A One Day Tour of a bit of Tuscany

The Baptisry, Duomo and cupid pillar in the Field of Miracles.  Another hot Italian summer day sparkling on the marble.

The downside of travelling by train and not car is that you are stuck to the big centers. We had intended to train to Pisa or Sienna from Florence on one of the three days we were there but found a bus tour that went to both and stopped off at a well preserved Medieval town and a winery for lunch along the way. We decided that 'Tuscany in a day' - as frightful as that sounds - with their promise of free wifi on an air conditioned coach would give us a taste of the countryside.  The lunch was just to support the Chianti wine menu and was less than ordinary but the Balsamic was divine!

We headed off to Pisa first after being told that the wifi wasn't working (we reckon this is the standard line!) which was VERY annoying since our hotel in Florence didn't have it either. Pisa is a very strange town - a rather unremarkable place on a pretty river but with a massive 'Field of Miracles'. This title comes from a line in a novel by poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, not because any miracles happened here but because the art and architecture was so incredible. Although, getting a team of international scientists and engineers to work together, plan and execute a solution to the leaning tower and share the congratulations - that seems like a bit of a miracle to me.

We left the hotel at 7:15, traveled the 50km to Pisa from Florence and still there were lots of coaches in the car park on the outskirts of Pisa. On our way back to the bus these footpaths were full so the early morning was worth it.

Ususally people have photos of them helping the tower not to fall down but M looks like he is trying to assist its collapse.  Galileo was born in Pisa - something never mentioned in Florence, and he would stand on the top of the tower dropping different weighted objects and measure their rate of descent.

The huge expense of this building programme came about because the Pisa folk were sick and tired of the Sicilian pirates (some say Amalfian pirates) attacking them and nicking their salt so they got an army/navy together and went down to Sicily and beat them at their own game.  They bought back untold boat loads of pirate booty and used it to build churches and related necessities on a hunk of land bigger than the town was at the time. They were trying to compete with Florence and Sienna's landmark Duomos and through an engineering fault have become far more famous.

The leaning tower of Pisa has been saved from the imminent threat of collapse. An elaborate engineering operation has almost reversed the tilt of the tower to the angle it was at 162 years ago, scientists told the British Association meeting yesterday.  Using expertise gathered during attempts to ensure that Big Ben did not topple over during excavation of Westminster's new Tube station, British scientists have helped Italian engineers reverse an 800-year tilt that was about to bring down the world's most famous tower.  In 1838 an architect had dug a walkway around the tower, causing it to lurch by about a quarter of a degree.  From ‘The Independent” Sept 2000 by Steve Connor, Science Editor.

The Camposanto (Holy Field - a cemetery) was built c1278, the courtyard was filled with shiploads of dirt the Archbishop U. Lanranchi had piled there a century before.  He brought the dirt back from Golgotha (the hill Christ was crucified on) and specimens of Oleander from the Garden of Gethsemane, that we were told still grow there.

The town of Pisa - a very important corner!

This beautifully lacy building is a school!  I suspect that in the past it was more important. Right: The statue is of Florence's Cosimo - a wonder it is still standing considering he conquered Pisa and subjected the town to a form of tax.  The Florence walking tour guide told us of an old Florentine saying - 'Better to have a bad man in your house than a Pisan knocking on your door" - pretty extreme! I don't suppose the Pisans had any better opinion of the Florentines in those days.

 After meeting our guide with the red umbrella at the gates of the Field of Miracles we trundled back to the bus and had to wait for ages as group within the tour group didn't seem to have a watch between them. This extra 1/2 hour would have been handy at the next stop.  It was quite funny to watch the Italian guide give a passive aggressive bollocking in stilted English to the bemused and unrepentant Asian tour leader for being late.

The 'Tuscany in a Day' tour bus. 

I had never heard of San Gimignano and still am unsure of its pronunciation. The road there climbed higher and got narrower as we beetled along. Eventually in the distance we saw the tall towers of the town.  The guide told us that all the inhabitants died of the plague one year so Florence was able to 'capture' it without cannon. In respect for the demise of the town's leading family, who no longer needed to be conquered - they left up their living towers.  All the other villages in Tuscany had these too but the Medici flattened them to remove any chance of independent revival.  The gorgeous little Medieval town - perched on a Tuscan hill is UNESCO protected.

Heat haze and olive trees waiting for the rain storm to hit.  Driving towards the Medieval town of San Gimignano.

A beautiful tourist trap. In the 45 mins we had here we didn't get to see much more than the main street in and the first couple of squares.  M thought getting as far as the first world champion gelato shop was all we needed.

Steep narrow streets.

The only green in the centre of town was potted.

Looking down in the valley towards the Tuscan hills we had just driven over. (Snow in winter).  The shops just outside the gates beside this view included a bakery that has a huge array of schiacciata - which is my favourite Italian bread. It is confusing though because in Florence it was almost like a maderia cake with orange zest but everywhere else it was more like variations on a foccacia. The crisp ones in San Gimignano had the dimples stretched into large lacy holes. The softer ones could have olives, or grapes(don't get those mixed up) cherries. little tomatoes or nuts and herbs pressed into them.  All of them must have been smothered in olive oil before baking!  Am now on the hunt for a good recipe.

Left: A soft schiacciata - this Tuscan bread dough can have lots of different things pressed into it - when I find a good recipe I'd like to try a grape one with a good smear of cream cheese!       Right: the Florentina version is more like an orange cake?!

Next to Sienna, which is where I had really wanted to go. Paint tubes have a way of wiggling thoughts of travel into my head! On the way the guide told us a story about who came to control the sought after wine growing region of Chianti. Sienna and Florence decided they needed to find another way to settle their common claim on the land without losing more souls in battle so came up with an unusual competition. They agreed to allow each other the amount of land that a single knight, representing each city, could walk from the time the city's cock crowed to when the knights met along a predetermined path (70+Km).

The Sienese feed their rooster a feast to make him happy and hoped that he would bellow out a joyous cockadoodledoo that would wake the dead. The Floretine decided not to feed their rooster at all keeping it disgruntled and cranky. The Florence rooster crowed well before the light and off set their champion Knight.  Meanwhile the contended feaster snoozed on and by the time it woke up saw all his hens pecking around and didn't feel the need to crow at all - obviously the day had started quite well without his fanfare this once(his last chance I suspect). The poor Knight from Sienna wasn't able to take a single step. Apparently this is how Florence won control over what is heralded as the best wine region in Italy. I wonder if there is a recipe from Sienna that calls for a plump rooster and a red wine sauce. Oh yes there is - added to the end of this post.

These days a youth would have ridden out on a scooter instead of marching through the country side in armour.

Our tour guide handed out the radio headsets on the bus for the walking tour of Sienna and told us that we would be split into language groups and other people would be taking us around. The headsets were set to a different frequency for each guide, M and Petal got put with someone different to Poss Willow and I. I was cross at the ineptitude at first but in the end it was quite good because we got told different things and went to a few different places.
The next two photos are the two main buildings in town - yep the Cathedral and the Town Hall.

Another white Cathedral on a hill - The bell tower would be heard all across the countryside.

A similar look to the town hall in Florence but much bigger! There are two frescoes inside - one of what happens when leaders govern well and one when they don't.  There was a wedding on so I didn't push through to investigate.

Sienna was a Roman barracks town, at the fall of the Empire the buildings got taken over by the locals.  They organised themselves into 'contrade' - suburban divisions, not dissimilar to the Roman legions. Once a year all the children born are taken to their contrade church and baptised - by the priest - into that contrade at a special fountain outside the front of their church. I presume intermarriage does occur and the wife shifts loyalty to her husbands tribe. Our guide told us that you do not have to live in the contrade zone to belong to it - this originally allowed for rural families around Sienna to belong.  Willow commented as we scaled the stairs after looking at the town square with divisions in it for each contrade to gather on feast days, that it would certainly give you a very strong sense of identity. But that it would neither be understood or valued by anyone outside the town so would make living in another place very disorienting.

The Drago wall art, flag and 'christening bowl outside the doors of their church.

Other contrade patches on walls around the town.
Tartuca with a tortoise, Aquila with an Eagle, Onda with a crown wearing dolphin.  I'm not sure if the last is a contrade or a symbol of the whole city.

The greatest celebration of this social organisation is the Palio. The area has a long history of horse races so one was developed to find the winning contrade of the year. There are two annual races, one in July and one in August.  We were a month too late for the first and a fortnight too early for the second. The film 'Palio', a documentary following the 2013 races has just won an editing award at the Tribeca film festival in New York. http://www.thepalio.com/film/

Left: photos from one of this year's races - flags for the Aquila contrade - Right: we saw this practice happening.
I remember seeing a flag throwing bit in the movie - Under the Tuscan Sun, will have to watch it again now to see if it was in Sienna.  The village - Cortona that the movie is set in is as far southeast from Sienna as Florence is to the north.

The race tears around the track three times. The terracotta part of the square in the bottom photo is where the 120000 odd people squeeze in.  There are tiered wooden seats set up all around the track in front of the town hall and stores too.

The August winners of the 2015 race.  Selva!

Each contrade is given a horse to look after in their section for a week before each big race.  They must spend the night before in the contrade's church to be prayed over and kept safe from sabotage from competitors. The day begins with flag throwing displays, representatives from each contrade dress in their medieval costumes and throw flags with the contrade motif.  A special banner is sewn every year for the winning contrade to keep.

The narrow road around the town square becomes the race track. Contrade members pack their wedge of the square - around 120,000 people all up. And the 90sec race is off. After the race a huge banquet is served in the square and the youths of the wining contrade have been known to sing wild and insulting songs on the corners of their areas to other contrade long into the night. The winning contrade gets a week of holiday following the Palio and the losers dream of winning the following year.  The guide said that the local civic authorities put their very low crime rates and antisocial behaviour in the town down to the feeling of community this light competition engenders. An excellent article in the Smithsonian Magazine is able to be read here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/palio-italys-mad-dash-67200923/?no-ist

Torre (Tower) won the July race and people from the winning house were still dancing and playing drums around the streets when we were there.  Even if the jockey had fallen off his horse and it ran on coming first it would have been the winner.

We were lucky enough to see one of the contingents (winners of the July race) drumming themselves silly to the delight of the tourists and neighbours?

A solid lapis lazuli wall backs the angels holding the painting of Mary and baby Jesus. The towns folk rededicate the Cathedral to her in front of this image every time Sienna is threatened and give thanks here when they are saved.  The last whole town outpouring like this was in WWII when American bombers missed the church.  Ercole Ferrata made the beautiful gilded bronze angels holding the portrait.

The end of the tour was a visit to the Sienna Duomo. We first walked through what looked like a ruin whose solid walls had been built into other buildings but we found out that the Cathedral had been in the process of renovating to make it larger than their competition in Florence (interesting attitude towards church architecture).  However the plague struck and killed 4/5 of the city's population in two weeks. The economic and emotional effects of this were so huge that they have left the unfinished cathedral as a remembrance of the victims.

Left:The front of the Cathedral   Right:Where the building stopped for the planned extension in 1348 when the pestilence hit.

In the following years they concentrated on prettying up the smaller building. Inside is black and white marble that made me crave a liquorice all sort or two.

Facing the front door with back to the high altar - about 1/2 way down the church - under the dome.  The stripes reminded me of the terracotta and white stripes of the Cordoba mosque.

The stained glass by Duccio di Buoninsegna 1288 - not painted glass - round window at the front was the first in Italy.

First Italian stained glass and the dome above the John the Baptist Chapel.

The mosaic stories on the floor  are rather remarkable for a Catholic church. Socrates is shown demonstrating how men who risk the dangerous path to knowledge and wisdom no longer need wealth and another shows how Kings come and go as part of life's cycles - almost treason.

The path to wisdom  -  mosaics on the floor!  Socrates goes to church in the Renaissance. 

Other tiling on the floor - there are black and white stripes on the Sienna coat of arms which is why this duo was chosen to decorate their church.  God or State - who was worshiped here?

Bellini, Michelangelo (who didn't finish his commission - completing only St Augustine and St Peter which is said to be his first self portrait - cheeky young pup - because he was offered something more interesting somewhere else), Pisano, Giovanni, Bregno, Martini, Bernini, Raphael (a portrait of him in the crowd scene of Pope PiusIII's coronation) Donatello and others all have their hand on show in the Duomo's treasures.  Pope Alexander VII was from Sienna and granted substantial funds for the best of Renaissance artists to ply their skills.

Michelangelo's commission completed by someone else.  St Peter bottom right in the arch.

Walls full of Raphael's drawings and painting.  Willow is looking at giant illuminated scores. (Right: close up)   The Medieval equivalent to the projector and screen?

This Mary was able to protect herself from Nazi looting!?  Opposite her is Bernini's dying Mary Magdalena with her foot on the empty urn of perfume she washed Jesus feet with..

Steep streets leading away from the Cathedral in every direction.

After another gelato in the square and chatting with a couple of really nice Sydney girls on a long tour after completing their degrees, we climbed on board the bus again and headed north to Florence. It rained so hard that water was gushing up over the bus's tyres on the motorway and the rivers were yellow with thick mud running off the slopes. We made it back without mishap and enjoyed the fresh air and cooler temps. Luckily I remembered that I'd left our Italy 2015 DK Eyewitness guide on the bus and was able to run back and retrieve it before the bus drove off.

Olive Garden Stuffed Chicken Sienna 

http://www.olivegarden.com/recipe/stuffed-chicken-siena/man-imp-reci-prd-58

CHEESE FILLING:

½ cup mozzarella, shredded

2 Tbsp Parmesan, grated

½ cup smoked Gouda, chopped

¼ cup Fontina cheese, shredded  (substitutes - mild provolone or gruyere) 

¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

1/4 tsp black ground pepper

1 Tbsp green onions, chopped

1 tsp garlic, minced

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

1 egg

2 Tbsp heavy cream

CHICKEN:

4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts (6-8 oz each), butterfly cut

FOR SIENA SAUCE/PASTA:

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp garlic, chopped

1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

1/2 cup green olives with pimiento, chopped

¼ cup small capers, rinsed

1/2 cup red wine

1 cup tomatoes, diced

29 oz can tomato puree

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 medium red bell peppers, cut in 1-inch pieces

1 Tbsp sugar

1 bunch fresh sweet basil, chopped

500g pasta (your choice), cooked according to package directions

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200ºC. 

CHEESE FILLING:

1.     MIX all cheese filling ingredients in a mixing bowl until well-blended. Divide into 4 portions; refrigerate until ready to use.

PREPARATION FOR CHICKEN:

Heat oven to 200ºC and have fry pan ready on stove top.

1.     PLACE chicken on a cutting board and split to open. 

2.     BROWN chicken lightly in olive oil on both sides and rest.

3.     COOL chicken then spread cheese filling evenly in each breast.

4.     PLACE chicken in baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes or until juices run clear. Cover pan with foil and rest.

SIENNA SAUCE:

1.     HEAT olive oil in a small sauce pot; add garlic and sauté for one minute (do not brown). Add bell peppers and sauté until al dente. Add olives and capers and stir. Add red wine and bring to a boil. Add remaining ingredients except basil.

2.     BRING to a boil, reduce to low heat and simmer for approximately 30 minutes. Add basil to sauce and stir well; remove Sienna sauce from heat.

3.     PLACE one chicken breast and drained, cooked pasta on each plate. Evenly distribute Siena sauce over chicken and pasta. Garnish with chopped basil.