Beautiful Toscana

We spent the last two days in Toscana visiting Firenze, San Gimignano,and Siena. Today we will travel to Lucca and then to Bologna for the night. San Gimignano is an incredibly beautiful, walled Medeival city that actually has roots back to the Etruscans (2nd century BC). It sits atop a hill overlooking the Tuscan countryside and once had 72 towers, now only 14 remain. We climbed to the top of the highest tower at the palazzo (225 steps) and were rewarded with an awesome view. The city was a thriving settlement on an important travel route until it was decimated by the plaque in the 13th century. It then ceded to Florence and subsequently fell into disarry until recent restoration. It is now a well traveled tourist spot and its streets are lined with many quaint shops selling gorgeous ceramics, salumes (including the local speciality of cinghale (wild boar)and prosciutto, vin santo (a local sweet wine )into which you dip cantucci (biscotti). And I better mention the gelato again - totally awesome.

It is our last day in Toscana, tomorrow we head to Venezia.