A Day in Tuscany

     Today we spent the day in Tuscany and visited three different cities.  Siena, San Gimignano, and Pisa were all our stops.  It was nice getting out of the busy city for a change and seeing the countryside of Italy.

     Siena was first on the agenda.  Known as one of the first places to introduce banking we stopped at one of the oldest banks.  Another interesting Siena fact is that the city of Siena is divided into 17 districts aka contratas each represented by an animal. Twice a year they run a horse race around the central plaza in which the horses represent each district.  The district winner gets to have bragging rights as well as the right to fly there district flag for one week.  The race was just run and the Goose district were the winners.  This race is serious business among the Siena people.  Preparation for the race involves blessing the horse in the church (yes IN the Church) of that district and the horse is guarded 24/7 against sabotage.

     From Siena we went to the town of San Gimignano.  The town still maintains many of their medieval structures.  In addition they are known for their wine and farms.  We had lunch at a local farm/vineyard and had 4 different types of wine, a white, two reds, and a dessert wine.  The food and wine was both very good.

     Our final stop was Pisa, where we saw the famous leaning tower.  It was pretty cool sitting next to the leaning tower of Pisa and having a gelato.  After a very long day we arrived back at Florence at 8:30.  We had dinner and pretty soon I'm going to bed.

The stable the horses are kept under lock and key before the race in Siena

Where the horse race is run

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Wine Barrels

Grapes

James feeding the cows

Our group in San Gimignano

Leaning Tower of Pisa