Tuscany

It was a long trip – although the plane was on time it took a while to drive to the airport.  Friends at work had given me a pack of cards “52 things to do on an aeroplane” (they know me well) and so I had tried it on the first leg to Paris 1. Stretch lots of parts of your body (which I will practice more since it is rather like doing Pilates in a confined space but you don’t need rubber mats, balls or weights).  The second activity I chose on the Paris to Pisa leg was to think of things that begin with each letter of the alphabet.  I had a little help. So here we go...

A is for the Airbus A320 we travelled on to Pisa

B is for the teal blue teeshirt worn with pride

C is for the carry on luggage which looked a bit oversized

D is for the duty free goods that come down the aisle

E is for the earrings on the man with long curly hair

F is for the French language we heard uttered somewhere

G is for Google which we weren’t allowed to use

H is for Harry who helped with k, t and y

I is for the interior of the new plane orange, white and grey

J is for Jim sitting a few rows in front

K is for the four kiwis snoozing, eating or reading

L is for the liquid refreshments we had with our muffins

M is for the bushy and black moustache on the gentleman in front

N is for the nuts you could snack on for €3

O is for orange the colour of the Easyjet brand

P is for the purple painted toenails resting in jandals nearby

Q is for the queue for the loo which grew and grew

R is for the runway where the plane arrives and departs

S is for the safety sheet in the pocket of our seats

T is the tannoy which is the public announcement system

U is for the umbrella packed in our bags

V is for the velocity 900 km per  hour

W is for wing that we sat behind 

X is for the x on the no smoking sign

Y is for the yellow strip to light the path if we land somewhere unplanned

Z is for Zealand imprinted on our teeshirts after New.

I’ll never be a poet but it kept me amused which Harry is grateful for – just think there are 50 more activities to go and only 27 more flying hours during our holiday.

Tuscany is the land of olive trees, sunflowers, grapes, figs and corn. Harry and I had one lazy day by the pool and we walked through the little village of San Baronto close to where we are staying.  It has a few houses, a couple of pizzerias open in the evenings, a little supermarket and a tourist information centre which is open sometimes. The town is perched on the top of a hill above a fairly densely populated area of Tuscany and we found that the goal of many a cyclist is to get to the top (careful driving and patience is required as they often go two abreast or ride in the middle of the road on the country roads).  Our house is colourfully decorated, orange, yellow and red with a pool (open all hours if you are quiet) with no more rules or hidden charges that you would expect in a house you hired for a week, so we could swim and listen to the sounds of crickets and just relax...

We spent a day in Volterra (followed a slow campervan with a huge kiwi decal on it) where a medieval fair was held in the village on the hill.  Although the town was similar to many others it came alive with the community dressing up and acting the life of medieval Volterrians (I made that name up).  We were conspicuous (white skin, cameras, and ‘glowing’) but enjoyed the re-enactments of sword fighting, acting, drumming (snored to the beat in the shade at one point) and flag throwing.  When looking for the cool we headed inside to the council chambers (which doesn’t feature in the guide books but had wonderful wall paintings) and the Duomo which is a 12^th century building with some rather elegant engravings and paintings.  There were also heaps and heaps of touristy type shops – particularly those selling alabaster ornaments the pride of the Volterra area since VIII century BC  (dig the chess board – oh how I wish we had given into temptation – but our bags are so full – perhaps an online purchase when we return).  

Another day we went to Pisa (we chose probably the hottest day – 40 plus). Have you ever wondered how many photos that other people have taken you might feature in?  The square around Pisa was really packed and we would have unintentionally been in quite a few. I didn’t really have high expectations of visiting the leaning tower as we had seen it so often in photos.  But there was a WOW sensation when we walked into the square and saw the tower – we weren’t prepared for the exquisite architecture all around us.  We were in time to book a slot to walk up to the top of the tower and so we spent most of the day until 3.40 walking around viewing the sites (of which there weren’t that many outside the immediate area around the tower) and finding places to sample long cool drinks (watermelon slushies go down a treat – and when you are trying to make them last a while a good game to play is to make ice sculptures that friends have to guess – imagination and some expertise is required to accurately guess Mona Lisa, Mercedes Benz insignia, flower, volcano, leaning tower of Pisa, octopus, pyramid to name but a few).  Climbing up the tower was an experience – stepping on to the first floor had the ‘ooh’ factor as you stepped into the first lean – but you soon got used to walking up a spiral staircase of 300 on a lean – to the right and then to the left.  Italy seems to be one of the few places where we have been where the bell tower is built separately to the rest of the church (or perhaps we just haven’t noticed before). The tower was built in 1350 and originally had seven bells pealing from its heights. The foundations have of course been reinforced and will probably need to be done reasonably often to keep this masterpiece from falling over.  However, they are taking good care of it by limiting the number of people going up it (40 every 20 minutes). At the square we also had our first real experience of a pickpocket gang – though we are proud to say they didn’t get away with it.  We had placed our beloved little soft toy (who has so many memories of our travels) on a post to take a photo of him and the tower and a girl (slim, brown and good looking) walked along with a group and took him from the post without even looking.  Harry yelled at her and went after her and she handed over our friend without a glance.   No doubt if Harry had left a bag at this feet it would have been missing when he returned.

A day trip to Firenze (Florence) was a must said the guide book - there is lots to see. We had booked to go and see Uffizi but for Harry and I the highlight was a visit to the Accademia where we saw Michelangelos original David.  What an amazing monument to his ability as a sculpture.  We also saw a range of other sculptures' work and I was particularly taken with Luigi Pampaloni – a sculpture of a boy and his dog.  This has amazing similarities to a painting that has been in our home since I was little.  A sailor on the boat on which my grandmother travelled to NZ in 1888 gave her the painting (she was 5 at the time).  So, when I get back to NZ and have a better internet connection I will do more research – we just might have found the original artist. We wandered around the Duomo in this rather hot day and found there was no queue to climb the 400 or so steps to the top so up we went.  The Duomo is rather large and from our birds eye view we couldn’t really see all the seats that it would take for 20,000 people and the grandness of the paintings and decor.  That was ok cos the view from the top was spectacular – we towered above all the orange roof tops to the river and other sites. They are cleaning the Duomo up (an everlasting task I imagine) and one of the most spectacular sights was the doors to the Bapistry which each took about 30 years to complete (Michelangelo described them as the ‘gates to paradise’ rather a compliment for Ghibetti who created them).

One day we made the short trip along the fast flowing motorway to Lucca – a city with its walls still intact.  We had been looking forward to walking the wall, but found it had undergone a number of ‘reconstructions’ and was now wide enough to have a two lane road along it – even though the road was for pedestrians and cyclists only.  So, we hired a four person cycle and went for a tour.  I couldn’t easily touch the pedals so Harry, Jim and Margot did most of the work although I did help when going up hills (I really did!!).   This is the town where Puccini was born and so we went in search of his birthplace and then after dinner in the square went to a concert in a rather magnificent old church to listen to his music and a range of other Italian composers. We all enjoyed it.

One of the highlights for us (this was Jim and Margots pool day) was to drive down the windy, narrow road (avoiding cyclists at every corner) to the town of Vinci where Leonardo Da Vinci lived during his childhood.  Here we drove and wandered through the countryside (Anchiano is the little village where he was born illegitimately to a maid – although he was brought up in his fathers household).  We walked the cobbled streets he would have skipped along in the mid 1400’s and enjoyed thinking about the surroundings that had inspired such an amazing person.  We spent rather a long time in the museum (the airconditioning was an added attraction) and viewed many of his drawings which had come to life in models - cars, bikes, cranes, armoured tank, machine gun, sculptures, paintings, weaving looms, clocks and construction machinery.

And if I was ever to write a travel book for those travelling in the middle of summer in Tuscany I would include these helpful hints – I suspect they are not found in other travel books....

• If you buy bounty bars and carry them around in your back pack without eating them – put them back in the fridge and when hardened cut them up – that way you save most of the chocolate.
• If you pack biscuits at the bottom of your back pack be prepared to eat crumbs (licking the packet is a good option).
• If your bag is overweight load up your friends bag – they have to carry it and you avoid the £10 a kilo surcharge (very important for those going shoe shopping at their holiday destinations).
• Hot weather during the nights causes great bed hair in the morning – avoid your mates laughing by looking in the mirror and combing your hair before leaving the bedroom.
• If you are lost, or in doubt about what turn to take, go around the roundabout as many times as you need - this allows the navigator time to work out the right place to go and avoids taking a wrong turning which can lead to rather lengthy and unnecessary travel.
• The street sign for the town you want will always appear just after you have been past the turn off – it is a good idea to find a safe place to do a ‘Uee’ and not to emulate Italians who slam on the brakes and make quick turns in front of unsuspecting tourists. 
• Speeding can have its advantages as it tends to reduce the number of Italian drivers honking their horns at you and passing on dangerous corners – but beware Audis and BMWs don’t come with indicators and so sticking to the 2 second rule might not provide enough time for corrective action.
• When drinking slushies on a hot day in Pisa purchase them at the bar and then sit down, drinks bought this way are half the price of the same drink that are bought if you sit down first.