Solo Italy

 The day after our Italian wedding (see previous post), we all went our separate ways. The newly-formed Warner family left for Rome, along with Steve's parents, and then on to Florence and ultimately to Venice, Mel and his girlfriend were planning to go to Capri the last I heard, and I left for the Tuscany/Cinque Terre area via train. 

Barely making the targeted train to Florence, I settled in for a just under four hour journey. I've mentioned before that traveling within Europe is generally quick and inexpensive. It's hard to NOT pack a ton of stops into the itnerary - tempting, at least. But it's also better to leave enough time to really experience the chosen locations. I've been to most areas of Italy, and Tuscany/Cinque Terre would be the ones to wrap it up (mostly, still a few spots here and there left, like Milan). 

I have also talked before about the fact that I've never traveled truly solo before. I had one such trip planned for Portugal, but then Covid happened. I did make it to Portugal a bit later, but was thrilled that my niece and grand-niece were then able to join me. The rest of my Italy trip represented my first truly solo trip. 

I rented a VRBO place in Florence that was a 3 minute walk from the train station. It was a lovely ground floor apartment with a bonus of a backyard (although it rained quite a bit and I was gone a lot, so didn't really utilize it a ton). A grocery store was just around the corner. 

I had decided against renting a car and driving myself around. I know there are other ways to move around in this region, such as by train, though this would be less effective in Tuscany to really get a good luck at the various areas. So I decided to sign up for tours. And I'm glad I did, both for the sake of having someone give information about all that I was seeing, NOT driving and worrying about parking, and especially for what turned out to be an opportunity to make new friends. 

The first day was a tour of the Tuscan countryside. The first stop was Pisa, where, while I'm sure there are other points of interest, the star of the attraction is the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I elected to forego going up the Tower, but the lean is pretty impactful even from the ground. 

And of course, even if I was by myself, I had to get
the obligatory holding up the Tower pic. Luckily, a girl asked me to take hers and of course was happy to reciprocate. While I was standing there in my pose, some random guy came running by and high-fived me, lol. Unfortunately, that wasn't captured in a picture. 

Driving through the Tuscan (Toscana) countryside was as beautiful as I had imagined it would be.

The next stop was at the Arrigoni Winery. After a tour through the winery, we experienced a tasting of five different wines (all chianti varieties, I believe) with accompanying tasty food. It was a refreshing break! 

Next up was the medieval village of San Gimignano, which dates from shortly before the birth of Christ. San Gimignano rises on top of a hill 334m above sea level, clearly visible in the distance with its many towers. Today 13 towers remain of the 72 towers of the fourteenth century, when every well off family built a tower to show its economical power (many of them are still visible in the buildings, even if they were cut off).

The first towers rose wide apart in a rarefied urban fabric looking very different from the nowadays compact centre. Towers were used in a different way. Rooms were very narrow, generally 1x2m; there were a few openings, and the walls, about 2m thick, assured cool temperature in summer and hot in winter. Almost all the towers were built next to other buildings in perishable materials such as wood and earth. In medieval times the tower was the higher symbol of power, mainly because the building process was not simple or cheap at all. Materials needed to be dug and transferred to town, and the building site arranged. Only the richest families of merchants and moneylenders could afford the works of construction. The house occupied just part of the tower. The ground floor consisted of workshops, the first floor of bedrooms, and the higher level of the kitchen. The destination of each room followed the simplest security rules. The kitchen, where a fire was usually lighted, was located on the highest live-in room, to escape in case of accidental fire.

The final stop of the day was to the village of Siena. The Palio is the most important event in Siena, taking place on July 2 and August 16 every year. Unfortunately I was not able to see this in person. 

In the Palio, the various Sienese "contrade," or areas in which the city is divided, challenge each other in a passionate horse race in the heart of the city in the Piazza del Campo.

Originally, there were about fifty-nine "Contrade"; now only seventeen remain, ten of which take part in the historical pageant and in the race at each Palio (seven by right and three drawn by lots).

The 17 Contrade which still exist today are: the Eagle, Snail, Wave, Panther, Forest, Tortoise, Owl, Unicorn, Shell, Tower, Ram, Caterpillar, Dragon, Giraffe, Porcupine, She-Wolf and the Goose.

Each Contrada has its own unique emblem and colors and represents an area of the city. As one walks through the streets of Siena it is easy to know in which Contrada you currently are in by observing the flags and emblems displayed along the street. Much like street signs, corners often designate the entrance into a different Contrada with signs as the ones in the picture below. The Palio is much more than a simple event for the Sienese, it actually is a large part of their lives since the time of their birth. Each person belongs to a Contrada, participates in the life of the Contrada and the organization of the Palio throughout the entire year.

Unable to see the Palio, and having attained my maximum window-shopping tolerance, I instead enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and participated in one of my favorite passtimes...people watching. 

The next day, I joined a tour to Cinque Terre, "Five Lands." We traveled by bus to La Spezia, where we
caught a train to Cinque Terre. As implied by the name, the area consists of five picturesque villages on the northern Mediterrarean Sea coast. We stopped at each one. Each had a distinct personality and vibe. Normally, one can transit via boat between some of the villages, but this day the weather and the sea was way too turbulent for it 

That would have been a great view, but I'm okay with not being out on stormy waters. I may or may not have indulged in more than one Italian gelato that day, but figured the amount of walking I was doing provided a green light. I was easily doing 20,000+ steps a day on the tour days, a lot of which was stair-climbing. 

I had a day to relax, and then a very early flight out of Florence, to Amsterdam. Though I have flown through Amsterdam a few times, I had never actually been into the city. Since I had a lengthy layover, I took a train into the city center. I walked and walked, probably about five miles, followed by a lovely late lunch. So now I can accurately say that I have been to Amsterdam!