Trip to Tuscany, Italy part 1

4/28
San Gimignano, where I visited today, is one of the most fantastic mountain cities in Tuscany.

Originally, there were 76 towers but now only 14 towers are left.

I felt that I shuttled back and forth on dreamlike middle-age streets.
Chasing and digging beautiful churches, squares, buildings in the alleys of those 14 towers were full of fun.

Originally, those towers were fortifications and represented wealth.
It was like getting into a tunnel through time while going through the ancient city gate.

▲ Fantastic mountain city view in San Gimignano

But in fact, most people come here for the most famous ice cream in the world!

▲ The people in the whole mountain city were crazy about the ice cream of world’s champion.

I ate a little, just four scoops.
I still kept warm by shaking my legs and rubbing my hands before eating the ice cream because the weather was too cold.

It was so delicious!
The world’s champion ice cream did not have an unearned reputation! It was a worthy trip.

The tour group of four people,
Two of us rode bikes and two of our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Cao drove the car.
The journeys were arranged separately every day. We stayed in the same city every night.
Sometimes we stayed in different places separately but sometimes we stayed in the same Bed & Breakfast.

▲ This was the B&B where Mr. and Mrs. Cao had stayed last night.

▲ This was the B&B where our bikers had stayed and Mr. and Mrs. Cao had stopped by last night.

Today's riding destination, Siena and it is one of the most fantastic and distinctive cities in Tuscany.

The distance is about 35K from San Gimignano to Siena.
It is a short distance.

We left at 7:45 a.m., but arrived at 1:20 p.m.
The ride was over five and a half hours.
Even children could make it to the destination.
What were we doing?

It was caused by Google Maps.
We were navigated to a path that was full of dirt and gravel and it was almost 9 k.
The average speed per hour was just 7 or 8K!
Somewhere along the path, we needed to walk and pushed our bikes.

But we didn't get angry!
Actually, we were grateful for this!

The view of the countryside in Tuscany was so beautiful on our way.
We rode and stopped continuously and took pictures.

Originally, in the early morning, we planned to ride to a village 9.7k away and we would have breakfast there.
But we enjoyed our breakfast around 10:25 a.m.

This was a wonderful breakfast.
This breakfast was fantastic and it made us so pleased!

The castle on the hill was in sight on our way.
It was attractive to descend into its mystery.

If you wanted to get there, you would have had to pay the price!
The path there was about 25 percent gravel.

On the way up to the castle, we had to push our bikes with all of our strength and did not even mention ride.

▲ The view in the castle was small and beautiful.

While riding on the general road, the view was more ordinary.
However, you had to pay a lot in sweat, and mental and physical efforts on uneven roads in Tuscany.

▲ We ran into many bikers along the way.

Finally, we got into the city after riding for five hours and half.

▲ The world's famous view in Siena

▲ Do as the Romans do. Basking in the sunshine with everyone all feeling natural and unrestrained.

We saw and bought the famous ice cream, Grom Gelateria again.
It has an almost fatal attraction but this time I still ate a little, just three scoops.

We rested enough, and let's move to next location!

This was a famous wine producing area and it was called Chianti in Tuscany.
The low graperies were built everywhere on the hills, valleys in the area.
It formed a picturesque beautiful country view by matching cypresses everywhere.

We saw street advertisements of wine chateaus that black rooster signs were on them to guarantee their high quality.

Four of us who did not understand wine could only look for fun by walking around and taking pictures.
We could just sigh and feel that this mountain was filled with treasures but we could not get anything back!
However, we bought many things and felt satisfied just walking around some small towns.

It was fine to just take pictures in the exclusive shop for wine instead of buying wine.
We enjoyed some beautiful country views in Chianti on our way.
That was beautiful in deep and all of us were in awe constantly!
It was so beautiful!

There were still some bikers on the road today.

There were advertisements and relevant information about Tour of Italy cycling race everywhere in this small town.
Black rooster signs were visible everywhere in Chianti.
The signs were excellent and quality international certifications that were permitted by Chianti Consortium.
I was a layman about wine so I didn't get it!
However, I'm familiar bikes, was I not?
For this reason, I also bought something that had certified rooster's sign on it.

It was a cycling jersey!

In Greve, Chianti
Other people were tasting red wine but we were tasting coffee.
Everyone took what they needed. Wasn't it fine?

Excuse me! I also ordered a piece of great Cheese Cake.
If you were interested, come and join me!
Welcome to share the happiness with me!

5/1
We went to Arezzo in Arezzo Province that was in Tuscany by car.
This was the country view on the way.

▲ And this was a view in a small town called Lucignano.

I happened to see some people were celebrating Labor Day.
Many full-size tractors were parading through the alleys.
The adults and children in tractors were waving and honking horns! How boisterous it was!

▲ Asciano :The other small town

Here was the main destination, Arezzo today.
These were scenes on streets.

▲ A responsible watch dog.

▲ The barber stand on the street

Returned to Siena and passed by Piazza Campo.

I happened to see a boisterous parade of the colorful participants.

There was an annoying drizzle outside but we walked on the ancient,
wet, and slippery road with a pleased mood to take shelter from the rain by walking next to walls in the alleys.
We proceeded to a wonderful featured breakfast shop.

The space was wide and light inside the shop and there were so many food items!

The guests came in an endless stream.

You could choose to have your meal standing or sitting, the only difference was the price.

This shop was so lovely.
All you can eat. It was true about all you can eat in this shop!
Get reorder. I guarantee you it was awesome!

▲ Pedestrians were holding umbrellas and lowering their heads were walking on the wet and slippery flagging carefully.