There's a lot more to Tuscany than just Florence. I thought about renting a car but really there's no need. You can get around fairly easily on the public extraurbani buses: there aren't many of them, but those that do run are timely and comfortable. Watching the hills and vineyards and cypress trees roll by from a bus window, even a slightly pikey bus window, suits me much better than shuffling through crowds of morons in Venice.
My personal favourite place in Tuscany is Siena, where I've been based for the past week. At this time of year the weather isn't quite as sunny as you'd like, but then there are fewer people around, and that's a good trade in my book. Through the week, the streets were pretty quiet. They filled up a bit at the weekend with guided-tour day trippers, to whom I felt very superior, because I'd been there since Wednesday and already knew my way round.
From Siena, I've visited the tiny walled hill towns of Monteriggioni, Lucignano, and San Gimignano. Also I previously took a day trip from Florence to Lucca, a bigger walled city - the top of the wall there is a wide traffic-free boulevard and you can walk all the way round (2.6 miles).
Anyway it's all very peaceful & pleasant right now so I'll keep it short for today. More to follow in due course.
 |
| Torre del Mangia, in the Piazza del Campo, in Siena |
 |
| Siena cathedral at sunset |
 |
| San Gimignano |
 |
| Monteriggioni |
 |
| Lucignano, up in the misty mountains |
 |
| The walled city of Lucca, seen from the Guinigi tower |
 |
| Misty rolling Tuscan hills, seen from the window of my Sienna apartment |
 |
| Pizza Dog. It's a thing. Hot dog in wrapped in pizza dough, with cheese & tomato. Like pigs in blankets, but even less healthy. |
 |
| Edd vs Food #141 A brace of Tuscan pizzas. One fishy, one piggy. From Lucca and San Gimignano respectively. The one on the left wins just for sheer juicy tastiness. After eating it, I bore a distinctive bouquet of tuna and onions for the rest of the day. |
