Lucca, Collodi, Fiesole, San Donato...

I guess it’s time to finish with the posts about our Tuscany vacations. This is the last one.

First some shots from Lucca. Lucca is perhaps not as spectacular as Florence, Siena, San Gimignano... It’s surrounded by a wall. You can find a number of beautiful 12th century churches (Duomo di San Martino, Basilica di San Frediano, San Michele in Foro...), but the city centre buildings are often more recent - but still quite old. There are some very nice 19th century style shops in the major street. It’s the birthplace of Giacomo Puccini.

Tuscany is known for a number of beautiful villas. Here is one example from Collodi with the Garzoni gardens. Collodi is the birthplace of Carlo Collodi, the author of “The Adventures of Pinnochio”.

Fiesole is close to Florence. On the top of a hill is a small San Francesco monastery which you can partly visit. A small chapel contains some beautiful paintings. Especially remarkable are the views you can get of Florence and the surrounding hills. At last, some views from the small village, close to where we stayed, San Donato in Poggio, as most other Tuscany villages, also with a long history. The top picture shows you the surrounding, typical, landscape. Friday again. Time to wish you a very nice weekend!

San Gimignano

There are lot of very nice villages and small towns to visit in Tuscany. One of the most famous ones is San Gimignano.

The place is known for its numerous towers, fourteen are left. Sometimes it’s referred to as the Manhattan of the Middle Ages. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a good picture of the complete village, so I had to “borrow” this one from Wikipedia. San Gimignano, on the top of a hill is surrounded by a typical Tuscany landscape. The little town has a long history. It sits on the Via Francigena, the way the pilgrims used on their way from Canterbury to Rome and the Vatican, via Calais, Reims, Lausanne, Lucca.... What is especially impressive for a visitor is that all buildings seem to have some hundred years behind them.

The main streets, Via San Matteo and Via San Giovanni, are full of shops and there are four nice piazzas full of bars and restaurants. It’s nice to sit down for a while and enjoy the local wines; San Gimignano is especially known for its very dry white wine, “Vernaccia”.

Siena - Il Palio

Siena is a smaller and calmer place than Florence, with only a few hotels inside the city walls, thus especially calm during evening hours. Twice a year there is however a lot of excitement; the famous horse race around the Piazza del Campo, “Il Palio” takes place July 2 and August 16 each year. We were lucky to be close to Siena for the second date.

The city is split in 17 “contrades” (city wards). Ten of them are in each race represented by horses and riders – seven wards which did not participate in the previous one, plus three, randomly. The city is overall decorated by the flags and banners representing the different "contradas". Other kinds of events took place on the Piazza before the present form of “Il Palio” started here around 1650.

If you have not bought a seat on one of the stands surrounding the place or a place on a balcony – well in advance -, you have only the choice to stay in the middle of the Piazza and to be there some two or three hours before the race takes place. That's what we did. Some 50-60 thousand people assist. To prepare the track around the half-circle Piazza, a thick layer of earth is spread on the ground and mattresses are placed against the walls at the most dangerous corner, San Martino, the one I have especially focused on.

The race is preceded by a pageant, including musicians, flag wavers etc... – all dressed up in medieval costumes. The actual race (three tours of the Piazza in around a minute and a half) took place after about an hour of false departures. It started to get dark, making it even more difficult to take zoomed sharp photos. I did my best. After the race, the festivities start, especially of course in the winning “contrada”, Bruco.

Florence

I’m back after some very nice weeks shared between Provence / Camargue and Tuscany.

Most of the time was spent in Tuscany at a small place called San Donato, half way between Florence and Siena, where we had leased a house together with kids, their partners and grandkids. I have no intention to make any long stories about the different visited places. Last year, I made some rather full posts about my Provence / Camargue holidays and I will not repeat it.

I have already visited Tuscany a few times and did not make any real sightseeing or museum exploration this time. The essential thing was to relax and spend time with family. Especially the swimming pool was in the centre of our activites. I thought however that I must give you some “proofs” of our presence in Tuscany, today starting with a few Florence landmarks. There will be two or three more posts about Tuscany before I return to my normal Paris reporting, but I will now essentially spend my blogging time on checking what you all have “produced”. After almost one month’s absence, I guess there is a lot to be read and seen.

I will be back on Monday and wish you in the meantime a very nice weekend!