Day 10 - Tuscany

We booked a tour to San Gimignano, the Chianti area and Siena. San Gimignano, is a UNESCO world heritage site, we were given free time to explore the Medieval city. San Gimignano had beautiful countryside views, it was a refreshing change from the city. 

Whilst we were in San Gimignano we decided we had to get some biscotti. It kind of tasted like shortbread, very buttery hahah, I could only handle a few. In the same shop we saw multicoloured pasta, which I was super intrigued to try, all the cheese and meats looked beautiful too.

We then travelled to the Chianti region, for some wine tasting. We tasted 1 white, 2 reds and 1 dessert wine. Though I think my favourite wasn't even the wines but the 30 year old Balsamic Vinegar, it was so good you could just dip your finger in it and taste it straight. For lunch we had a first course of salami, bruschetta and pecorino cheese, then for our main we had a simple tomato pasta drizzled with truffle oil, which went very well with the red wine! 

We then ventured to the beautiful town of Sienna. Which was definitely my favorite we were lucky enough to get a guided your of the town. The cathedral was beautiful, I found it particularly interesting as it had a number of faults. The government of Sienna had big intentions of building an even grander Cathedral right next to it. However due to the outbreak of the Black Plague and faults in the structure (the posts were slightly bent to the right instead of being 180 degrees), it was never finished. Also when they were constructing the cathedral it was done over a long period of time so a number of styles were used from gothic to a more regal form.

The Piazza del Campo is very impressive. It is the scene for the world famous Palio Race.

There are a lot of religious symbols in the town, perhaps the biggest being the Virgin Mary, who is seen as the protector of Sienna. Being a business student I found, I was very intrigued about the towns banking history, there were many famous banking families. One particular family established a music academy that is still standing to this day.

While we were in Sienna we tried paneforte and ricciarella. 

Unfortunately we had to leave a family behind in Siena, as they failed to return to the meeting spot. It was clear the guide was quite distressed about the whole situation but there wasn't much he could do. There was no way he could contact them, as they provided no phone numbers and they were staying at a private residence. We all sympathized with the family imagining if it has been us but we agreed with the final decision of the tour guide as we needed to keep moving. 

Whilst we love the pizza and pasta of Italia. I think we're getting sick of eating carbs for every meal, definitely missing fruit, nuts and veggies!! We worked out that we had carbs for breakfast, carbs for lunch and carbs for dinner for 4 days haha. I wonder if there will be more variety in Venice haha...oh well I don't mind too much, italian meals are so fresh and I love that homemade feel! It's really hard to turn down a croissant when it's handed to you on a plate every morning lol!