Home again, and last pics of Italy

We arrived home this weekend from our trip. We really enjoyed our time in Italy, but it's good to be home!

We spent our last two days in Sienna and in Florence. I didn't have very good Internet access either day, so here are the last pics.

 On the road to Sienna, we discovered that they include signs for the most important things at each exit. Gas, food... and espresso. Natch.

 The interior of the duomo in Sienna. It's known for the amazing black-and-white striped marble. Beautiful!

 One of the many frescoes in the duomo. Of course I took the picture of the one with the horse ;)

 On the way back from Sienna, we stopped at an Etruscan tomb. The word "Tuscany" comes from Etruscan.

We also visited a museum that had a number of finds from the tomb. These pottery vessels are perhaps 3 inches tall... so amazing to see the delicate artwork on something so small, and so old! It's not hard to see how this region became famous for its pottery.

 The agrotourismo where we stayed had a tractor made by Lamborghini. The hubby now wants one, but only if it comes in a red convertible model.

 View from the second floor of the Uffizzi Palace in Florence. The building at the end, with the tower, is the Castle Vecchio, home to the Medici family for hundreds of years. The Uffizzi houses many of Italy's most famous works of art, so we spent a lovely morning staring at incredible art. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside. 

 Beautiful interior courtyard in the Castle Vecchio.

 Everything in the castle was painted. The ceiling is on the arcade surrounding the courtyard.

This is the main meeting room in the castle. When Florence declared itself an independent republic, all 1700 citizens of Florence gathered in this room to witness the signing of the document.

 One of the paintings in the main meeting room, depicting some medieval battle where Florence was victorious (of course).

 The palace is home to many of the Medici treasures. This is an inlaid curio cabinet, with the inlay done with marble from the region (yes, all those tiny details are ROCKS. The geologist-husband loved it!)

There was an amazing map room, with every map from the mid 1600's, of the entire earth as it was known at the time. The detail on each map was incredible.

 Here's the detail from Egypt. You can even see the tiny pyramids next to Cairo!

 Another amazing painted ceiling - this one was original from when the castle was built in the 1400s.

And finally, the first of our many plane rides home. Ciao, Italy!

Tips for driving in Italy (or, how not to die in a fiery car crash)

Driving in Italy is... different. In a nutshell, you should drive like you own the road and show no fear. Here are a few tips we've compiled:

• Never, EVER hesitate - people will just honk if you do.
• Drive as fast as you can, regardless of the posted speed limit.

Yes, you should go a minimum of 90 kmph around this hair-pin turn. Really!

• Actually, you need to go the posted speed limit in certain places. Fortunately, they are clearly marked.

This is your warning...

Go the speed limit. Right. Here. (If you're a true Italian, you slam on your brakes just before this, then speed up immediately after).

• Maps are useless. Make it up as you go.
• Street signs are somewhat more useful, but you have to know where you are going to be able to get there

I wonder which way to Firenze (Florence)?

• If you miss the first option for getting to a particular place, don't worry, you'll have other opportunities.

It doesn't matter which way you go, you'll end up in Firenze!

• Parking on the sidewalk is perfectly acceptable.

 Look, even my hubby can do it!

• The road doesn't actually ever end, it only looks like it does.

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Just keep driving...

In addition to these handy tips, we've included a list of road signs and our interpretations of them, as well as a few driving situations.

If you think the road is narrow now, just wait! It gets narrower ahead!

This road is only minimally turny and twisty. It gets much worse in 700 meters.

Left! GO LEFT!!!!

Italians also have creative ways of combining signs. I believe this one means "don't fall off the road while trying to avoid leaping deer."

"Fire hydrant after the turn."

"To avoid falling rocks, swerve a lot."

"If you don't have snow tires, you're going to swerve off the road and die."

"If it's raining or snowing, you're going to swerve off the road and die." (At this point, we just abandoned hope.)

"Jumping deer going 50 kmph. You should be going at least this fast."

And my personal favorites:

"Boobs ahead."

And of course...

"Don't run off the road when you're staring at the boobs ."

In which we find terra cotta, frescoes, and tirimisu

Yesterday we started off with a trip to a terra-cotta manufacturer in the area called MITAL. As is par for the course, the map didn't match the directions, so we drove in the general vicinity of the place we were trying to find, then ended up somewhere entirely different.

We found a guy who does incredibly creative things with clay, all one-of-a-kind and simply gorgeous (above). We ended up purchasing a wall plaque from him that depicts a scene of the Tuscan hills, with a monastery in the background.  Of course the plaque was wrapped before I had a chance to take a picture of it, so I'll just have to post it after we get it home and hang it on the patio wall.

 Naturally, we then had to visit the monastery in the scene, Certosa.

 The monastery was built directly on the bedrock of the hill - it was pretty cool to see the chunks of hillside integrated into the building!

 Apparently even monasteries needed defensive measures - check out the arrow slit!

 Next off, we headed to San Gimignano, also known as the City of Towers.

The old part of the town is pedestrian-only, which is pretty nice after a dodging crazy Italian drivers. Here's a cool tiny narrow alley side street with an archway.

This picture was taking standing in front of the Duomo, in the main piazza. The town originally had at least 72 towers - I think there are about a dozen towers left. Apparently the wealthiest families liked to build tall towers to demonstrate their wealth and influence (apparently a medieval version of "mine's bigger than yours").

 San Gimignano is a city full of 13th century frescoes. These are in a courtyard. Love the covered staircase too!

Almost every available surface of the inside of the Duomo is covered in more 13th and early 14th century frescoes. The black and white stripes are marble typical of the area.

 An illicit photo of one of the incredible frescoes (ssshhhh!). This one is of the Roman soldiers at the Crucifixion.

After the duomo, the hubby wanted to follow the signs to see the castle ruins. The problem castle ruins is that they are ALWAYS at the top of the hill. That's a lot of steps for a view - even if it is a really good view!

 At the end of the day, we were hungry and looking for a place to eat on the way home. We unexpectedly ran across the Gabbiano winery, so we decided to stop for dinner. (We have a long history with Gabbiano wine. It was the first wine I brought to a dinner that hubby cooked, and today is our 5.5 year anniversary. It seemed fitting!)

Our truly decadent meal was topped by an amazingly rich tirimisu covered in candied pistachios and chocolate slivers. Mmmmmm....

Pictures of today

 Tuscan countryside.

 The original tower, built in the 11th century, of Castello di Brolio.

 Hubby at the entrance to the castle gardens.

 The chapel for the castle, with the tower on the left.

More of the castle - you can see where the stone changes color is where they built an addition.

 View to the south from the castle wall.

View north-west from the castle wall. The castle was a very strategic point - its owners backed the Florence republic, and Florence was constantly at war with Siena. You can see Siena from here, so they could always see if there was an army marching out from Siena!

The family that owned the castle did an extensive brick addition in the 1800s (the same family built the original castle in the 11th century). They tried to make the style match the original castle - it's called the "neo-gothic" style.

Hubby checks out the castle's defenses - arrow slits!

We are getting much better at parking our car. Note the classy job where we're half on the sidewalk (no kidding, this is how they park over here!)

Next, we visited Siena. This is the central Piazza il Campo, with the Palazzo Pubblico. This Palazzo housed the town hall for hundreds of years, and is full of beautiful frescoes from the 13th and 14th centuries. The tower on the left is one of the tallest in the world of its type, built in 1296. Incredible!

One of the many frescoes, showing how the Italians defeated Frederick Barbarossa of Germany.

View from the Palazzo.

The Duomo in Siena, 13th - 14th century. It's famous for the black and white marble stripes, which are also all over the inside of the cathedral.

Inlaid marble walkway outside of the Duomo.

The bapistry around the back of the duomo. The doors are original, built in 1345.

Cool shot of the Piazza il Compo and the tower in the background.This Piazza is the start and the end of the famous bareback horse race in Siena!