Village Italy with Rick Steves

Sky
Sun
Wine
Hot Tub
Vineyards
Olive Groves
We must have found
The Etruscans -
we learned about them today
at a museum.
This stop was important
for our understanding of the
origins of ancient
Tuscany.
A Cooking Lesson -
Another important experience
where Stephano explained
his slow food philosophy
while we prepared
today's farm fresh lunch.
Tuscany


What We Did...
After the two stops we arrived at our inviting Tuscan country hotel, Hotel Belvedere di San Leonino in Castellina in Chianti. We had time to enjoy a swim and a glass of wine outdoors with some of our tour friends before our dinner together. This time we really did have too much wine as the girls at our table got the giggles so badly that the next morning Tricia asked us what was so entertaining to us during the dinner. Oh my. In the morning we awakened (no hangovers) in time for a lovely sunrise over the Tuscan hills then we joined some of the others for a morning walk along the vineyard. After breakfast it was off to Siena for the day.



Siena
^For horses



Contrada HQ
Flag Lined Street
Tricia's Adopted Contrade


Tuscany's greatest hill town features the
Duomo and Campo
(and another tower to climb.) Tricia gave us a tour
and explained the Palio
and the social importance of the contrade:
the local competitive neighborhoods.
For horses>
For people>
Duomo
View from the Mangia Tower
View From the Tower
What We Did...
We had free time to have lunch and explore. I love towers so we climbed the Tower of Mangia for an overview of the village, walked (rather climbed) the steep streets, then sat in the fan-shaped central square, Piazza del Campo, and people watched with our well earned gelatos.
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Piazza del Campo





The
'Best People Watching' award goes to Siena.

If you'd like to know more about Siena's contrada,
you can view my blog post on this external link.

I didn't bring a dress. I wish I had: something wrinkle resistant, easy to slip on and modify with accessories. Italians are dressy people. They don't wear shorts like we do. Definitely bring a dress.