October 1, 2017 San Gimignano and Wine Tasting

October 01, 2017:

Visiting San Gimignano and wine tasting at Palagetto winery

We have one more day left in Tuscany and we will be visiting San Gimignano and do some serious wine tasting at the Palagetto Winery on the way.

We left our Cortefreda Hotel around 8:30 AM. The sky was somewhat overcast and there was a slight drizzle. We got up somewhat early to watch the sunrise over the Tuscan hills that we were recommended to see. We slept somewhat late and missed the best part. Well, there goes another sunrise.

Our bus was waiting for San Gimignano is not too far from where we stayed. It’s just 40 minutes or so by a bus driving south.

In the Middle Ages, San Gimignano was a village on the famous route Via Francigena (Canterbury to Rome) taken by pilgrims to visit Rome. As a point in the historical timeline, 1140 marks the beginnings of 'free communes' or the rise of the city-states. Most of the towns we visited so far were at one time city-states including, Venice which we will be visiting next. San Gimignano is no exception, and it also started off as a city-state or 'free commune'. The city-state was engaged in agriculture activities producing wine, saffron, and Vernaccia (white wine local to grapes grown in San Gimignano).

I read somewhere that beef cooked with saffron is a Gimignano delicacy.

Vernaccia wine was quite well known and even Dante refers to it in his Purgatorio describing the gluttony of Pope Martin IV thus,

"ebbe la Santa Chiesa in le sue braccia:

ebbe la Santa Chiesa in le sue braccia:

dal Torso fu, e purga per digiuno

l’anguille di Bolsena e la vernaccia."

This roughly translates to,

"had the Holy Church in his arms:

had the Holy Church in his arms:

from the Torso fu, and purge for fasting

the Bolsena eels and the Vernaccia."

I am waiting to taste that wine today.

San Gimignano lost much of its luster due to the plague that ravaged and killed off 2/3 of its population. The city finally submitted to Florence losing its independent status around 1348.

Rising 334 meters above sea level it presents a beautiful cityscape (Urban Landscape) with its several towers (13 or so towers). Later,  palaces with much larger living spaces were built and inhabited by the rich and famous. It has been deemed a city of World Cultural and Natural Heritage of UNESCO.

These days tourists walk up the ramp after climbing a few steps from the bus stop that takes them to the city center. Here are some pictures of our visit to San Gimignano.

San Gimignano scaled model in a gift shop. We also sipped a sample of Vernaccia wine.

San Gimignano street scenes.

Torture museum -We skipped.

Dondoli Ice Cream (Gelato) World Champion 2006 to 2009

Piazza Della Cisterna. Folks standing in front of the wishing well.

Duomo Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta (1148)

San Gimignano - Distant view

Tuscan Countryside

Entrance to Palagetto Winery

Vegetarian Plate

Our group sitting down for wine tasting with cold cuts

Wines we sampled

You can buy wine in the winery store and get it shipped to your country

Getting into the bus to return. Bye, Bye San Gimignano.

We go back, drink more wine and dine at Cortefeda. Tomorrow we will be off to Venice.

Visiting the historic city of Siena in Italy

Septmber 29, 2017: Walking tour of Siena

Siena in Tuscany is not too far from where we were staying. Siena is only about 25 miles from our hotel, the Borgo di Cortefreda.

We left early around 8:30 after our breakfast at the hotel. The sky was a little cloudy when we started out, but began to brighten and the greys turned to bright blues. The drive was quite comfortable and our tour director was busy filling us up with details.

After about half an hour of driving, we reached the outskirts of Siena.

We began our walking tour under the supervision of our excellent guide.

Siena still remains a medival city as it retains most of the original structures including the public buildings. We walked through many of the narrow streets such as this one here.

Siena is divided into 17 Contradas (means a ward or a district) each having its animal own symbol. The folks from these districts participate in the famous horse race of Siena, Palio of Siena. 

You can see the district boundaries all over the city and the districts compete each other in the Palio played out every year in the Piazza Del Campo.

The districts are very proud of their colors and zealously mark-up themselves.

Here is a statue of a little boy marking a contrada.

Lots of chocolate and biscuit (biscotti) shops along the route.

After walking many of these tortuous, narrow streets we came to the Piazza Salimbeni to look at the statue of Sallustio Bandini. Salustio Bandini was a descendent of Piccolomini (who later became a Pope), advocate of free trade; archdeacon, economist and politician.  Bandini donated his 3000 volumes to Bibliotheca della Spaienza. Located here is one of the oldest banks of Italy.

We also came across the famous 'wolf suckling infants', a recurrring theme in Italy. 

According to the legend, Siena was founded by Remus’ sons, Senius and Aschius, who left Rome with the statue of the she-wolf, stolen from Apollo’s temple. The symbolic colors of the city derive as well from these two legendary founders--Aschius rode a black horse and Senius rode a white one.

It was indeed an interesting to walk .

Our guide toook us to the Piazza Del Campo, the venue of the famous horse race ( the Palio, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palio_di_Siena) in which the 17 districts participate. The ground is not perfectly circular; the Palazzo Pubblico which houses a museum (we did not enter) adjacent to the Torre del Mangia (bell tower), is typical of Siense medieval architectural style.

Il Palio Siena in progress from

Il Palio Siena

We cross the Piazza del Campo.. 

... and move towards another most famous structure, the Cathedral of Siena (aka DOM di Siena). We arrive at the Cathedral of Siena.

Photo: Alan Kehew from his Pinterest site

Photo: Alan Kehew from his Pinterest site

Photo: Alan Kehew from his Pinterest site

Mount of Wisdom

The Three Graces inside Piccolomini Library inside the Siena Cathedral

We completed our visit to the DOM by about 1:30 and we started looking for a place to eat lunch. We had about an hour to have lunch. After lunch we retraced the path to the bus that would take us to our hotel.

One has to be careful in restaurants. Often you will be paying for something you did not ask. Happened a couple of times and in Siena as well. The more crowded the restaurant is, more careful you should be.

We are waiting for few more people to return. 

Here is a short video clip.

Here is the complete video of the Powr Point:

Walking tour of Siena