2012.6.1~2In the afternoon, we first went to Galleria dell’Accademia (Academy of Fine Arts, official site). Established in 1563, It was the first school in Europe specifically teaching the techniques of drawing. The line at the entrance quite long. The most famous work housed by the Academy is the original David by Michelangelo, but what is more unforgettable is a colorful copy of blonde David standing at the courtyard. Humorous? Ridiculous? Bold to say the least.

After left Galleria dell’Accademia, we walked around Piazza San Marco.

It’s already late afternoon at the time we returned to Piazza del Duomo. The sunshine drifted up gradually along the cathedral and the bell tower, with the color was getting warmer from very bright to golden.

My wife went to Ponte Vecchio to listen to Claudio Spadi’s music again. I walked along River Arno between Ponte Vecchio and Ponte Santa Trinita and tried to capture the beautiful sunset that painted the city and sky with orange and purple color.

We started walking back to the hotel after the sun sunk below the horizon. Mercato Vecchio (The Old Market) was filled with souvenirs and antiques stands during daytime but now it’s all empty but one playing accordion. It was the first time I heard someone play classic music, such as Pachelbel’s Canon and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, by accordion.

In the next day morning, we went to see the museum you don’t want to miss, Uffizi. It is one of the most prestigious museums in the world because of its vast amount of collections and their quality. Some of famous works include, Titian’s Venus of Urbino, Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo. Most of the displays were Medici family’s collections. No wonder in the earlier day, when I was at Piazza Santa Maria Novella, I saw a banner read something like, “too bad today’s arts collectors’ tastes are not as good as Medici’s”. We reserved the tickets through our hotel on the day of our arrival, otherwise the waiting queue would be much longer. Photography was not allowed in Uffizi, but I couldn’t help to taking a shot at this one. Is he a time traveler?

We had some time walking around the city before going back to the hotel.

The afternoon time was reserved for shopping. Florence is one of top fashion capitals of the world. One major upscale shopping street, Via de’ Tornabuoni, where many high fashion boutiques are located, is only steps away from the hotel.

After walking in and out these fashion stores for two hours, I finally convinced my wife to go to Piazzale Michelangelo as our city tour’s last destination. The taxi dropped us near San Miniato al Monte so we had chance to first see this beautiful Romanesque church on the very top of the hill.

Piazzale Michelangelo offers a spectacular panorama view of the city. Locals come here for picnic, couples take wedding photos and tourists gather at west steps listening to music and waiting for the sunset. Although our days at Florence all started cloudy, they always cleared up in the afternoon. We had three gorgeous sunsets in a row. Looking down from the square, all the historical landmarks we have visited stood one after another in front of our eyes. The entire city were bathed in the beautiful red glow. Our trip ended on the most romantic note.

2012.5.31~6.1We booked Strozzi Palace Hotel for 3 nights at Florence. One nice thing about Florence is that its historic district is a very compact area, and the hotel is wonderfully located at the center of it. We got a spacious suite at the top of the building, room Michelangelo. Our neighbor was room Raphael.

It’s about 6pm. Walked one block from the hotel, through the triumphal arch, we arrived in Piazza della Repubblica. It’s a lively square filled with street artists and tourists. The piazza is surrounded by bars and cafès. Many of them have long history being the popular meeting place for artists and scholars.

We continued walking toward the River Arno. The streets were crowded by the tourists. We didn’t go to Ponte Vecchio right away, but walked along the river to have a better view of the Old Bridge. This is one of the most famous landmarks of Florence. We crossed the river by Ponte Santa Trinita and went back to Ponte Vecchio from the other side of the river. There are shops built on both side of the bridge. Once taken by butchers before Renaissance, now these are jewellery stores and galleries.

At the middle of the bridge, the area around the statue of Benvenuto Cellini is open to the river. Many people sit around listening to Claudio Spadi (with Luca Sciortino) playing his music. He performs regularly here often till dark and has become a quite famous scene of Ponte Vecchio. The warm light of the sunset was reflected by the water and windows by the river and illuminated people with beautiful backlit. We stood by the bridge and watched him play for at least 7 or 8 songs till the sun set below the horizon.

The second day morning, as usual, I got up at 6am and had a walk around the city. I first went to the piazza where the city’s principal Dominican church, Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, is located.

Then, I walked to the Duomo of Florence, Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. The construction of the original cathedral begun in 1296 and took more than 100 years to complete. The original façade was never finished. In 16th century, it’s even torn down because it’s considered outdated in Renaissance times. The church was left without a façade until 19th century, when the richly-decorated new façade was rebuilt in green and red marbles.

We started our city tour after the breakfast. The first stop is the Piazza della Signoria. It is one of the most famous attractions in Florence thanks for the statues (some are copies) still standing around the piazza and the Loggia dei Lanzi, including David and The Rape of the Sabine Women. The piazza is not only the political hub of the city, but also a symbol of the city as the center of Renaissance. It is so famous that at any given time there were at least 3 or 4 tour groups visiting the piazza. It is the most crowded place of all our trips.

The massive building with an imposing bell tower overlooking the Piazza della Signoria is Florence’s city hall, Palazzo Vecchio (gallery). Enter the building, we were impressed by the huge chamber that can accommodate almost 1000 people. It was holding a school meeting at the time we visited. Large frescoes that depict battles with Pisa and Siena cover the west and east wall. The second floor contains several apartments and rooms that are used for arts exhibition. Many of them are the works of Giorgio Vasari.

Leaving the city hall, we walked through the loggia of Uffizi by Arno. This is also the innovative work designed by Giorgio Vasari who opened up the courtyard and made it a public piazza and street. Crossed the river, we went to Palazzo Pitti (official site), but we didn’t enter the museum. We went back to the hotel to have a noon rest.

2012.5.30~31Famous for its art and religious works, Siena was once a rival to Florence for the dominance of Tuscany from medieval time to the Renaissance. Today, the city is an UNESCO heritage site. It may be the best preserved medieval city in Italy, thanks to its conquest by Florence – as Florence became bigger and busier, Siena turned its focus on building the city to retain its traditions and blend into its surrounding landscape.

Tourists’ vehicles are not allowed to enter the inner city. From our hotel, alone Via Roma, it takes 15 to 20 minutes to walk to the city center. At the first day morning, I got up at 6am and had a walk in the city. In the early morning, tourists had not taken the streets yet.

The view of the shell-shaped brick-paved public square, Piazza del Campo, is a signature image of Tuscany. At one end, there sit the tower of the town, Torre del Mangia, and the city hall, Palazzo Pubblico; at the other end, it’s the Fonte Gaia (Fountain of Joy). Every year, two horse races, Palio, are run in the piazza, to promote pride and rivalry of among 17 contrade of Siena.

When I walked to the Piazza del Duomo, where Siena’s main cathedral is located, the morning sun just started lighting up the piazza. The churches were immersed in the warm golden sunlight.

Siena’s main cathedral is a Romanesque-Gothic style church. Its west façade is a masterpiece of medieval architecture. The façade was built in two stages, the lower part was designed in Tuscan Romanesque style, the statues and pinnacles of the upper part was heavily influenced by French Gothic architecture.

After spent the rest of the day in the country side, we returned to the city center the next day morning.

We paid a small entrance fee to get into the Duomo.

The Duomo was supposed to be enlarged to double its current size, but the Black Plague in 1348 stopped the effort. We climbed to the top of the unfinished façade. From there, we had a panorama view of Siena.

Walking out of the Duomo, we had a lunch at Trattoria Papei at Piazza del Mercato, right behind Piazza del Campo.

We left Siena at afternoon and drove to Florence, which is only 50 miles away. We returned our car at the airport, which is the best decision I made of the trip, and took taxi into the city.

2012.5.30We only planned two days around Siena area, so we didn’t choose the countryside villa but booked our stay at Hotel Santa Caterina. The hotel was remodeled from a patrician house. It’s small and cozy. The dinner room opens to a lovely garden and countryside of southern Tuscany.

Southern Tuscany is famous for the hilltowns and villages of great art history. We spent our first day driving around countryside. Our route largely followed the suggestion from Slow Travel Italy website. We knew we would be at most a little more than an hour drive from Siena, so we started late in order to be at Pienze area around the sunset time.

1. Montalcino

Montalcino is the hilltown surrounded by vineyard, olive orchard and oak trees. We went to see the cathedral but soon got lost on our way out. We struggled hard to make a turn in a narrow dead-end on the slope.

2. Sant’Antimo Abbey

Sant’Antimo Abbey was built in 8th century. We got there in the noon. It was too sunny otherwise it would be a good place for a picnic.

3. Castiglione D’orcia

The winding road over Val d’Orcia took us to Castiglione D’orcia. A small church just off the road provided us some necessary shade to have a rest.

4. San Quirico d’Orcia

San Quirico d’Orcia is strategically located in the center of Southern Tuscany. We drove around the town and enjoyed beautiful music and tasty pasta at restaurant La Locanda di Fonte Alla Vena.

5. Torrenieri

When we stepped out of the restaurant, a dry and hot day has become cloudy and it started drizzling. We drove north on SR2 and got off the road at Torrenieri. From there, we would go east on the country road SP137. As we climbed up to a small hill, the drizzling rain had developed into a thunderstorm. We had to stop on top of the hill. For a while, we were worried about being struck by lightning.

5. Country road SP137 and SP71

The rain stopped after half an hour, we continued driving east on the dirt road SP137. This area features beautiful rolling hills, a signature landscape of southern Tuscany.

6. Monticchiello

It’s 6pm already. We passed Pienza, drove south on SP del Monte Amiata and east on SP88 to reach Monticchiello. Again, we had some difficult time to park and turn in this hilltown.

7. Pienza and SS146

We came back to Pienza at 7pm. Tuscany was immersed in twilight. If you have an extra day, stay in Pienza for one night is a good option.

Unfortunately, we saw a lot of poppies and several other types of flowers, but we didn’t see any sunflower, although some reported that they saw “fields of fields” sunflowers in various months from May to September. Before we left for the trip, we asked the hotel clerk about where we could see them. He said that it really depended on the farmers, if they grew them and when/where they grew them. He certainly didn’t forget to leave a hint that we could see sunflowers in the region at the time. 🙂

2012.5.29Before checking out from the hotel at Lucca, we had a short visit to Viareggio. It is a beach town only 20 miles west of Lucca. The local road, Via Sarzanese, runs through mountains and villages. It’s much more interesting than the highway but it took us almost an hour to get there.

Taking SS12, Pisa is only 10 miles south to Lucca. After passing a small hill and tree-lined country road, we could see the Duomo and the Leaning Tower from miles away. Circle half around the out wall to the west, there is a big parking lot only two blocks to the entrance of the piazza. A couple of people were selling faked leather craft and watches outside of the parking lot.

The Leaning Tower is just one of 4 major edifices in Piazza dei Miracoli. The other three are, the Duomo, the Baptistry and the Camposanto. It’s a such famed place that attracts a lot of tourists. Although it might be overly popular, the piazza is beautify, refreshing and definitely worth visiting.

We left Pisa at 4pm. There are several ways can get us from Pisa to Siena. The fastest is to take A11 to go back to Florence and then go south by Florence-Siena Highway, but it would be boring to drive on the same road; so we decided to take the shortest path. We went south on SS206, turned east on FI-PI-LI (Firenze-Pisa-Livorno) Highway, got off the highway at ss429 and continued driving south, eventually merged into Florence-Siena Highway. My GPS stopped working and only things I had were a printed Google direction and Touring Editore’s Toscana map. We passed countless villages and roundabouts, made many wrong turns. Finally, we arrived at Siena and checked into Hotel Santa Caterina at 8pm.

2012.5.27~28Italian consulate’s office in San Francisco was very small and the officers sometimes were quite arrogant, luckily we got our visa without any issue.

We arrived in Florence at 4pm local time. At the airport car rental counter, we got a free car upgrade. It turned out not as ideal as it sounds, the bigger car caused us some headache while driving and parking in those hill towns at Tuscany. Our first destination is a small town 50 miles west of Florence, Lucca, After a little more than an hour, we checked into our hotel, Hotel Ilaria & Residenza dell’Alba.

Lucca, Italy

Lucca, Italy

Lucca, Italy

Lucca, Italy

Lucca, Italy

Lucca, Italy

Lucca, Italy

The hotel is located in the old town enclosed by Lucca’s historical walls. I had a walk around the city right after we settled down. Via Santa Croce run right through the middle of the inner city from east to the west. It was late afternoon. I only got time to cover the southern part of the old town.

We had dinner at Ristorante Giglio at Piazza del Giglio. Grilled fish and Octopus are some of the local favorites.

The next day morning, as usual, I had a morning walk by myself before the breakfast. Lucca is famous for its narrow lanes winding among the medieval buildings and suddenly opening to small piazzas at one side of the streets. Morning sunshine provided some intriguing lighting condition for photography.

The hotel serves the breakfast at an open patio that overlooks the garden of a villa at back of the hotel. After the breakfast, our city tour officially started.

Lucca’s inner city is quite small, but our legs got really heavy after walking back and forth in those narrow alleys. As usual, after lunch we went back to hotel to take a nap and resumed our tour again at 4pm.

Much more compact, quiet and slow-paced than Florence and Pisa, featuring beautiful medieval architecture and maze-like lanes, Lucca is a jewel of a Tuscan town, a surprising treat of our Tuscany trip.