After Siena, we're off to our lunch destination: Fattoria Poggio Alloro, which translates to Bay Leaf Hill Farm. It's an organic farm located in the Chianti region. The farm was started by a trio of brothers back in 1955, and is still family-owned today. Since then, it has expanded 3 times to to 75 hectares, and produces 10 different types of wine, extra virgin olive oil, various fruits and also the famous Chianina cattle, the main source of Florence's famous steak. When I heard this, my eyes lit up. Could this mean the famous steak is on the lunch menu? Since most restaurants sell this by kg, there's no way I could finish an order by myself, so of course I haven't had the chance to try it. Sadly, the only beef we're getting at lunch was in the form of ragu :(
The endless vineyards we passed along the way were just beautiful~
The farm was only 10 minutes away from San Gimignano, so the towers of the town are visible from the farm.
We were given a short tour of the farm, walking through its vineyards and olive field, as well as the winery.
Also got to check out the Chianina cattle. This one was particularly feisty because she was protecting her new baby. She banged on the fence every time someone walked by. Fierce!
Here's our alfresco dining area. The weather was lovely, and the lemon trees actually gave off a light refreshing smell in the breeze. Loving it! When I overheard the farm was actually also a B&B, I really wanted to tell the guide to leave me here for the night and pick me up with tomorrow's tour group...
I didn't take any food pictures...probably because I was too drunk haha~ We had 3 bottles on each table at our disposal. The appetizer was simple grilled bread with extra virgin olive oil, paired with the vernaccia on the left. Then it's on to the penne with Chianina beef ragu (still way more al dente than I'm used to) with the young chianti. Next we had two different types of pecorino cheese, with boar prosciutto, paired with the rosso, which is just an aged Chianti. Dessert was the famous Florentine duo of cantucci and locally produced vin santo, a super-strong, amber colored dessert wine that'd probably make me keel over after one shot glass. Yes it's strong stuff, so dipping only!
San Gimignano, a medieval hill town that's also a UNESCO world heritage site, is known for its towers. People in medieval times believed social status is positively correlated to your distance from god. And the best way to shorten that distance? Build a tower! At one point, San Gimignano boasted 72, but only 14 survived. There's no guided tour for San Gimignano, probably because it's so tiny. We were each given a map, and after reminding us the meeting time & place, we were set free.
I guess San Gimignano is the heart of Tuscan ceramics...silly me for spending so much time looking for these in Florence. I loved the vivid color combinations and lovely Tuscan scenery so much I wanted to buy all of it!
We arrived in San Gimignano early afternoon, when the sun was absolutely brutal. But I was so attracted by the views I didn't want to duck into a museum or church. The main street was filled with tourists, but the sidestreets were blissfully empty.
I loved the numerous archways overhead. Picture to the right shows the main square: Piazza della Cisterna. Although it was renovated in the 20th century, parts of it still retained building materials from the 13th century!
But really the first line of business is to stop by the Gelato World Champion: Gelateria Dondoli. There's another store across the piazza that boasts the same title, but Dondoli is the real winner. I've forgotten what flavors I got, but I remember being very happy with the flavors and texture.
After a quick gander at the map, I decided to walk straight through town to the lookout point at the fortress on the western end of town. The view was indeed lovely, but the sun was too much so I didn't last very long.
San Gimignano is known for their wild boar products, which I didn't particularly enjoy at lunch. Somehow Jamon Iberico is more my cup of tea :P
Our final destination for the day was Pisa, home of the famous leaning tower. Since the parking lot was pretty far away from the town center, we get to take these little train shuttles for a quick tour of the city. Honestly I wasn't very interested in Pisa....probably because I don't care much for the leaning tower.
This is the Field of Miracles. Since we only had about 1 hour, I didn't venture far, so I can't say if Pisa had much outside of this field. It has 3 main buildings: the leaning tower, the Duomo and the baptistery. These building date back to the 11th century, but major parts of them were rebuilt after a fire in the 16th century.
I didn't go into any of the buildings because it was the end of the day and I didn't feel like standing in line. It was much more fun photographing these people, making all sorts of weird gestures for their famous picture with the leaning tower.
The tower had been worked on by numerous architects over the years to prevent it from toppling over. So much so it's actually more banana shaped now because they've tried filling it in at all angles (I couldn't really tell). Supposedly at some point they had the ability to truly straighten it, but then decided against it because "who'd want to see the straight tower of Pisa?"
These white stone facades seem perfectly suited to catch whatever color sunlight was, so they seem to change color as the hours go by. Beautiful~
Sunlight slowly dwindled on our way back to Florence. Tuscany took on a very different but equally lovely color.
We pulled in front of Florence train station right around 9pm. I'd originally planned to challenge to famous bistecca tonight, but I was simply too wiped out. So instead I walked over to
Lo Stracotto, which translates to "home cooking".
Started with a porcini mozzarella salad. I liked the mushrooms and cheese, but the salad was a bit bland.
Pork chop with roasted potatoes was fine, but it seemed no different from what comes out of my oven. Oh well, it IS home cooking!
So here I am, back in Florence after a 12 hour excursion to Tuscany. I really enjoyed this tour and thought Walkabout did a great job organizing the itinerary so it never felt like we were on the bus for too long. My only minor complaint was the duration of free time at each town was too short, but I suspect given how charming those little towns are, I'd say the same after spending a whole week there...speaking of which, I think that's
the plan for my next trip to Italy! I'll see you again real soon, Tuscany!
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