Toscana part 1 – Places

I was thinking what would be the best way to describe our Holiday in Toscana.
Still not sure but I will try, since 3 weeks passed and no word on my blog about this beautiful province in Italy.

This part will be about the places we have visited from our idyllic apartment which was in the middle of quiet hills, fields of grains and olives trees. Good for rest, reading and sleeping …a bit difficult for visiting the cities…but we did anyway: Volttera, Pisa, San Gimignano, Siena and in the Chianti region Greve, Radda, Castellina, Panzano and Montefioralle.

Voltera: our grocery shopping city, 24 km from the apartment but more than 30 minutes of drive. This city is known as Etruscan center and Alabaster craft. Voltera is small, cozy city with a lot of restaurants, small streets, the beautiful old roman theatre, squares and park perfect for the hanging around, read books or just sit and observe the life around.


San Gimignano: The Manhattan of the Toscana. In the old days the cities had 72 towers, now there are 15 left but still they make a wonderful sight. The main streets (no cars allowed) are filed with the wine shops, restaurants, boutiques, squares, markets and unfortunately tourists. The best time to visit the city is the morning. We were there in the afternoon because we have planned to walk around San Gimignano first. It was tough, because of the weather (full sun) and walking up the hills. Even thought we have made few stops to rest and give Fuyo water we were tired and deserved a big Ice cream at the end.

Montefioralle: It was the last city on our list of the Chianti region to visit. We started with Castellina where we bought some wine, went to Radda, and had real Italian lunch in Panzano. We didn’t want to miss the capital of the Chianti region, Greve, but actually we should. When we head for Montefioralle we were lucky that we did not pass it, so small is this village. There is one street making the circle, stairs going up to the church and parking lot situated 30% degree up. Tricky…. What an atmosphere, a paradise for taking the pictures, try different angles and settings…


Pisa and Siena were also nice but this you will find on every forum or website about Toscana.