A Weekend in Tuscany

San Gimignano behind me

If your mental image of Tuscany is one filled with rolling hills, picturesque neutral colored homes, and countryside towns filled with vineyards, you would have a pretty accurate picture of what I explored this weekend. A few weeks ago I was feeling pretty confident and decided to book a little weekend excursion with me myself and I, and my taste of traveling solo was both encouraging and instructive in terms of my resilience and ability to handle travelling around without any familiar faces. However, in a couple of weeks I will trek out on a spring break trip mostly solo (seeing a few friends along the way) and I hope to reflect more on solo travel after that. So, for now, here's a glimpse into the beautiful region of Tuscany!

I set out late Thursday evening for Florence and by the time I arrived at my hostel around 11:30, I was exhausted and crashed to store up on sleep for the weekend. During the day Friday I took a winery/ Tuscan village tour (as opposed to exploring on my own) because it would be hard to see a lot of the countryside in a short amount of time without my own car. It was a full day excursion, but our group was really small and made for a more personal and enjoyable day. Our first stop was at a winery called Torciano about an hour outside Florence. Here we tried a collection of wines and olive oils, along with some snacks/ local meat and cheese. Like I noted last semester in Argentina, I'm by no means any type of wine connoisseur. However, I can tell you that every single wine we tasted was lovely and if I was traveling with more than my school backpack I would have left with a couple of my favorites.

We tried each one...

Snacks!

Next we drove to a small, locally run winery just outside the town of San Gimignano which we visited shortly after. I liked this winery a lot in general because it was smaller and had a more personal feel, and we were even given a small tour of their vineyards/ facilities. I also got to pet their dog and horses so even before we tried the wine I was happy (clearly it doesn't take a lot). We tried a selection of 3 wines here, a white, a rosé, and a red and while all were great the white was my favorite because it wasn't as sweet as other white wines I had tried and was more refreshing. This was also accompanied by some bruschetta and tomatoes, a delicious Italian treat.

San Gimignano in the distance

Picturesque horse

Family's production site on their property

Lovely views

More wine

After the second winery we made our way to San Gimignano, a small medieval town up on a large hill. The historic part of the town was small, even smaller than Orvieto, but we only had an hour and a half to wander anyway. I made my way to some great view points as well as into a few local artisan shops where I had the opportunity to practice some Italian (more than just "Ciao, un cappuccino per favore"). The more I try to speak the language the more I realize I don't know, however so many people are nice and patient with me as I practice and I appreciate them so incredibly much for that, since in Rome most people reply to me right away with English. So I'm learning, slowly.

Outer wall

Wandering the city

Main square

Views from the outer walls

San Gimignano is also known for a gelato shop that has won awards the last several years running distinguishing it as "the best gelato in the world". I'm unsure who has the job of deciding that, but I would like to apply. Anyway, I tried the praline (at the suggestion of the owner) and the chocolate (because I'll never say no to chocolate) and they were both so yummy. Italy's food and wine are slowly ruining me, as I know I'll have a much more difficult time finding food this good and fresh for these prices back home, but I won't think about that until May.

We arrived back to Florence around 4:30 or so in the afternoon which was perfect since it gave me a couple hours before dark to explore. As you can imagine, Florence is stunning and I spent my time seeing the impressive Duomo and wandering along the streets/ river and taking in the sights before a relaxing pizza dinner and some down time. I'm coming back to Florence later in the semester, so I felt content just taking in the sights and enjoying my time there.

Main Duomo

So intricate and beautiful

The streets of Florence

On the river

Sunset in Florence

Saturday I got up early and wandered around Florence's local market for a little while (so much authentic leather - I left with some beautiful burgundy gloves that make me feel sophisticated and European) but left pretty early for the train station where I made the hour and a half trek to a little town called Siena.

Florence market

If you look closely you can find San Gimignano

Siena is another one of these medieval brick towns situated up on a big hill (a series of at least 10 escalators takes you up from the train station). I didn't go to Siena with any real plan except to wander around, since it worked out so well for us in Orvieto. This would have worked out well in Siena too had it not been 1) pouring rain all afternoon and evening and 2) the weekend of a huge international bike race that had most of the streets either blocked or reduced to narrow side passages. It was actually really cool because I got to see the end of the women's race Saturday afternoon in the main square and I'd never seen a bike race in person before. However, it was pouring rain for most of this time so I walked around and explored the town and its sights as much as I could take in before eventually heading back to the warm confines of my hostel right outside town.

Outer wall

Approaching the main square

Rainy afternoon in the main square

Duomo

Views outside the city

How I spent most of my time in Siena

**A note on these small medieval towns: as I've now been fortunate enough to explore 3 (Orvieto, San Gimignano, and Siena), I feel it is important to note that while these towns are historic and used to be the center of daily life, now they mostly serve the tourists like myself who come to visit. The majority of people living in these places now reside at the base of these hill towns, and that's where most of the day-to-day life happens. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people make their living working up on top of the hills, but I wanted to keep it in perspective and make it clear that I am seeing a very particular side of Italy catered specifically at people like me who come to visit. That being said, they are still historical landmarks and certainly worth anyone's visit (really, they are lovely!) and I have only seen 3 of these towns and spent short periods of time at each (so how much can I really say?). I just want to point out some trends I've noticed, as well as to acknowledge that it's so incredibly difficult to get a local feel or experience living somewhere like Italy that's so touristy while also traveling often and without speaking the language. But enough rambling about my own biases.

As the rain seemed to have no end, I spent most of the late afternoon and evening curled up on a couch in the common room of my hostel by a nice big window reading, journaling, and talking to some people. This was actually some much needed downtime and really just a nice way to chill out for awhile (this abroad life is pretty tough, you know?) So while I don't really have any wild stories from Siena, it was so nice to have some time just to me and the opportunity to meet some new people as well.

Sunday mornin' rain was fallin'...

Since there is no direct train from Siena to Rome, Sunday morning I took a bus back "home" through more of Italy's beautiful countryside ( I wanted to get back to Rome a little early since, contrary to popular belief, I am in school and do have work to do - midterms start this week).

So, though I want to reflect on solo travel more after my spring break travels, this short little weekend excursion reassured me that I am definitely doing the right thing by wanting to get a little travel experience on my own and I'm so happy with how this weekend turned out!

Smiles from San Gimignano