Vernazza

Sam, Christian, and Neil at the train station in Vernazza on the way back to Florence. Christian is quite the ambassador for the commune of Vernazza!

Gotta love graffiti!

Driving adventure through Tuscany

Gordana is driving and Neil is navigating to San Gimignano for the first leg of today's excursion. The medieval town is just as lovely as I remember.

Unfortunately (fortunately for our pocketbook), among all of the ceramic shops, I don't see the type of multi-tile landscape scenes I'd found in the past. Many more cinghiale photo ops than I remember though.

 

It is a clear day with perfect temperature. We visit the main duomo and have lunch before moving on to Siena. 

Beautiful views everywhere we turn. Hard to pick the best one.

The civic museum next to the Torre del Mangia in Siena had amazing frescoes but cameras were not allowed. Siena's duomo has imposing black and white zebra striped marble columns inside it's elaborate pink and green marble fascade.

We switch drivers for the return to Florence via the Chiantigianna, for the quintessential Tuscan countryside scenery. We stopped in Greve in Chianti for dinner at Osteria Mangiando Mangiando. Neil, Gordana, and I feast on fresh pasta with delicious cinghiali ragu. Most of the rest of the dinner was just so so. None of us really wanted or needed desert, even though we had well exceeded our step goals for the day according to Mr. Fitbit. However, we ordered a chocolate ganache with orange sauce and semifreddo with contucci folded in with vin santo drizzled on top.  Well, actually we accidentally order 2 of the semifreddo. Try as we might to not over eat, we couldn't help but clean our plates! A short ride back to Florence and nightcap of chianti classico on the roof top terrace before going to bed, some 23K Fitbit steps under our belts, well at least for me.  Sam takes longer steps. :-)

Florence Day 1 - 2014

MGetting settled in our apartment and our surroundings after a long, but blessedly uneventful, trip.  The apartment is on the 5th floor of the building at 27 Via Sant'Antonino. Recently renovated, it has a 2 level terrace on the roof with a great view.

Views outside of our bedroom window.

Terrace view

Medici chapel in foreground Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiori in background.

Mercato Centrale is close, but closed on Sunday.

Gordana, Neil, and Sam in the cloister area outside of Santa Maria Novella. We had a wonderful guided tour in the afternoon. Florina was our very knowledgable tour guide. Her mother was from Tallahasse, Florida, and named her after the state.