One of my big travel goals for the semester was to do something from every chapter of Rick Steves' Italy. With that goal in mind I went to Tuscany one last time Saturday the 18th to visit San Gimignano and watch the sunset over Florence, from Fiesole.
I left for Florence bright and early, got there around 9:30 and immediately got on a bus to Poggibonsi, where I then transfered to a bus to San Gimignano. San Gimignano is a quintessential Tuscan hill town, with much (all?) of its medieval wall still in tact, 14 of its 72 medieval towers (which were essentially all part of a pissing match between the rich families of the town) still standing and rampant tourism everywhere. It was a pretty charming little place but the tourism really got on my nerves; it cheapened the whole experience of the visit. Of course I was also a tourist, so I sense the hypocrisy, but still. Don't sell out, Italy. You're too mainstream. #hipstertourist
I took Rick Steves' walking tour of the town and got some amazing gelato in the center of town. I ran out of things to do pretty quickly, but I was happy to have seen the town. So I got on a bus back to Florence and took another stroll around the town. I had already spent a bunch of time in the city (both in 2007 and just three months before) so I had pretty much done all the big things. I wandered around the city, saw more of the Oltrarno district (across from the main city, where the Duomo and such are) and then made my way up to Piazza di San Marco (not the famous one, that's in Rome) to grab the bus to Fiesole, an old Etruscan town looking down on the valley Florence sits in. Kammeron had suggested to me to go up here with a bottle of wine and watch the sunset, but since I was on my own I decided not to be an alcoholic and just picnic up on the bluff overlooking the valley. I stayed for as long as I could. Until the last feasible bus I could take back down to the city ran back, but I still didn't get to see the sunset. The view was still pretty incredible, but I saw Deanna's pictures of the sunset and they are mindblowing. Almost better than the sunset in Santorini. Almost. So I didn't get to see the sunset but I still had a pretty productive day in Tuscany, and finally finished Rick Steves. Pretty successful I'd say.
I left for Florence bright and early, got there around 9:30 and immediately got on a bus to Poggibonsi, where I then transfered to a bus to San Gimignano. San Gimignano is a quintessential Tuscan hill town, with much (all?) of its medieval wall still in tact, 14 of its 72 medieval towers (which were essentially all part of a pissing match between the rich families of the town) still standing and rampant tourism everywhere. It was a pretty charming little place but the tourism really got on my nerves; it cheapened the whole experience of the visit. Of course I was also a tourist, so I sense the hypocrisy, but still. Don't sell out, Italy. You're too mainstream. #hipstertourist
I took Rick Steves' walking tour of the town and got some amazing gelato in the center of town. I ran out of things to do pretty quickly, but I was happy to have seen the town. So I got on a bus back to Florence and took another stroll around the town. I had already spent a bunch of time in the city (both in 2007 and just three months before) so I had pretty much done all the big things. I wandered around the city, saw more of the Oltrarno district (across from the main city, where the Duomo and such are) and then made my way up to Piazza di San Marco (not the famous one, that's in Rome) to grab the bus to Fiesole, an old Etruscan town looking down on the valley Florence sits in. Kammeron had suggested to me to go up here with a bottle of wine and watch the sunset, but since I was on my own I decided not to be an alcoholic and just picnic up on the bluff overlooking the valley. I stayed for as long as I could. Until the last feasible bus I could take back down to the city ran back, but I still didn't get to see the sunset. The view was still pretty incredible, but I saw Deanna's pictures of the sunset and they are mindblowing. Almost better than the sunset in Santorini. Almost. So I didn't get to see the sunset but I still had a pretty productive day in Tuscany, and finally finished Rick Steves. Pretty successful I'd say.
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