While we were staying in Florence, we had day trips to the Tuscany hill towns of Sienna, San Gimignano, and Lucca. All were charming and quaint villages of Tuscany and we enjoyed seeing the churches, town squares, architecture and shopping. After a full day in Sienna and San Gimignano, we ended the day at a beautiful winery. It was such a memorable visit to the beautiful rolling hills of Tuscany.
If you missed my first post of this Italy trip, be sure and catch up with Florence. We traveled with Go Ahead tours and I highly recommend this experienced tour company. We have nothing but good things to say about traveling with a group. They take all the fear out of traveling and you just show up, ready to see things you’ve never seen before.
I was in Sienna 35 years ago and it was nice to see it again. It’s a stunning city with beautiful architecture and narrow cobblestone streets.
The villages of Italy all look similar, but they all have such a beautiful vibe and it’s nice to see them all.
We walked through Sienna with a guide, hearing some of the history of the area and notable features.
Around every corner is a stunning view with stone streets.
This yellow color of many of the buildings is the norm in Italy. I love the muted tones of the architecture.
I always love the unique doors of Italy.
Peeking inside a shop window.
A charming restaurant with outdoor seating.
How gorgeous is this view?
And this one, the colors and textures are just amazing.
Every street has a beautiful view.
More doors of Sienna.
Time for a selfie.
The cathedral in Sienna was my favorite. Wait til you see inside! This black and white marble duomo is stunning.
Let’s go inside!
I think we all gasped when we went inside. Isn’t it stunning?
The black and white is such a stunning feature.
Those huge marble columns were amazing.
Running out of adjectives to describe it.
A highlight inside is the brilliantly colored 16th-century frescoes in the Piccolomini library.
On the floor. The marble in Italy is truly stunning and it’s everywhere.
We sure did enjoy our day in the Tuscan hill towns.
The Campo or town square of Sienna.
We got gelato and snacks and did a little shopping.
Gelato almost everyday!
Can you see how large this square is?
It’s a very big town square, the center of town.
Driving through the hillside, we saw many many vineyards.
Next stop, midieval San Giamignano. We didn’t have a lot of time to explore here, but did have time to relax and have lunch, so that’s what we did.
The vineyards in the background.
The countryside is truly stunning.
Here’s a group shot of our group of 15. We did have a fun group of folks and enjoyed our bus rides.
Time for lunch and a cold beverage.
Our table had pizza.
I had a delicious mushroom pasta.
I love seeing the clothes hanging outside from the windows. It’s still going on all these years.
Last stop of the day, a vineyard tour to the Sangiovese Vineyard.
It was a stunning vineyard and they had a room set up for us for the wine tasting.
They have outdoor cabanas too for gatherings.
Our small plates and samples of wines. They had plenty of types to try, but we are not wine connoisseurs, so the wines were lost on us. I enjoy some whites more than reds. All the food was delish!
The chandelier in the room, isn’t it gorgeous?
Outdoor photo shoots.
Bottles in the cabana.
The cabanas were really pretty too.
Here’s another group shot that I forgot to add in the villa post I did, this was from the villa dinner. We all loved this excursion as well.
The next day, we had a stop in Lucca on our way to the Italian Riviera where we visited Cinque Terre.
Lucca was also a charming town and we had time for lunch here.
This is where the rain started, so we had to buy some umbrellas for walking the street.
We did have drizzly rain for the remainder of our tour, but it wasn’t too bad. It didn’t stop us and we kept going. At least it was just a drizzle.
Lucca had some charming buildings as all the villages do.
More stately doors.
And churches, we saw so many churches. By the last day, we were all churched out and when our tour guide asked us if we wanted to tour the church in Lake Como, we all said NO. We just wanted to go and sit by the water and eat.
They are beautiful, but after the Sienna duomo, that was so hard to top.
Loved this street.
A famous composer.
And another church, the cathedral di San Martino.
So much beauty to take in.
The domes and colors are really extraordinary.
Beautiful doors.
We finished up our afternoon in Lucca at this quaint restaurant, Osteria Tosca. We didn’t all stay together, but a few of us went here and loved our meal.
I had swordfish and it was delicious.
Next stop is Cinque Terra and the beautiful Italian Riviera. It truly is gorgeous and was such a treat to see. I had never been to the 5 villages on the coast before, so I was so looking forward to it and they didn’t disappoint. We didn’t go to all 5, but went to 3: Riomaggiore, Vernazza, and Monterosso and we took the train to get there and boats to go from one village to the next. That was quite the adventure! Our next hotel stop was Rapallo and this was also a beautiful coastal town. I hope you’re enjoying my pictures, I sure did have fun taking them. It’s hard to make these posts shorter since I’m so picture heavy, but I just can’t help it. This is only a fraction of the pictures I took, so I tried to share the best ones. I’ll have at least 2 more posts to share.
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