As much as I loved the city of Florence, I couldn’t wait to visit the countryside of Tuscany. I pictured rolling green hills, vineyards, and beautiful old cities. That is exactly what I got! I felt just like Diane Lane in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. As a matter of fact, my husband and I actually looked into buying something there! Didn’t happen…but one can dream! Since we only had one day, I decided to book a tour for a day trip. The one we did, I found on Viator and it was perfect! We got to see a little bit of everything I wanted to.
The morning started off meeting our group around the train station. It was very easy to find and it was a pretty big group of us. Our tour guide’s name was Olivia. She was fantastic!! So cute and helpful, and very informative! After waiting on everyone to show up…well almost everyone, there was a poor guy who was yelling at his girlfriend on the phone to hurry up because she was about to miss the trip because she wanted to stop and get a coffee before we left! Ha!! Anyways, we boarded the big bus, we were off. Olivia pointed out things along the way, and we watched a short video about the history of the first stop, which was Siena.
Siena
The tour gives you an ear piece so you can follow the guide and hear what they are saying. You don’t have to stay and follow the guide. We listened and followed her for a few minutes, then ducked out to explore on our own. Siena is beautiful! It has lots of medieval buildings and a huge open town square. The town has very old traditions that are still in use today. The city is divided into districts. Each district is named after an animal. Twice a year, they have a horse race, and one person races for each district. The winner gets bragging rights and their flag is flown in the city. It is a huge deal, kind of like their super bowl. The horse race was actually featured in the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. I would love to go back during the horse race. The guide said it does get crazy though! Walk around and enjoy the streets of Siena. There is a beautiful gothic cathedral you can visit.
Organic Farm and Winery
Our next stop was lunch at an organic farm and winery in Chianti. This was my favorite part of the day! Calling all winos!!!! This is the place for you! It was called Fattoria Poggio Alloro. We arrived and was immediately seated at long tables for a family style lunch. I loved how we got to eat lunch with people from several different countries, and all walks of life. On my right were three girls from Israel and to my left was a family from New Zealand. I love meeting new people and getting to talk to them. There were several courses for lunch, and each course they brought different wines out to pair the food with. There was fresh bread with olive oil, pasta, salad, cold cuts, cheese, and biscuits to dip in your dessert wine. Everything was so delicious and the wine was constantly flowing! After lunch, you could take a tour of the grounds or just relax on your own. We took the tour. The views are exactly what I wanted to see and just breathtaking! I didn’t want to leave to go to our next stop.
San Gimignano
Our next stop was San Gimignano. I still don’t know how to say that name right Ha! This was a medieval city that has a wall surrounding the town. It feels like you’re walking up hill the whole time. There are lots of shops and restaurants to sit at. The best gelato we ate on our entire trip came from here. It is called Gelateria Dondoli. Do not miss out on this gelato!
Pisa
Pisa was the last stop on this tour. I will tell you the little bit of Pisa we saw I wasn’t impressed with, but all I wanted to see was the leaning tower. Like any tourist, I wanted to take a silly picture with the tower. It was fun to watch everybody posing and doing crazy pictures. You could pay extra and climb to the top of the tower, which we did. It was a very weird feeling climbing a tower that is already leaning. It felt like you were going to fall over.
This tour was exactly what I wanted! If you want to see different cities in Tuscany but don’t have a lot of time to stay, then I would definately recommend this tour. It was a very long day, but so much fun!