Italy - Tuscan Traverse

The plan: head south from Florence, take in some cities of interest and then across to Pisa on the coast before heading back ‘home’ along the coast. First stop after Florence was San Giminiano, perched on a hill with its towers, characteristic of the area. This quaint city is responsible for a fair bit of wear and tear on the camera shutter, couldn’t help it though, everything is so picturesque. Not much there other than charm, but what else does one need, oh did I mention the world champ ice cream shop? Camping in an oak tree ‘forest’ wasn’t too schabby either, the morning shade keeping us in our sleeping bags long enough to feel a bit more like holiday.

San Giminiano from afar, the dusty grey of olive trees in the foreground.





















Not just Asterix and Obelix were into their wild boar...


































The twin towers of San Giminiano.

We finally escaped the tourists on a hot Sunday in Sienna, a quiet day with most shops within the city being closed. What a pleasure, especially after the hustle of Florence and a lesser extent San Giminiano. It seems an interesting city that was once much more prosperous than it is today, partly because of smallpox and partly the invasion from Florence. As with most of Tuscany, very scenic, but also interestingly home to the Pallio; a horse race equivalent of Aussie no-rules. It seems to be the neighbourhoods that enter teams into a no-holds barred horse race that essentially is a few circuits of the ‘track’, the winner being the one that is still on his horse. Of all the cities we had seen, Sienna seemed to be the city most shaped by the locals, they really do still lived in their city despite the tourists.

One of the only town squares I have ever seen that is not flat, sometimes squares aren't squares, but normally flat...

Evening drinks in Montereggioni was enough time to take in this cute village atop a hill, surrounded by scenery that is Tuscan essence. I would go back just for the light.

Montereggioni as the sun goes down.













































The clichéd Tuscan scene does exist ;)

The seaside called; Pisa and camping on the Mediterranean Sea. Suddenly camping returned to the month long caravan variety that we found on the lakes, more of the locals getting away I guess, blah not my idea of fun.





















Baptistere at Pisa.















The cathedral.











Yes, the tourists doing their part to hold up the tower, posing for photies.





















It really does lean...

Pisa was really cool. The tower leans, and that evening out was just perfect, great restaurant in a very simple feeling city. Us, the travel weary took to the beach and soaked up the sun, and chilled…and yip, you would never have guessed it, but we watched the whales. Until we hit Pisa I hadn’t seen a single fat Italian, that title was reserved for tourists from the far west. Pisa beach however was just nasty, and what’s worse is that they had procreated; the not so little ones were doing their best to outweigh their parents. What ever happened to running, playing and burying your brother on the beach instead of stuffing your face?