Today will be a long day. I've booked us a day tour with Walkabout. Cost 230€/$254.13. Meeting point is the SM Novella train station at 7:45 am. We walk there from our hotel stopping at an ATM where I withdraw 300€ and then stopping at the McDonald's where I get a donut and an orange juice to have for my breakfast on the bus. Richard doesn't want anything. When we arrive there's quite a lot of people there. It looks like there will be 2 groups in 2 tour buses. The groups are very large-around 40-50. From the train station there is a long walk of around 10-15 minutes to where the bus is parked. Not getting off to a good start I think. Unfortunately Richard and I end up stuck in the last row which is for 5 people. The other rows are for 2 people on each side of the bus. This is not ideal. One guy sitting in that row with us isn't happy because he's not sitting with his wife. But she could have sat in that back row with him if she wanted but she chose to sit in a row of 2 which is way more comfortable. Our guide is Tony. Our driver is Labbi?? I am happy with my donut and orange juice! Some interesting scenery but to be seen mostly if you're sitting on the right side which I was not. Most of the narrative I post here is from my own research on the sites to be visited on this tour. If I had a do over I would not book this tour. It was not really a walk about but a speed walk. Tony kept saying we have to keep on schedule. He is 25 and has the legs of a healthy 25 year old! It felt so rushed. Unable to really enjoy our surroundings. Hard for us to keep up. Richard's knee was hurting. I had trouble with all the uphill walking. Per my app on my phone we put in almost 6 miles of walking! Tony did not check every so often to make sure all the group was together and at one point my husband and I did get separated from the group. No one came to find us. We had to ask questions, even walk with another tour group before we finally made it back to the tour bus before it left without us! I would not do this tour again. For those who are younger and/or in better shape physically this is a good tour. If you want to only scratch the surface then this tour would work for you. Unfortunately it didn't work for us and the day was ruined by the negatives of the tour. Lots of uneven and steep surfaces.
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| Our guide Tony |
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| Large group |
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| Our tour bus is large! |
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Tony is telling us about the tour
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| Scenery from the bus |
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Scenery from the bus
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This tour is supposed to include time in Siena, lunch at a winery, time in San Gimignano, and Pisa. It is described as the best of Tuscany tour.
It takes around 90 minutes to get to Siena. From the bus we have a very long walk to where we enter the city. We have a local guide-forgot her name-that we follow through the streets. We have head sets to hear the guide. World's oldest bank. Piazza del Campo-site of the 600 year old Palio horse race. The Cathedral. Supposed to have free time after but we didn't have that luxury!
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| We walk by this market on our way into the city |
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| View of the city as we're walking |
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| Banca Monte dei Paschi-oldest bank in the world |
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Our guide in Siena
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Palio. Horse race held twice a year. Ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in colors representing their contrade/city ward. Thousands of spectators come for the race. The race circles the Piazza del Campo on which a thick layer of earth has been laid. The race is 3 laps of the piazza and usually only lasts for 90 seconds. Sometimes a riderless horse will finish the race as jockeys do get thrown off their horses. A horse is not required to have a rider to win the race. We're told by the guide that never has a horse had to be put down from this race and that's good to hear. The horses are treated very well leading up to the race and they are carried to the church for a special blessing.
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| Our guide is explaining the palio to us |
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Siena Cathedral. UNESCO World Heritage Site. Medieval church consecrated in 1215. Style-Italian Gothic, Romanesque, Classical. Has the form of a Latin cross, a dome, and a bell tower. The exterior and interior are constructed of white and greenish-black marble in alternating stripes with the addition of red marble on the facade. Black and white are the symbolic colors of Siena linked to the black and white horses of the city's legendary founders Senius and Aschius. There are 35 statues of prophets and patriarchs grouped around the virgin. Artists who have works in the cathedral-Pisano, Donatello, Pinturicchio, Ghiberti, and Bernini. My interest is the mosaic floor. One of the most ornate of its kind in Italy. Covers whole floor of the cathedral. Consists of 56 panels in different sizes. Most have a rectangular shape but later ones in the transept are hexagons or rhombuses. They represent scenes from the Old Testament, allegories and virtues. The uncovered floor can only be seen for a short period of time which usually includes the month of September. It is very, very crowded with lots of tour groups. In hindsight it would have been so much better to do Siena on our own. That way we could have taken our time and got the most out of the visit. Here we were rushed-"to keep on schedule". Our guide-I forgot her name-didn't give us as much information about the cathedral as what I had researched but I was hoping she'd show us more panels than she did. She only explained the She-Wolf panel and the one where the woman is balancing herself one foot on a boat and the other on a rock on land. We all had headsets so we could hear what she was saying. Unfortunately another tour group passed right in front of me and when the way was clear for me she/our guide and the group had disappeared from my sight! I could hear her talking but with the crowd I couldn't find her or my group. It was not a fun experience as I was by myself. I Did not get to see some floor panels that I was really looking forward to seeing as I was spending precious time looking for my group and my husband! knew there was a time for us to be at the meeting point so I finally left the cathedral and made my way there hoping to find the group and my husband there. When I got there some of the group was there but not my husband. I hoped he'd know to leave the cathedral and come to the meet area and he did. He said he'd been looking for me in the cathedral but that it was so crowded. I honestly don't know how we missed each other.
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| Group admission ticket |
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| Siena Cathedral |
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| Column with a statue of the Contrade Lupa, a wolf beast-feeding Romulous and Remus. |
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| Upper facade mosaic-Coronation of the Virgin |
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Gargoyles and saints on the facade
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| Entrance |
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| Giovanni di Stefano-Ermete Trismegisto/founder of human wisdom |
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Pillars with angels and the altar
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| Wheel of Fortune panel |
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| Pinturricchio-Allegory of the Hill of Wisdom |
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| The She-Wolf of Siena |
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Pillars with angels and the altar
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The pulpit and the mosaic floor
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| Very crowded |
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| Postcard-Siena Cathedral mosaic floor panel Slaughter of the Innocents |
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| Returning to our meeting spot |
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| Meeting spot is by this building |
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| Postcard |
Long walk back to the bus so we can get to our next stop-lunch. It takes around 30 minutes to get there. Poggio Alloro. This is a family run organic winery. I was hoping for a tour but we are directed to sit for lunch. Lunch was delicious but pretty basic. Bread, garden salad, homemade pasta, cured meats, local cheeses, and Tuscan biscotti. We have a tasting of 3 wines and 1 dessert wine but no in depth information is given to us about the wines. There's an opportunity to buy wine and olive oil from the winery shop. This is where I take a bathroom break as there is no bathroom on the tour bus. The scenery here is amazing. I wish we hah had more time to explore the landscape of the winery and shop for wine and olive oil.
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| Homemade pasta |
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| Garden salad, meats, cheeses |
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| Homemade prosciutto and salami |
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| Postcard |
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| Views from lunch at the winery |
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| View of the town of San Gimignano with its skyline of medieval towers from the winery |
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| Our bus |
San Gimignano. Hill town in Tuscany. It only takes about 15 minutes to get here from the winery. Richard and I walk with the others to the entrance to the town but we decide we'd like to just get some gelato, sit, and relax instead of doing more walking. The gelato was so refreshing and yummy! Cost 12€/$12.88. It was nice to sit and relax and just people watch. This town is encircled by 13th century walls. Piazza della Cisterna is a triangular square lined with medieval houses. Medieval towers including the stone Torre Grossa. There's also the Duomo di San Gimignano which is a 12th century church with frescoes by Ghirlandaio in its Santa Fina Chapel. It would have been nice to view all of this but we are not up for the amount of walking to get there.
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| Scenery driving from the winery to San Gimignano |
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Entrance to the town
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| Gelato stop |
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| Me-panpeposo and fruitti di bosco |
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| Richard-limone and melone |
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| Walking back to the bus |
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| Postcard |
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| Postcard |
Pisa. Best known for its Leaning Tower which was already tilting when completed in 1372. Our final stop. Some in the group have opted to climb the Leaning Tower and have timed tickets for that so it will be another sprint walk once we arrive. I personally can't wait for this day to be over. It takes us around 90 minutes driving to get from San Gimignano to Pisa. We have spent a lot of time on this bus! Some people on the bus have told me that they have complained to Tony about how he's "lost" us a few times and not checking to see that we were with the group. It's another long walk from the bus to the area of Pisa-Piazza del Miracoli-where the sites are located. Fortunately they are all in the same general area. So he is now telling me that we can do what we want in Pisa and shows me the meeting point. Then he says he's going to try to see if he can find a taxi to take us back to the bus! We walk to the area where the sites are including the Leaning Tower. I take lots of pictures. I decide that I'd like to go inside the church but Richard is not interested. He'll wait for me where he is. I leave my purse with him taking only my iPhone. When I get to the church entrance I notice a sign that indicates there is an entrance fee! OMG. I don't have any money with me. Tony never mentioned this to us. It's a long walk back to where my husband is with my purse. But the kind lady takes pity on me and lets me in! How nice of her to do that. The church is beautiful and I am enjoying myself a lot. I walk back to Richard and tell him about the entrance fee. Soon Tony comes. The others are climbing the tower. He's found a taxi to take us back to the bus. We get to the bus and are able to just sit and relax while waiting for the rest of the group.
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| Arno River |
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| Cathedral |
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Baptistery
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| Leaning Tower |
We arrive back in Florence at around 9:30 pm. It's been a very tiring day. But we still have to walk from the bus back to the train station! Why couldn't the bus let us off closer?? We are happy to be back to our hotel and so tired we just collapse on the bed. Too late for dinner and we're just not hungry.
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