Under the Tuscan sun with Corleone and Hannibal

July 3 2012

Sitting in the beautiful town of San Gimignano and had today’s classic comment from Al. Hey I feel like that Corleone mafia dude hiding out in Tuscany.

Well I am not an organised tour sort of girl. Would much prefer to hire a car and drive dangerously and frenetically on the wrong side of the road hitting every curb. But the heat must be getting to me because we did the Taste of Tuscany tour (recommended by Kaye Knight before we left – thanks Kaye) and it was fantastic.

Left early from Santa Maria Novella Firenze station (I have to keep writing that – Don’t you love the name? Much better than Florence railway station). Headed toward Sienna and heard that we were visiting Sienna on a very special day. Our guide was a Polish girl who was an expert in Italian renaissance art. She is studying for a PhD in London for half the year and doing field work as part of her research and working as a tour guide for the other half. She was totally fantastic.

We had a great introduction to Sienna and the totally made Palio. Alex knew about it but I didn’t. All quite nuts. Sienna is a beautiful and very steep city that is divided into districts. Every person that is born in Sienna belongs to a district and even if you move you are still part of the district in which you were born. I am a bit rusty on why the Virgin Mary and horse racing are linked but the special day we were visiting was the day of the Palio.

The Roman road of the market square is covered in sand and all the buildings covered in mattresses ready for a frenetic couple of minutes of horse racing. The mattresses are to offer some protection for horses and jockeys hitting stone buildings as they speed around the square. 50000 people crowd into the piazza waving the flags of each district in 45c heat and ten horses with bare back jockeys representing ten districts race madly around the square.

But first the horses are taken to church (of course) for a blessing. It would be too logical to bless the horses outside. Yep they are taken to each church in each district and blessed at the altar. A ton of shiny horse flesh being led over precious mosaic floors to be blessed. It doesn’t matter (words from tour guide) if the jockey breaks a leg, arm, neck or dies. It is all about the horse. Even if the horse has no rider, if it crosses the line first it wins. They all take it very seriously and the prize is so eagerly sought -A banner of the Virgin Mary to hang in your village (yes jockeys and horses die for this!!). It was a great spectacle though and felt like we were in medieval times, with banners, trumpets and century old costumes.

On to an organic farm in the Tuscan hills for a wine tasting and lunch. Breathtaking scenery. Yep just like Under The Tuscan Sun. Hills, olive trees, orange groves and terracotta farmhouses. Alex thought he was some mafia don and I kept thinking of Hannibal … Hmmm the chianti … Just wonderful

Great bruschetta, pasta, cheese and never ending wine. The biscotti with Tuscan desert wine was especially good.

To the wonderful hill town of San Gimignano. Yes I will defiantly return. It was breathtakingly gorgeous up on a hill with Tuscany at its feet. Great shops and of course we stuffed our mouths full of (apparently) Italy’s best gelato. San Gimignano is a small town with beautiful buildings, somewhat quieter than where we have been and I could have easily stayed for a month.

On to Pisa for the obligatory cheesy photos with the leaning tower. Pisa is so much older than the rest of Italy and it is amazing that it used to be a major sea port but with water level changes the sea is now 10 km away. Very old buildings and a really lovely centre of the city (away from the Field of Miracles that houses the cathedral and leaning tower). It reminded me a lot of the Seine in Paris, with buildings on each side, but so much older. It is now a large university town, with 50000 of the towns 100000 population students.

Back to Firenze and more pizza and pasta. Alex has eaten a large Tuscan pizza every day. For me the vice is gelato and limone granita. Too damn hot to eat but I reckon I am consuming 10000 calories a day of gelato. I am kidding myself that the kgs are melting off in the heat