:
Michael enjoyed this trip mostly for the pool (he was very good about being careful, laying on his stomach to put his hand in the water, and not going near unless someone was with him),
and the cats. There were several cats around the grounds, and he wanted to chase and pet all of them. They weren't as thrilled with these activities.
San Gimignano is known, mainly, for the fourteen towers spread across the city. In its heyday, back at the end of the medieval period, there were 72 towers, some up to 230 feet tall. The towers were status symbols as there were many rivalries between families during the time, so they would build the towers to show how wealthy and important they were.
There was one tower you could climb, so of course, we did!
It was beautiful and small enough that we felt like we didn't have to spend all day there to see it all and could take a quick trip to see Siena as well.
On the way back to the car Michael found a puppy to play with...
And a fountain to play in...
Then we made it back for our third trip to Siena. Since we had been there before, only Robbie went back inside the cathedral to take some pictures while Michael and I stayed outside and played.
No matter how many times you see it, the duomo is still an amazing sight.
After a few hours in Siena, we loaded back into the car and returned for our last evening in San Gimignano.
We relaxed a little by the pool, then drove back up to have dinner in town again.
The next morning we got up for a quick Italian breakfast of pastries and cappuccinos before leaving to drop Todd and Laura off at their next destination.
I think of all our visitors so far, Todd and Laura get the award for most ambitious travelers--in 7 days they visited San Gimignano, Siena, Florence, Venice, and Ferrara. It makes me tired just thinking about it! This was a great place to start, and I think set a good tone for the rest of the trip. Definitely a beautiful place to see!
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