Siena and Pisa

We took a 2 ½ hour train ride from Rome and arrived in Siena around 2:00. The town of Siena is situated on a hill overlooking the Tuscany region of Italy. Siena is a small picturesque city with narrow cobblestone streets and abundant shops selling local merchandise such as lace, dishes, ceramics, etc. Our charming hotel, called Il Chiostro Del Carmine, was a converted 14th century monastery. There were several times that tourists would come by and take pictures of the hotel courtyard and bell tower. The first night in Siena, we walked around the streets and went down to the Piazza del Campo. It is a typical Tuscan town square with a church and a large tower. Piazza de Campo is shaped like a shell and slopes downward. Many people gather here each day to eat gelato and watch the people walk by. The next day we took a wine tour south of Siena. The tour guide, Diego, spoke English and was very friendly. He had lived in the area for several years and knew much about the history of Siena and the surrounding areas. We were also grouped with two couples from Seattle. It was nice to be able to speak with other people so easily without having to try speaking another language. One couple was here on their 5 year anniversary just like us. Our first stop on the wine tour was a place called Il Paradiso Di Frassina. The owner Carlo Cignozzi, was a successful lawyer in Milan for over 40 years and by chance visited Tuscany. He fell in love with the area and bought a dilapidated farm house and started a winery in 1999. He is now famous as the wine maker that plays classical music for the grapes. The owner told us that originally he played the music for his own enjoyment while working outside. He began to notice a difference in the growth in the vines when exposed to classical music. Currently his vineyard is conducting a study with the University of Florence and has found that the grapes grow 40% bigger when exposed to the music. They have tried other forms of music including rock and roll and jazz, but classical seems to work the best (Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, and Scarlatti during the foliage season and Beethoven and Mahler during ripening and to scare away the grape predators). The wines were fantastic and the scenery was amazing. As we have said before, the pictures do not do it justice. We moved on to a town called Montalcino which is situated on the top of a hill. It is the only town in Tuscany that was never captured by any army, according to Diego our tour guide. There is a fortress located at the entrance of the town that overlooks the river valley and the views are spectacular. The town could not be any more charming with narrow streets and many shops (mostly wine shops). We then went to the Sant’ Antimo Abbey that dates back to 1000 AD where sacred rites are still celebrated with Gregorian chant every day. Our last stop was at the Abbadia Ardegna winery near Siena. After a tour of the winery, we were treated to a wine tasting with foods such as sheep’s milk cheese, Italian breads, Prosciutto ham, and biscotti. Billy and I bought 3 bottles of wine from the tour and we will cross our fingers that all the bottles get back to the US in one piece! Tomorrow we leave for a short train ride to Pisa.

We arrived in Pisa in the late afternoon and went for a walk to the main part of town where most of the sites including the leaning tower of Pisa, the Baptistery and the Duomo. These all make up the Campo dei Miracoli.Yes, of course we both did the famous pose with our hands as though we are holding up the leaning tower of Pisa. It was funny to see other people doing the same thing. There is not a lot to do in Pisa Billy and I enjoyed just strolling around the city and taking it easy for a night. Tomorrow morning we head to Bologna. Hope everyone is doing well (I still cannot seem to shake a chest cold I have had for 4 days!)