Day 7 (10 May 2025)
Today, we took a day trip to explore other parts of Tuscany (the central region of Italy of which Florence is the capital). Tuscany scenes often come up in dtiys painting challenges, so stoked to see them in person! We started with the medieval city of Siena. It's a UNESCO heritage site - the old walls and alleyways are simply beautiful.
I was astonished to learn that the world's oldest surviving bank, Monte dei Paschi, is in Siena. It was set up in 1472 and is still operating today! We also walked up some steep steps to the cathedral, which is pretty amazing. I'm always amazed that even the small European cities would usually have some magnificent cathedral or church. I was quite taken with the colour - first time I ever saw pink on a cathedral! It's because of the red marble used. It also had a very unusual alternate black and white stripes on the tower. These are Siena's official colours.
On the guide's recommendation, we had coffee at a standing bar and tried ricciarelli -
a flaky almond pastry that's produced here. It's very light and flaky and sweet, so lovely that I bought two boxes to bring home.
One of the things that we can't quite get used to is that the Italians love sweet pastries for breakfast with their cappuccino. Tarts and cornettos and cannolis, even their croissants usually have a chocolate or custard variety. And of course, there's always a Nutella version somewhere! I guess the Italians save their stomachs for lunch and dinner which can be pretty heavy 😅
Next, we visited San Gimignana which is part of Chianti. Sounds familiar? It's the name of the wine! It's a small city with only 5,000 residents but it's sooo pretty 😍 Cobblestone paths, picturesque alleys, and birdsong everywhere. It's hilly though and quite a workout (I clocked 20k steps today!) Panoramic view at the top 💙
We chanced upon a trattoria on a quiet street for lunch and had some very good pasta served by elderly gentlemen. Andre had the chianti classico which the guide said is only produced here (it's strong!) It was peaceful and pretty - one of my favourite eating spots so far.
San Gimignana is so small there's only one main square in the middle of the city centre.
There's a gelato shop with a long queue that claims to have won the World's Best Gelato award so we decided to try it. Meh, this was the most disappointing gelato ever, even though we tried their signature saffron and pink grapefruit. The flavours were underwhelming and rather tasteless. We later saw that they won the award only one year and it was way back in 2007! Bah 😣 Always read the fine print.
Throughout Italy, we tried numerous gelatos and consistently, we found those that came in covered pots tasted better. Don't be fooled by the pretty heaps and bright colours. Avoid those and always check the Google ratings. This was hands down, the WORST gelato we had on the whole trip.
Finally, we visited Pisa - city of the famous Leaning Tower. The tower is actually just a bell tower accompanying the cathedral and the baptistry. Back story: Like most important buildings in Tuscany, they were built using precious Carrara marble from the Carrara mountains. (The white marble peaks on the mountain range in the photo is not snow but marble, we saw those mountains on the way to Pisa).
The Leaning Tower got its fame because the soil is too soft to hold up the heavy marble and started to sink, hence the lean.
Pisa is PACKED with tourists and so far, the only place in Italy we've visited which felt like a tourist trap. There are touts everywhere trying to hawk everything from wefie sticks to bags and food to lure pigeons so you can get a shot surrounded by these flying rats 🙄. Andre and I agreed that the ambience wasn't too pleasant, like the the Eiffel Tower in Paris. We had to watch our bags more carefully.
Honestly, the tower is interesting but a little gimmicky - exactly like what you see in photos. It's one of those places where you feel like you need to see to check it off your bucket list but it wasn't really that exciting. And tourists are still posing like they're holding up the tower. Surely that got old 20 years ago 😆
Interesting fact: The toilet at Pisa accepts only cards, not cash! (And it's a whopping E1.50 😱). Since the last time I travelled in 2019, the world has moved swiftly towards e-payments. Now, just like in Singapore, you can pay using your card for almost anything, even small items at the supermarket. At the metro stations, you don't even need to buy a ticket, you can just tap your credit card at the gate (again, same as in Singapore) and there are no extra fees. Super convenient! The only time we paid cash was for cabs (and if you use FreeNow, the taxi app similar to Grab back home, that's prepaid using card as well). This means that there's no real need to carry a lot of cash to travel any more, making it much safer and easier.
Back in Florence, we had steak for dinner. (I've completely forgotten the name of the restaurant 😅). It's very good steak though I think my stomach is unused to eating so much red meat!
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