We caught the train to Florence again to pick up a hire car and explore towns farther afoot.
On arrival we joined the very short queue for a look inside the Duomo. While not as ornate or decorated as other cathedrals in the world, the enormous dome, and the way it's painted, really is quite spectacular. We spent the rest of the day looking around town, picked up the hire car and drove home via the supermarket without incident.
We had read and heard that the Milan/Cortina 2026 winter Olympic torch was making its way through Tuscany. A bit of investigation and we were able to be in Montecatini Terme, one of the towns on the route at the right time. Fun to see. There was certainly less public enthusiasm for the relay that there was for Sydney in 2000!
On the way home we stopped for a walk and an aperol at Montaione. Surprise! Another hill town in this region. A very pretty, but very quiet, town. Parking was not a problem!
For the third or fourth time, we found ourselves sitting or walking in via Roma that was the original Roman route from Canterbury to Rome.
We spent Saturday in Lucca. We stayed here for a few days some years ago and loved the place, so were eager to go back. We had a great day there, wandering the streets, churches, walls, towers and Roman amphitheater, some of which dates back to the 1st and 2nd century AD when 10,000 spectators watched gladiator fights and animal hunts. Puccini was born in Lucca, and it dawned on us - the opera, Tosca. Toscana / Tuscany... we're obviously a bit slow on the uptake.
After a lazy start to Sunday, we made our way over to Poggibonsi because their Christmas celebrations were starting this weekend. Possibly the saddest, quietest, most lame Christmas market we've ever seen. We're not sure Santa bothers stopping here.
We then drove to another nearby hill town, Colle di Val d'Elsa. If you remember your Tour de France lingo, some of the fantastic race climbs finish or crest a col, so no surprises this town sits like a crown above the newer town down in the valley. Towering walls, a church that has been a church since the 1100's, houses made from a wonderful mixtures of stone and brick and pottery and mortar...
It's a pretty spot to enjoy a light lunch in one of the restaurants.
Sunday night we returned to San Gimignano, the town famous for its towers, for dinner. To be honest, we were a little surprised the town wasn't lit a little more vibrantly at night.
With rain forecast, for a few days' time, the next day we drove the hour or so to spend the day in Pisa. We've been to Pisa before, but it IS pretty cool to see the beautiful marble buildings in The Square of Miracles.
The author of Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi, was born in Florence, just an hour away.
Fun fact... Pinocchio is hoodwinked into burying his money in this square by two swindlers, with the promise it will grow into a money tree.
On the way there we had the unexpected joy of tripping over the prettiest village we've come across this few weeks here. Castelfalfi is the sort of town you can imagine George Clooney booking out the whole town for his wedding, flying in on a helicopter to the hotel heliport. It is absolutely beautiful at every turn. Gorgeous gardens, stone buildings that have been there for hundreds of years... Owned by the Medicis at one stage, naturally (!)
The next day was a rainy one, so we went for a drive through the Chianti region. Beautiful hilltop towns, vineyards, windy roads with beautiful views at every turn. The towns were really quiet, though - it's obviously a place where if you don't make your money over summer, you're stuffed. We saw lots of references to two things -The Chianti Classic cycle race and the Chianti bicycle race featuring vintage bicycles known as L'Eroica, and a black rooster, the symbol of genuine Chianti wines that have been grown here for hundreds of years.
Finally, a few things we've seen or learnt from our time here.
We saw heaps of people buying this stuff. We initially thought it was chicken pellets, but it's chips of some sort for burning for heating.
When we've been through a self serve check-out at a supermarket, a member of staff has to approve our alcohol sale. But we've seen wine for sale by the glass in a logge (open gallery)!
Bread and pizza is for sale by the slice/weight.
Everything in a deli is sold per 100g
Baby Jesus doesn't turn up in any nativity scenes till midnight Christmas eve
There's a LOT of ongoing maintenance in these old buildings. In some cases we've seen evidence of work that, if not done, means their neighbours will lose their houses as well.
And so it's time to move on to our next stop.
We're off to Ljubljana in Slovenia. First stop north-west to Trieste via train for an overnight stop, then a bus east for an hour or two (as opposed to a 5 hour $$$ train)
This morning we woke to clear skies and mild weather so we caught the train an hour north to Siena.
We had a great day here. Like most (all?) Tuscan old walled towns, Sienna is on top of a hill. From the train station is a series of escalators (both stairs and ramps) that means you don't have to catch a winding bus to the old town.
We spent the whole day wandering the old town, learning about the history of the horse racing, banking, cathedral etc.
There's a lot of history to cover, given that it's been around for a long time (having been founded by the two sons of Remus, Romulus's nephews haha!) It's pretty cool walking along the main north/south road through the old town, knowing you're walking the historic main road that historically connected Rome to London.
We learnt a lot of local history, including the financial history that saw Sienna rise to such prominence. It's home to the oldest bank in the worldwhich has been operating continuously since 1348, and prior to the arrival of the plague in 1643, Sienna was bigger than both Rome and Paris. (Sienna lost 2/3 of its population and never recovered.)
We did a bit of tourist shopping, including buying a t-shirt. When we left, our thinking was we'd buy something to dispaly from that extended stay in a region, as well as something to wear. Tick so far!
The site of the banking square
The richest family in Siena's house, complete with little balcony on the side. This is supposedly the house that bore the earliest (1467) version of the story that became Romeo and Juliet -set in Siena and called Mariotto and Giannozza.
We enjoyed an aperitivo in the late afternoon sun and got back home to Certaldo just on dusk.
The next day was a lazy home day; John watched a bit of the Ashes cricket from the Gabba, a chat to Emily on Whatsapp re her plans, a walk to a supermarket, coffee at our new favourite local cafe, and looking at booking a few things in the coming weeks and months.
Friday we headed down to the station after breakfast to learn that the train we planned to catch was cancelled.
We ducked into our new local cafe at the station for a coffee to wait an hour, then caught the train to Castelfiorentino.
It's a pretty quiet town; bigger than Certaldo. We went for a walk around the town an up the small hill, did a bit of shopping and then headed home.
It was really mild - 15 degrees - so we sat in the garden in the afternoon with a drink before heading into town for a gelato and walk around a different part of the town we hadn't seen before.
Saturday and Sunday were advertised as days that would start the Christmas festivities in our town, so over the weekend we went to the markets, listened to the kids' choir singing carols, saw Santa, watched a magic show, listened to the town band... to be honest it was all pretty lame but it was a bit of entertainment.
The next day, Monday, was a public holiday - the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. (Yep, Mary had a short pregnancy). It was again forecast to be mild and fine so we caught the train into Florence again to do a city walk and see some of the sites.
We had a great guide on our city walk and learnt some cool things about Florence. We ate our sandwiches on the run and, after watching the lights come on in the late afternoon and a final aperitivo, caught the train home. We were going to go up the top of the hill for dinner, but after a full day out we couldn't be bothered so had a quiet dinner at home in front of Netflix.
The next few days we spent close to home. We caught a train to nearby small towns of Poggibonsi and Montepulciano on their market days and spent the mornings wandering there, coffee, looking in shops, taking in the market etc.
We caught the funicular to the hill behind us and had dinner in a local restaurant in the old town. Robyn enjoyed her pork, John tried the local past special - dove - pigeon most likely! It was different, but good.
Trains in Italy aren't cheap. Going to the next stop is all right, but each time we go farther to another city, like Florence or Sienna, we're about AUD$50 out of pocket.
With that in mind, we've hired a car for the last week of our stay here. The flat comes with parking (secure- 200m away) and a hire car for 7 days was about $150 so makes sense.
We'll pick it up later this morning from Florence and use it to travel to a few places we've been to on previous trips but want to re-visit (Lucca, Pisa) as well as back to San Gimignano and on to a few other towns and hilltop settlements.
A few sites from around Certaldo.
Certaldo is a hill town... Tuscan hilltop settlements surround us
We found a gorgeous little bar behind us on the hill on a sun-drenched day.
Christmas officially came to town while we are here.
After leaving Gengenbach, we caught a train to Milan for a night's stopover en route to Certaldo (Che-tarl-doe).
We received notification that there was a train replacement bus for part of the morning's trip to Zurich, but we fortunately negotiated that smoothly. It does raise the blood pressure, however!
It was really pretty travelling through tunnels and passes and alongside snow covered fields and trees as we rode along valleys through the alps.
We had about an hour's wait at Zurich for our Milan train, enough time for a coffee without stressing about the connection - because we'd been there three weeks ago to catch the train to Gengenbach, knowing the lay of the land means we were just more relaxed.
We stayed the night in a hotel in Milan. We'd always planned to do this, regardless of the aforementioned train situation, as in our planning we had already decided we didn't want to spend more than (say) 5 or 6 hours in a day travelling on trains - there's just too much than can go wrong with missed connections.
The day previously, Trenitalia (Italian train corporation) announced a lightning one-day strike rendering our train tickets useless, so we had pre-booked a hire car from the train station to drive to Certaldo.
We picked up the hire car and... wow! Italian traffic! Red lights being just a suggestion, the first hour getting two or three kilometres away from Milan central was a nightmare. Because everyone's more important than everyone else on the road, their need to get through the intersection trumps everyone else's, so as a result, gridlock. Another reminder that rules, while a pain in the @r$e sometimes, are in place for a reason.
We arrived at Certaldo just after nightfall.
We rang the Airbnb owner and there was a significant language problem. Fortunately a police car was being towed from the street we're living in, so we were able to ask the Carabinieri to speak to the owner. Good timing!
Certaldo is in the middle of Tuscany, near a few places you've likely heard of... Lucca, Sienna, Florence, Pisa etc.
Because we had a car for three days, rather than look around our local town, we made use of the car to explore a few places that are difficult to get to otherwise.
We drove to San Gimignano, a town famous for its towers that are scattered throughout the old town's twisting, winding paved streets.
From there we drove to Voltera, a small town close to San Gimignano with a history dating back to the 8th century BC.
We drove to Monterigioni, a medieval walled town built 1214 as a fortification when the local people were waring with Florence.
Sunday, we drove through the Val d'Orcia, a beautiful drive that is so Tuscan, (! yes, we know we sound like Wallies saying that!) Looking at any of the photos and video we took, one look and you'd know it was Tuscany.
Pienza is another hilltop town, full of twisting alleys and small squares around every turn. It's famous for being the birthplace of Pope Pius II, as well as the Piccolomini Palace, his summer residence.
We ended the day at Montepulciano, another medieval and Renaissancehill town, famous for the vines that make award winning wines.
We returned the car to Florence without incident - if you're familiar with historic Italian towns, it's always a bit scary driving into the red ZTL area, but all good.
It was a rainy day so we only spent three or four hours there before training it back to Certaldo. We'll return to Florence one day in the coming weeks, having made sure we've booked a couple of tours first (to avoid some of the queues, which were significant even in this, the off-season.
And so without a car, we spent the next couple of days checking out Certaldo.
We caught the funicular to the top of the hill behind our apartment.
The hilltop is the old fortified/walled town, replete with twisting alleys, walls made of stones/bricks/pebbles/clay fragments/anything else handy, restaurants, cafes churches with bodies of people who died hundreds of years ago (to be fair, they did great things... this one stayed in her nun's cell for 30 years and prayed all the time, never once leaving her room so, yeah, deserving) as well as accommodation. At the foot of the hill is the town itself where 99% of the population live.
