Day Tripper, Yeah

We arrived in Florence in the early evening and found our (very small) apartment with relative ease - when the wife of the landlord stopped us on the street and told us where to go. We did some unpacking (forgotten clothes!) and got Chinese food from a place across the bridge. The next day we picked up groceries and did overdue laundry before attempting to see Gravity 3D but it was either in Italian or it was actually Diana, despite the information we saw (the Internet lied to me?!) so we walked around town instead. We made our first of oh so many trips to the Duomo got a bit lost but it didn't even matter because we had nowhere to be for the next 25 days. Author's note: Grom is overrated for gelato. Don't waste your time or money.

Lucca

We wanted to take advantage of the last remaining days on our rail pass, so we left for Lucca, a town a little bit over an hour northwest of Florence and the first of our four day trips. The town dates back to nearly 200 BC and the city walls built during the Renaissance are still entirely intact, and have been transformed into a loop of park space. We spotted a market so we figured we should see what there was to offer and bought a bag of zeppole and fried mozzarella to share while we wandered aimlessly (like really aimlessly) around the walls and town. Walked by a very bizarre trio of street performers and passed through the Piazza Anfiteatro, which was built on top of an ancient Roman ampitheater, but passed on the expensive coffee and climbed the Clock Tower for a view of the entire wall. We thought about killing time until dinner but decided that filling another 6 hours would be difficult and headed back to Florence early instead.

Walking the walls in Lucca, Tuscany's answer to Wash Park

Climbing up the stairs to the Clock Tower

Monte Argentario

I wanted to take advantage of the weather before it got chilly so we traveled (quite a bit) to La Feniglia beach for some sun. Another instance of misinformation had us boarding a bus that went kind of where we wanted to go but not actually. We walked along the coast looking for the beach for awhile before I asked a handful of people for directions and we were back on the right track. Until we missed the stop and the bus driver instructed us to stay on the bus so he could drop us off there (which is not a bus stop). A brief walk down a rural road and we were at the water, where we rented chairs and napped/read/drank/did all the things you do on a beach. The beach was littered with starfish and the water was incredibly shallow - at over 50 yards out, I was only waist deep. We took our time walking to the bus stop and were mere blocks away from the train station when the transportation officers boarded the bus and checked tickets. We had legitimately and honestly purchased four bus tickets that morning, but Joe had validated his return ticket when we took the bus transfer early on. With a language barrier as thick as the walls in Lucca, we paid her €20 and she wrote Joe a ticket (non va bene). A bit disheartened, we found an aperitivo down the street and our mood shifted. We loaded up on pasta, pizza, veggies, chips and booze and chatted with a local who loved the fact that we were American. The bar owner kept trying to stop him from talking to us for fear of him being a nuisance but it was comical. We had a long train ride home that I slept through pretty much entirely.

At La Feniglia

The port at Monte Argentario

Prato

The day before our faithful rail passes expired, we took a quick 20 minute ride to Prato, just north of Florence. Prato is a small town and the origin of biscotti, as well as the hometown of Roberto Benigni, Filippo Lippi, Lorenzo Bartolini, and Antonio Brunelli. The Cathedral of Santo Stefano features Lippi frescoes and an external pulpit done by Donatello, and features a green marble striped facade similar to that in Florence. The plaza outside Santa Maria delle Carceri was under construction and took some investigating to find the door to the dome, especially considering I kept asking for the entrance to the church in Spanish - not helpful. We stopped in Palazzo Datini, the 14th century home built for Francesco Datini, more commonly known as the Merchant of Prato. Datini started working with a group of merchants at 15 years old and eventually set the price on every commodity that was traded. His records are mind blowing, as every single item was documented over the course of his 40 years of work. After exhausting the palazzo, we wandered around the town and realized that nearly every business, regardless of the variety, was closed. In fact, most places in town did not open until after 3pm, a phenomenon that could not be explained to us. Not only that, but our search for biscotti in the town that invented biscotti was proving difficult. We found a dress made of biscotti on display but it wasn't until our final walk to the train station that we found actual, edible biscotti. Before leaving, we went inside the Castello dell'Imperatore, Emperor Frederick II's castle built in 1240. The inside was totally empty but we could climb up to the ramparts and walk around the top for a nice view of the city. We hopped back on the train to Florence as we had reservations at a 4 Leoni, a restaurant in Santo Spirito with good reviews and a recommendation from our landlord, but dinner was lackluster and the service was so bad Joe created a TripAdvisor account just to (negatively) review them. In all fairness, the pear pasta was fabulous, but the manzo tasted like frozen P.F. Chang orange beef.

On top of the walls of Castello dell'Imperatore with the the dome of Santa Maria delle Carceri in the background

Statue of Francesco Datini

Chianti/Siena

Upon recommendation from Lucy, one of my best friends from high school, we made reservations to visit the vineyards at Brancaia Winery in Chianti, where it also happened to be harvest time. Since it was in the middle of a rural area, we had to rent a car to get there and decided to drive to Siena from there. The walk to the airport was fairly long, but finding the actual cars was much more difficult. After finally locating a shuttle, we were taken to the rental lots and checked in with our very low budget* dealers. We wanted a Fiat or a Mini but we ended up with a small Nissan, which was fine because it was a manual and had an iPod transmitter so we didn't have to listen to the radio. It also had a scorpion! As soon as we sat down in the car, we found a tiny but very much alive and very real scorpion that we had to get rid of before we got on the highway. Navigation wasn't too trying and we made it into Chianti, drove down dirt roads and passed horses pulling logs on the way into the estate. The appointment before us was running long but the weather was beautiful so we had no complaints as we sat outside in the sun overlooking the vineyards. The sommelier was a young guy who happened to have a girlfriend in Denver, so we have tentative plans to meet up when he visits her in February. We toured the cellar and saw the mash being loaded into trucks for transport before getting to try all of the wines Brancaia makes. After the tour, we cruised through the hills to Siena, a walled in town with an amazing sloping piazza where the last remaining Palio horse race takes place. We parked outside the walls and took a series of escalators up into the town. We grabbed some gelato and basked in the Piazza del Campo for awhile, then walked over to the Duomo to gawk at its Gothic architecture. Since we were paying for parking by the hour, we didn't stay in Siena for long and got back on the road. Our intention had been to go visit a castle in Chianti that the sommelier had told us about. We drove through much of Chianti and reached the subdivision it was in, but couldn't find it. With incredible views and hairpin turns, we were certainly not complaining or regretting the decision. We returned the car to the airport after very stressful navigating and the same wrong turn made at least three times, only to miss the hourly bus going back into the city. We were waiting in line for a cab and asked if we could share with a British couple, offering to split the fare to wherever their hotel was since we just needed to get back to the center. The guy ended up paying entirely and refused to take any money from us, so in cheerful spirits we picked up dinner from Gusta Pizza (more on that later) and called it an awesome day.

*The car company we rented from most likely (okay almost definitely) stole my credit card information and spent $400 at a toy store in Naples. 

Siena Cathedral

Palazzo Pubblico and Torre del Mangia in Piazza del Campo

Moonrise over Chianti

Pisa

We bought our first train tickets sans rail pass for Pisa, where we were meeting the parents of one of my other best friends from high school. The plan was to meet in front of the tower at noon, but as we were strolling through the streets of Pisa, I just happened to spot Bernard and Lorraine! We walked over to Piazza dei Miracoli where the tower, duomo, and baptistry are to take some tourist photos with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We had a few hours to kill before our timed entrance to the tower, so we grabbed a snack and some coffee nearby. Luckily, we had asked what the deal was with the line so we knew ahead of time that we had to check our bags before entering across the piazza in the ticket building. Europeans are weird about purses and backpacks, for the record. Joe and I had failed to buy tickets to the Leaning Tower so we were grateful and excited to learn that Bernard and Lorraine already bought ours with theirs. Way to be on top of things, guys! We entered the tower and sat in a little room at the bottom while a guide explained to us the history and why it leans, etc., before we made the 296 step climb to the top. It's definitely a weird sensation to climb a round building that is tilted, as your equilibrium changes every time you make it halfway around the circumference. The view from the top is great, of course, and you can even walk around the bell chamber (which is not allowed when they are ringing). Once we were ushered back down the stairs, we made a stop in the Cathedral. Our tickets didn't allow entry to the baptistry so we had to imagine what it might look like. The duomo in Pisa has large bronze doors and features an incredibly intricate marble pulpit carved in the early 1300's and the remains of some saints. I say some saints because that's as much information as a non-Catholic can retain. We got on the train headed for Florence and found the Slack's hotel, then met up a few hours later for dinner. This time, dinner at 'O Munaciello, or Muna, was much more successful and delicious than our previous find.

Inside Pisa Cathedral

One side of Piazza dei Miracoli

Joe taking a picture of Bernard, Lorraine and I taking this priest's picture

Bernard exiting the Bell Chamber

Our time in Florence was fantastic and the city has definitely left its mark on both of us. We are currently compiling a list of our favorite places there/the places we miss most now that we're back in the U.S. for a future post that is hopefully done sooner rather than later. Thanks for staying tuned!