We arrived into Pisa on the train and from there we took a drive through the beautiful Tuscan countryside to Volterra, here we found a medieval village perched on the edge of cliffs and an amazing view of the surrounding countryside.
I'm still trying to figure out how to say the name of this village. San Gimignano
We spent the night here which gave us the chance to wander the streets of this medieival village and see the beautiful dusk view.
In the morning before heading on our way, we saw some more of the village and then headed to Massa Maritima for a quick visit and then on to San Galgano.
San Galgano was a was a 12th century knight who renounced his violent past and thrust his sword into a stone. The sword is still in the stone and held in the church of Monte Siepi which over looks the Abby of San Galgano - a beautiful gothic building in the middle of fields of sunflowers. The abby has no roof and at the time we arrived they were taking down a stage from a show. It was such a beautiful setting under the sky.
We then drove to Siena to stay for the night.
We found the only hostel in town. Which turned out to be an institution like place, strict curfew, check out by 9.30, breakfast between 7.30 and 8.30, where you could receive you ration of tea, juice and bread, and no more. Our room was a bit like a jail cell, but it did us for the night.
We went in to the centre of Siena for the night (but made sure we were back in time for our curfew!) and spent the night sitting in the town square (not actually a square, more like a semi-circle) called Il Campo, watching the world go by. It is here that once a year a bareback horse race is held around the piazza.
In the morning we spent some more time wandering through the streets and saw the very elaborate duomo (cathedral) - we both thought it looked a bit like an over the top wedding cake.
From Siena we headed north through the Chianti region, this area is famous for it's wines and the drive through the area was very picturesque with the neat lines of vines over the hills of the area.
We spent the night at a hotel in a small village called Pieve de Santa Luca, about 25 kilometres from the coast, and also Pisa. We enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere and poolside so mich that we decided to spend our last night in Italy here too. We took a drive to nearby Cecina on the coast for lunch and spent the rest of the day relaxing at our hotel, in the tiny village in the middle of the beautiful Tuscan scenery.
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