Medieval Tuscany - on the trail of Ezio

Our short break to Toscana / Tuscany in Italy began with our arrival in Pisa and a quick visit to the leaning tower - from the outside only as there was a queue to climb the eight storeys of steps - tickets are now available for tourists to enter the tower, unlike our previous visit.

You will note a recurring theme throughout the post that refers to long queues and full car parks during Easter so if you can arrange your visit for a less busy time, you will probably benefit.

Our next stop was Siena. We parked reasonably easily about 100m from the northern gate then wandered along the busy streets and crowded piazzas, taking in the architecture and popping inside a few buildings for a different perspective. So many people though!

For a change of pace, we decided to visit a couple of smaller walled villages.

Monteriggioni is a tiny place where, apparently, Ezio from the Assassin's Creed game lived for a while. So compact that we walked around it twice in ten minutes, the village was quiet and peaceful with a handful of visitors. From the car park, enter the village through the arch and you reach a large piazza; the cafe-bar-shop immediately to the left serves the best coffee and at half the price of more touristy places. For 2€ you can walk around the ramparts.

Radicondoli is a slightly larger walled village. Sitting at a table outside a cafe in the small square by the church, gazing around and discussing how we felt like we were on a film set, we were forced inside by the arrival of a heavy downpour. The cafe owners were friendly and the toilet was like a home bathroom. As suddenly as it arrived, the rain stopped.

No trip to Tuscany is complete without a day in Firenze / Florence, even though we anticipated difficulty parking and walking through throngs of tourists. It wasn't too bad - we parked free, just above the Piazzale Michelangelo, and walked down to the River Arno and along to the Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge with (mainly) jewellery shops lining either side. Crossing the bridge took us to the main tourist areas of the city.

Our final visit was to San Gimignano - our second attempt as the car parks were all full with others waiting on Easter Monday. We managed to park and meandered around for about an hour before a 20 minute deluge forced us to shelter under various cloisters and a cafe. After the shower, we visited the ancient gardens and walked part-way around the wall. This is a nice, medium-size walled town with no obvious modernisation and the occasional Masterchef celebrity enjoying a wander, too.

Driving between destinations wasn't difficult and was often pretty. Despite our lack of Italian language skills, we encountered only polite and helpful people wherever we went. Tuscany gets the 'thumbs up' from us.

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