Amazing May Part 2

Surprise Ian’s baseball  game was called off because of rain of course, so here I am ready to tell you more about our visit to Italy.

Wednesday we were up early to drive north through the beautiful Tuscan countryside.

 

This area was inhabited by the Etruscans, a group of people that lived here before the Romans.  They had a rich culture. They taught the alphabet to the Romans and built city states on the hills of this area.  This custom of building cities on top of the hills has been carried on through the ages.

  

This is not the greatest picture of a city on the top of the hill but maybe you can get the idea.

Our first stop was in San Gimignano.  This classis Tuscan hill town was built in medieval times.  A wall surrounds the town and the streets are narrow and winding.  What fun it was to wander around the streets, to visit the churches and shops.  The town is famous for its many towers.  The early noble families strived to outdo their neighbors with the highest tower.

Once the town had 70 towers now only 14 remain.  The towers were partly built for defensive purposes they were a safe refuge and useful for pouring boiling oil on attacking enemies.

This is the well in the center of town where we stopped to eat our daily gelato…um um the Italian know how to make delicious ice cream. 

We climbed up to a castle at the end of the town and were rewarded with a great view of the Tuscan country side.  If you ever go to Italy be sure to make a stop here.

Doesn't this look romantic?   I love Italy.

More towers.

 

I am sure you will recognize this famous tower. The town of Pisa is very flat.  We had to ride a special city bus to get to the site, this is one of the most famous tourist spots in Italy.  The square where the tower, and other buildings were located is surrounded by a wall. A huge green lawn covers the space between the buildings.  The buildings are all white and well spaced in the square.  The effect was very dramatic.  We were too late in the day to get tickets to climb the tower or to visit the baptistery, but we enjoyed looking around.

   

We were told that at one time the sea came up to this site.  The tower leans because it is built on Sand.

 

The Duomo was very beautiful inside, again beautiful sculptures and paintings, and very light inside.

Time to get back to our bus to get to our hotel in Florence.  We arrived about  9:00 tired and hungry after our long day of travel.  We set out from our hotel to find a place to eat.  After walking for several blocks in the pouring rain we finally found a little restaurant that looked appealing to us.   They were willing to fix us some dinner, so we rested our tired bones and enjoyed the food.   Tomorrow “Florence”.