Siena, San Gimignano & Chianti

As Florence lies at the heart of some of the most beautiful landscapes in Europe I thought it would be nice to have a look at it. Suggested to John that perhaps we should go on a day tour. Unfortunately, we picked the wrong day weather-wise, but if we had stayed in Florence we would have remained in our room looking at the walls so, not a complete waste of a day.

We were collected at our B&B and delivered to the coach departure point. After half an hour or so standing around in the rain we set off

for Siena and the San Gimignano and Chianti regions. Our first stop was at the medieval hilltop village of Monteriggioni. The surrounding countryside, where woods alternate with vineyards and olive groves, in a landscape dotted with Romanesque churches, farmhouses, villas and castles is a little difficult to appreciate in the low cloud but beautiful in it's autumn glory nevertheless.

Our next destination is Siena where we were enchanted by the splendid Romanesque/Gothic style Cathedral and by the Palazzo Comunale. This palace is situated in the picturesque Piazza del Campo, in which the famous Palio horse race takes place every year. Actually, it takes place twice in July and August and in some years they hold an extra one or two if there is something extra special to celebrate. That's what I love about Italy and the Italians, there are no rules really and the ones that do exist are quite flexible (rather like quilting). I have always thought that I was Italian in a previous life

and I am becoming more convinced each day we are here.

This Cathedral here in Siena reaches the pinnacle of Cathedrals in my opinion. I don't want to visit another one now, it will only be a disappointment. The stories relating to this building which dates from around 1200 are utterly fascinating and I would be here all day if I started to write about what I learned yesterday so I will try and keep this brief.

The original plans for the Cathedral were about twice the size of this structure but the black plague killed off almost the entire workforce so they had to scale back their design. The unfinished walls of some of the building still stands as it was left.

The pulpit is made of Carrara marble and was sculpted between the

end of 1265 and November 1268. The whole message of the pulpit is concerned with the doctrine of Salvation and the Last Judgment and is the earliest remaining work in the cathedral.

The cathedral contains many works of art by the most famous Italian artists including statues of four saints by Michelangelo.

There is a library adjoining the Cathedral which is decorated with the most stunningly beautiful frescoes that I have ever seen. It also houses precious illuminated choir books. The frescoes are painted by the Umbrian Bernardino di Betto, called Pinturicchio and probably based on designs by Raphael.

The visual impact of these very colourful frescoes is stunning. They tell the story of the life of Siena's favourite son, cardinal Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who eventually became Pope Pius II. He was the uncle

of cardinal Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini (then archbishop of Siena and the future pope Pius III), who commissioned this library in 1492 as a repository of the books and the manuscript collection of his uncle. The ceiling is covered with painted panels of mythological subjects. They were executed between 1502 and 1503 by Pinturicchio and his assistants and haven't been touched since.

We opted to have lunch with the coach group (about 24 of us), an easy decision and saved time in the rainy weather. Salad, pasta, roast pork and potatoes followed by sweet pastries. Then on to the next village, San Gimignano where we had an ice cream from an award winning gelato shop, pretty good and free time to explore the town.

Back onto the coach and next stop a vineyard for some wine tasting and olive oil tasting which was quite atmospheric then back on the coach arriving back in Florence around 7.00pm.

This coach trip reminded us why we are doing our holiday free-style. As I commented in Brugge, I was not the least bit envious of those sorry souls following their leaders around the town. Yesterday, I became one of them and I was so relieved that it was just for one day.

There were two women travelling together on the coach who didn't stop talking all day. Their conversation centered on nothing but the shopping they had done and the shopping they intended to do. At one point one of them ripped into the other one for going into a grocery shop. I had to restrain myself from turning around and telling her to shut the *%#@ up.

Anyway, Michaelangelo's four statues below. The top ones were carved by contemporaries but the whole altar remains unfinished.