Fine wine, great meat cuts, medieval towns and the sun – Toscana personified

Allora (an oft used Italiano term for ‘So’ or ‘And then..’), here I am, doing next to nothing, save writing this post.

Chapter 1: Resident Day Off

Post the manic first 2 days at Firenze, we had decided to take our customary ‘Resident day off’, a day where we practically did nothing except lounge around our hosts’s place, read novels, update our expense records, call family, write blogs – essentially do nothing that you’d expect your run of the mill tourist to do. The day was meant to provide ourselves with breathing space from any sort of physical activity such as the daily rigours of carrying our backapcks/daypacks around town and at the same time re-kindle our enthusiasm to seek new adventures.

One year of traveling can get monotonous if you are constantly on the move, and hence we designed this day to sit back and reflect.

Chapter 2: Escalators

Well rested, the next day we head out to explore Siena, a little 14th century medieval town located about an hour from Empoli.

Once out of the station, we headed to the tourist information centre to grab a map and some information on what the prime attractions were, only to see a big sign at the door stating, ‘Only Italian spoken, No English’. The irony brought about a big grin on my face and I promptly walked in to speak to the old bloke at the desk in the finest Italian I could muster.

I was pretty chuffed at having managed to have him nodding sincerely in acknowledgement, so I was utterly disappointed when the only response I managed out of him was, “Escalators”. I proceeded to ask my question again on what I should try to see around town but the response was the same; in fact he smiled this time around.

Puzzled, I turned around and told Dee we should make our way and find a set of escalators and they hopefully would point the way. What was I to know that these would turn out to be the longest and the steepest set of escalators I would ever have taken. There were in fact, 5 sets of escalators, each 50 steps long and at an incline of 70 degrees, separated by small ramps. If I had read about Siena prior to visiting it, I would have known that the town is atop a hill with the train station at the bottom of the hill.

The longest set of escalators you’ll ever see, leading up to the top of the hill to Siena

Chapter 3: Siena and San Gimignano

Post the lengthy escalator ride (have always wanted to say this), we headed to the Centro to check out Piazza Del Campo amongst other sights. The entrance to the town is via ancient gates that straight away have a medieval aura about them. Little alleyways surrounded by buildings made of stone and red brick lead the way to Piazza Del Campo. The Piazza itself is a massive arena that in the past had been used for horse races. In it’s present form, it made for a perfect balcony for earnest tourists to bake under the Toscana sun.

In fact, post lunch whilst Dee had a siesta, I indulged in my favourite sport – people watching, and watched this one girl dressed in corporate clothes and a designer handbag, walk up in front of us, neatly lay out her bag as a pillow and lie down, hair properly arranged et al for a good half hour under the sun post which she took off like it was just another normal thing to do during your day at work; I was awestruck!

Girl with the white top on the left side of the photo about to lie down illustrates how normal it is for anyone living in the Toscan region to get out during their breaks for an impromptu tanning session

Down the little alleyways of Siena

Piazza Del Campo

Andrea our host at Toscana was kind enough to take us to San Gimignano later that evening. Another medieval town in the Siena province, the Gothic and Roman architecture of the castles and the towers in the little city was lit up by the setting Toscana sun. It was only fitting that our stay in Toscana ended in such spectacular fashion!

Sunset overlooking the Toscana region from the fortress at San Gimignano

The Facts:

Next Stop: Bologna