The buildings were certainly beautiful, as shown by this picture of St. Mark’s Basilica.

But we just didn’t have the patience to try to get in since the lines were so long.

Instead we took a water taxi (courtesy of the glass factory) out to Murano Island where the glass factories are. We saw a demonstration of making a glass with inlaid beads which was fairly interesting and then wandered in and out of the various glass shops. While Venice had pricey shopping the prices of earrings and necklaces on Murano were much better than those at home.

Anyway, I can see that there Venice holds a lot of potential for us, but not in August. We did like walking through the winding streets and alleys especially since Caitlin was great at leading our way back to the hotel.

And our boat rides were a lot of fun. I especially liked how to board you would go down a little alley way to the steps at the edge of the canal and the boat would pull up and you would just step on.

Despite my concerns about being part of a large bus tour, the entire day was fabulous. Our first stop was Siena. Our guide took us through the town and explained the different neighborhoods (contradas) and the Palio (big, twice yearly horse race) with lots of other history and details thrown in. We ended at the Duomo which, like all of the cathedrals is just stunning inside and out. This was a bit different because of the black and white stripping effect of the different colored marble.

I like how they set up pews in these places because it is so nice to just sit and absorb it all. I spent most of my time looking up at the huge dome and the angels surrounding the cupola.

But the real highlight of the Duomo was a library with a ceiling I liked better than the one in the Sistine Chapel. Then it was time to stroll back to the center of the city and hang out for a bit before we got back on the bus.

The palio is run three times around the main plaza of Siena. The main center of the square is packed with people and the 10 horses race around the edge. The race is a real fight since it is within the rules to use your crop on the other horses and jockeys. Anything is fair game as long as you don’t interfere with a horse’s reins. To win, just the horse needs to cross the finish line first – the jockey staying on isn’t a requirement.

The next stop was a real highlight – lunch at a wine farm. This seems really touristy, but we loved it. Maybe it was the wine. Actually it was the whole experience which started with a tour of the organic farm. We began in the wine cellar which instead of being old and musty was new and fairly sterile. Which is probably what you want since they were actually making wine. Then we strolled past the grape vines and olive groves and went into the barn with the cows.

This in itself would have been interesting, but the fantastic view of rolling Tuscany countryside with a view of San Gimignano on top of the hill made it spectacular.

Next came lunch which consisted of the best meal of the trip – bruschetta, beef ragu, a salad with the best ever vinegar and olive oil dressing, a cheese and meat plate, and an almond cookie for dessert. After a brief lesson on wine tasting, we were served four different kinds of wine. The waiter took away John’s glasses, but left Caitlin’s so she was able to taste them all, too. Well, John did also, but not officially. All of it was great until we got to the dessert wine which was way too sweet.

We sat at long communal tables and while people were pretty quiet to begin with by the end of the meal we were all very chatty which was no surprise after all that wine tasting. The couple next to me had also taken the tour because of the Trip Advisor reviews. (Actually, at the end of the trip the guide mentioned that is how they get most of their clients.)

The next town was San Gimignano which is famous for its tall towers. These towers were built all over Tuscany back when people were worried about attacks so each house had its own tall tower. Most of them have come down by now but San Gimignano still has 15 out 72.

This house had two towers because the guy who built them was defying the height limit by saying his two towers put together made the tallest tower in town.

To enter San Gimignano you first have to look at the beautiful view and then walk up the narrow, shop lined street. Our destination was the Duomo here. As the guidebook said it had fabulous frescos inside. They were all designed to make sure you remember to follow Jesus so you don’t end up like the people we saw in the images of hell. I’m sure these were more influential than the long sermons would have been.

But the best part of the town sitting was on the Duomo steps and eating our gelato while watching the people and looking at the buildings. It was just a very happy moment in a very good day.

The gelato shop had a sign specifying that it was voted world’s best in 2006 and 2007. We tasted enough gelato to know that this was indeed very good, but even more impressive were the women scooping madly who managed to keep the line moving quickly despite the number of people who were in it.

Then it was back on the bus and on to Pisa. I had thought Pisa would be a real highlight of the trip, but in reality once we were done with our holding up the leaning tower pictures we were basically done. (Everyone is required to try to hold the tower up for a photo saw the lawn is strewn with people all in the same pose.)

Once John was done holding up the tower, I gave it a try.

As you can see I was a bit more successful.

The Field of Miracles composed of the tower, cathedral, and baptistery really is beautiful with its green grass and white buildings. Too bad it is flanked by cart after cart of real junk catering to all of the tourists.

I did drag everyone through the baptistery (a building put in front of a cathedral to baptize people). This had a beautiful outside, but a really boring inside. It did have a second floor though which was fun to go up and look at the view.

Our stop lasted an hour, which was plenty of time for Pisa. We arrived back in Florence 12 very good hours after we left.

Florence was small enough, and everyone else was out walking, so we’d often pass people we’d seen before. We’d generally have some destination in mind, but anywhere we went was interesting. We liked just walking through the different streets and marveling at how cool they were.

My favorite square was the Piazza della Signoria because of the collection of statues off to one side. I was jealous of the art students sitting there listening to their professor. Some of the statues were Greek and Roman, others from the Renaissance.

The main building of the square was the Palazzo Vecchio (an old Medici palace) with its interesting frescos and great light.

We also enjoyed the statues on the outside of the Uffizi since they were greats of the Renaissance. Between seeing the statue of David (not quite as captivating as some other statues we saw despite his side) and the statues he did for the Medici popes in their crypt we saw a lot of Michelangelo.

Scotty and I went alone to see the inside of the Uffizi and to give Caitlin and John a break from “too much art.” Once inside it I felt better about not dragging them to see it. While it was a huge and interesting collection, they would have been bored to tears. Our ultimate conclusion was we liked Renaissance art better than what preceded it, but liked best what followed the Renaissance with its softer light and happier people. As Scotty pointed out no one smiled in the Renaissance.

The Uffizi is right next to the river so of course we went across Porto Vechio with all of its gold shops.

For highlights I’ll start with the highest things. Plazzia Michelangelo was the absolute highest.

Next highest was the bell tower which was part of the Duomo. While not so high as the Duomo we climbed this because it was Sunday and the Duomo cupola was closed. But that meant we could look out over the dome.

The Florence duomo (official known as Santa Maria del Fiore) needed some space around it to be a really spectacular building. It was too closed in for anyone to get a really good view of it. But it was cool the first day to walk around the corner and see this for the first time.

We went into it and the dome inside was beautifully painted. All the more impressive when you try to figure out how it was done. The rest of the church was fairly bare but a great example of powerful architecture to make you realize how small and pitiful you are. Although since it lacked all the Jesus pictures some of the other churches that we saw had I was inclined to think how impressive man is to be able to create such a thing, especially back in the 1200s.

Our most interesting purchase was a belt for Caitlin. We thought it would just be a matter of selecting the belt and then buying it. Instead once she picked it out, the vendor properly sized it. We went through several rounds of shortening the belt from both ends before both he and Caitlin were satisfied with the fit. I was a bit surprised when he just hacked off the buckle end at one point. But he quickly transferred the buckle to the new end. Then finally he gave us the “nice person” discount and we got the belt for 1/3 off.

We feel smug about mastering the art of getting on the train. We’ve learned to decipher all the Italian information on the ticket including identifying the car we are supposed to get on to find our seats. Plus the arrival and departure boards are clear and easy to read to find the proper track for our trains.

The two mornings we’ve traveled by train I’ve gone to the station to buy our tickets from the machines. That way we know when to retrieve the luggage from our hotel and head to the station. The ticket machines work quiet smoothly except that they don’t take the English language choice too seriously. While some of the screen comes up in English, other key phrases are in Italian so I’ve had to guess the most logical option. The only time I headed off in the wrong direction was when I thought I should try to select my own seats, but when I realized we had already been assigned seats I quickly back tracked. But for the most part figuring it all out was pretty easy and since that has been the most stressful part of train travel so far it makes me really glad we decided to train-it instead of renting a car. Having one would have been a nightmare in Florence.

I’ll post the details of this when I can add the pictures to it. But in a nutshell, we had a great time walking all through Florence. Perhaps the possible exception to this was climbing the long steps to the Piazzale Michelangelo, but the view was amazing so no one complained as we gazed over the red rooftops of Florence. By the end of the walk John and I had blisters, but they didn’t keep us from seeing Michelangelo’s David later on. Our day may have started late, but we made up for it.

Saturday we were all up early for our bus tour. In one day we saw three Tuscany towns and had a great lunch at an organic wine farm. I thought the view from Plazza Michelangelo was going to be the best of the trip, but a number of the ones we had today beat it out.

But more importantly, we can’t post pictures. We hope to have a better connection in Venice and catch up then. I’ve had better luck with the internet on the lobby computers, but I don’t use those for blogging.