I was getting ready in our room and could smell the sweetness of baking. Mmmmm can't wait for breakfast. I opened the window and shutters to see the morning sun peeking through the clouds. So pretty. So fresh (deep breath in). Breakfast was good. So many choices. There's a pear tree outside the door of the hotel, but I'm not sure if that's where the pears for breakfast were from. They were so good. I had a huge cup of coffee! Yay for me...and probably everyone else! Haha!
We drove to town--San Gimignano. SO CUTE!!! Love this place! They have the cutest stores. The ceramics here and the leather shops are beautiful! Oh the purses!!! Had to buy a pair of wooden salad tongs with painted ceramic handles. I love them.
This town originally had about 76 towers and it was said that you could almost jump from tower to tower...13 remain. You can see them from a distance.
In town they also have a 12th century church (Duomo of San Gimignano). It's very plain on the outside, but had beautifully-decorated/painted frescoes inside: the life of Christ, Noah's ark, creation...and St. Fina. As the story goes, St. Fina was a little girl with a terminal illness who had to pay for her sin of accepting an apple from a boy. She prayed for 5 years straight and then St. Anthony came to tell her she was going to heaven. This is a famous story here and is depicted on the walls of this church. She became the protector of the city. Domenico Ghirlandaio, who also worked on the Sistine Chapel, decorated the side walls in this church as well.
Went back to the hotel. The sun was shining and quite warm, but it was still windy. Dad and I walked around the property to get all our shots in. He's turned this into such a competition. Haha! He's got the video camera and I have the still.
Heading to Pisa. Excited to see the leaning tower. This wasn't in our original plan, but an afternoon at the pool just wasn't in the cards. And since we're here, might as well. Lily got us to Pisa, the city. We ended up driving around inside parts of the old town. Very confusing, especially with such small streets and all the one-ways. Finally got out and parked on the side of the road. We knew we were fairly close to Pisa because we'd seen the top of it from one of the streets we went down. We walked for 4-5 minutes and there it was...and it was leaning! I cheaped out on spending the 15 Euros to climb the 300+ stairs. Took lots of pics and tried to get Anne pushing it over. Everyone there is attempting the same shot, with variation. Should've had her hands up higher. Oh well. There were so many people! It was ridiculously difficult to try and get a shot in without someone walking right in front of your camera at least 3 times.
Drove back a different way (7 minutes faster according to Lily) and almost ran out of gas!!! There were no gas stations anywhere on the back roads. I kept looking at the kilometers left, thinking I was going to be putting on Mom's runners and going for a lovely Tuscan afternoon jog. We made it, but must've driven at least 30k in the red, with the light on.
Dinner was at La Cisterna Hotel Ristorante La Terrazze. There was almost a 180 degree view of the Tuscan hills from our corner window. While the view was amazing, dinner was only ok (Anne's terrible), and the waitress was horrible...to say the least! She was actually nasty! We waited 30 minutes after dessert to get the bill. Had I not been typing away on my phone for the blog, I would've gone crazy way sooner! She was mad that Anne asked her to take her filet mignon back. She ordered medium-well and it came almost rare. When she asked the waitress to take it back, Anne hadn't even finished what she was saying and the lady swept it away, with a big sigh. The service everywhere is not the greatest, but she never came to our table. Even when we called her she would go back to the kitchen and disappear. BRUTAL!
Time for bed.
Just an extra note: Italians here are the worst drivers. They never move over. They drive in both the left and right lane at the same time. They never signal when they should and then leave them on when they're not needed. Unreal! It's been the same all over Italy since we got off the ferry from Croatia. It's very different than driving in Germany, Austria, and even Croatia. Wow! (Not to offend any of my Italian friends--sorry.)
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