Tuscany landscape - Siena, San Gimignana, Pisa

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!

 

Florence's Golden Boy - David

 Day 6 (9 May 2025)

 

Today, we made our way from Rome to Florence on the fast train. This was our first time taking the train in Italy so we got to the station early. But we realised that it didn't make an ounce of difference cos the boards only reveal the platform of the train about 10mins before it departs, which makes it a little nerve-wracking, especially if the platform is far from where you're waiting. Crowds of people mingle around the big signboards, then when platform numbers come on, you see them moving around hurriedly.

 

 

 

The journey took only about 1.5 hrs and the ride was smooth. Contrary to popular belief, the Italian trains are very clean and mostly on time.

Our itinerary in Florence today was only one item - to see Michelangelo's David at Galleria dell'Accademia. I'm sure we've all seen it in photos but let me say this, no photo can do justice to this masterpiece. Towering at more than 5 metres tall, David is jaw-dropping in person. 

 

Michelangelo was commissioned to create David for the cathedral of Florence. He was only 26 years old then but already recognised as a genius in his own right. He was one of the rare artists to have enjoyed patronage and support from both the guild of Rome and the Pope during his lifetime. Michelangelo reused a 5-ton block of marble that was discarded 40 years before because other artists felt the green veining and imperfections in the marble made it unusable. 

 

He took only 18 months and it was universally regarded as revolutionary. First, he was nude. Also, up to that point, depictions of David were typically of his victory after slaying Goliath. Nobody had ever showed David before the battle, looking tense but confident. Michelangelo created the head and the hands to be larger in proportion as the statue was intended to be placed 80m on top of the cathedral, so when looking upwards, the perspective would be realistic. However, when the statue was unveiled, the church felt that it was so extraordinary they decided to place the statue outside at Piazza della Signoria instead of in the cathedral so that more people could view it. (Today, the statue has been moved to the Accademia and a replica stands at the piazza).

 

In typical Michelangelo fashion, David is muscular (even his depictions of female characters like Mary are muscular). Michelangelo was deeply familiar with the human anatomy. He carved the jugular vein at the neck bulging, which accurately depicts someone who is tense. The amazing thing is that Michelangelo already knew this but medical science wouldn't discover this until 124 years later! Andre marvelled at the veins on the arms and legs. He said even CGI struggles with making them realistic!

Andre: "He was my age when he created this? What am I doing with my life..."

 

The Accademia even built a domed ceiling of glass to specially have light flood in for the statue.

 

There's another Michelangelo sculpture at the Accademia - one of the three Pietas he did. This one is incomplete. He saw each marble block as having a prisoner within and his job was just to extract it. 💜

 

The Accademia is basically an academy where students worked and studied, and this room contained all the student work. There are so many busts, I guess it's what they had to practise doing. I think it must have been very demoralising studying at the Accademia amidst so many greats during the Renaissance. For students, most of the sculptures are done using plaster, not marble which is expensive. 

 

Andre and I were very tickled by this placard - studio exam! Imagine an invigilator going, "Ok, you have 2 days to create a statue, the topic is faun and panther. Your time starts now." And we thought our exams are hard!

 

There's also a music gallery which showed the instruments collected by the Medici family, including violins and violas by the famous Stradivari. Interesting fact: the piano was invented in Florence. 

 

 

Lunch was at Trattoria Mario, a very local place. We're notice that the restaurants in Rome and Florence are deceptively small. The front of the restaurant and doorway tend to be narrow. Then when they lead you in, often through a labyrinth passing through rooms with different themes and decors, you realise it goes so deep in. Sometimes upstairs or downstairs into a dungeon! I've been known to have trouble finding my way back to my table if I use the toilet 😂 

 

 

 

 

The service here is brusque but by chance, we ordered a beef fillet that was relatively affordable (E22) and one of the best steaks we've ever had 😋 Florence is known for their beef. When you order steaks or fillets here, it only comes with the meat. You need to order sides like potatoes or vegetables separately. We also ordered a bean stew and a pasta but I'm starting to find their pastas tasting very similar and cloying after a while. It feels like the only seasoning they know are cheese and salt.

 

We checked into San Giuliano Inn in Florence which is so luxe and centrally located (a 4-min walk from Accademia!) This was the best hotel we stayed at in Italy. There's even a shared kitchenette and living area!

 

 

 

What we found is that in Italy, if the hotel doesn't provide breakfast, they tend to still provide an assortment of teas, coffees and pastries. In this kitchenette, we get croissants in the morning. Something I learned to love is their rusks with Nutella. This is the land of Nutella - it's available everywhere! Coffee is via a Nespresso-type machine with pods provided, and we can take all the water and juice from the fridge as we like. 

The lift is quite unusual though, with double manual doors that you have to pull open to enter and exit.

 

We walked by a Korean minimart and I never thought I'd be one of those Singaporeans who pack instant noodles but after all that pasta, suddenly, the cup noodles looked so enticing! Caved and had it for dinner. Andre was quite disapproving 😆

 

 

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Art

Day 5 (8 May 2025)

Italy is the centre of Western art and culture, and today, we paid a visit to our first art gallery - Borghese Gallery. It's not a large gallery by European standards, but it houses lots of gems from big names like Caravaggio, Raphael, Titian and Bernini. There's even a painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

Adjacent to the gallery are the gardens which are beautiful. There's a lake with calm waters where people were boating and a harp player was busking (I'd never seen a harpist busker before, it must be hell draggin that harp across the sand and cobblestones!) No photo cos I only have a video and this antiquated Blogger format doesn't support videos well. 

The art on the walls and ceilings is almost as mesmerising as the art itself! 

The art is pretty amazing but it's the sculptures that are the star of the show. The amount of skill it takes to envision and mould figures out of a block of marble sculpture just captures my imagination. The one scupture that entranced me most was The Rape of Persephone by Bernini. There's so much movement in the sculpture and I just can't get over how he sculpted Pluto's hands digging into Persephone's skin. He managed to make marble look soft 😱

The paintings too, are pretty spectacular. From what I observed, most of the works tend to be either of Roman or Greek mythology, or Christian related. Lots of Mary and Jesus paintings (though the earlier the painting, the more "man-like" the baby tended to look). There are also many Bible story paintings eg. Solomon and the two mothers, David and Goliath, an angel releasing Peter from prison, Lot and his daughters, and paintings of the saints. 

Funny story: Along the esplanade outside the Borghese Gallery are statues of famous writers. We passed by one of Goethe and Andre asked: "Who's Guetta?"

Me: "Goethe is the most famous German!"

Andre: "No, that's Hitler."

He's not wrong 🤷

We saw lemon trees at the beautiful Villa Borghese (the garden of the Borghese Gallery). The Italians love lemons - it's a staple in their food especially desserts, we even had it in risotto.

Speaking of lemons, we had gelato from a shop specialising in lemon flavoured gelato. What's special is that it's served in an actual lemon! We chose lemon sorbet and lemon cheesecake gelato. Both are zingy and absolutely delightful. In Italy, you generally get to choose two flavours even if you choose the smallest size cup or cone (which we tend to do as we want to taste more flavours).

It was a little tricky to eat without it dripping everywhere so we each just held one half of the lemon as a cup.

As I sat there enjoying my gelato, I decided to sketch a prop at the shop. Added colour back at the hotel. The silly thing is that when choosing the watercolour pans to put in my travel kit, I didn't pack lemon yellow cos I don't like the colour and almost never use it. Am realising that was a mistake in a country where lemons are everywhere! Hence my lemons are a more sunshiney warm yellow 😅

For dinner, we visited Hostaria Romana, an old school eatery run by elderly gentlemen. We wanted to try all the Roman specialities so we ordered cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper pasta), osso bucco (veal shank) and beef tripe. I couldn't really get into the last one but Andre loved it. I guess he's the food adventurer😋 Andre also ordered a glass of wine. It's quite funny - he looks really young so when he asks for the wine list, the waiter usually hands it to me instead. The gentleman tonight looked at him with concern and said, "Grappa?" (alcohol) like he might be indulging in some underaged drinking 😆

Dining out in Italy is expensive. One plate of pasta on average costs E13, meat dishes >E20. Wine isn't cheap either which was a surprise. One glass is typically E7 and above. We thought it would be closer to prices in Spain. The waiter will ask if you want still or sparkling water, and that costs up to E5 per bottle 😱 We learned to say no and drank from our own bottles since you can get free and very good tasting water from cisterns everywhere in Rome. Add to that, most restaurants impose a "coperto" (cover charge) which is E1.50-E3 per person.

 

Plus we found that Italians eat a lot. They will alway serve you a basket of bread with olive oil (no butter!) though the bread sometimes tastes stale. I suspect they recycle the bread. Pasta is often a first course, followed by a meat dish. At this restaurant, we saw a skinny Italian lady eating alone. She had a huge bowl of carbonara (Italian portions are large) followed by a plate of osso bucco. And coffee. And bread. Their metabolism must be through the roof. I don't know where they put it! 

Cacio e pepe

Osso bucco

Beef tripe

Bonus: we managed to catch the light show at the Trevi Fountain! Unfortunately Blogger glitches with videos so I can only post a still photo. 

And oh, a new Pope was elected today, right when we're in Rome. What a momentous day 🤩