Here are my photos of the buildings and parkland.

This is the grand piazza

Inside the cathedral

The park behind the cathedral so cool in the shade as it is 31*c today

Arezzo

All the area we are staying in is reclaimed from marshland and once the ocean covered it. It is a huge plain with a few steep hills. All these hills have old walled towns built on their tops and are surrounded by modern buildings at their base. 

There are many statues and paintings of Saint Francis of Assisi. It is here that he lived all his days in the forests with the animals. 

We have seen so many jays lizards egrets swifts and swallows and martins nesting. 

So today we spent the day in Arezzo. 

I wanted to take impressions of Italy in my photography. So here are some I took with my mobile phone in Arezzo. I have many more on my cameras!

Very hot today 31*c 

Crossing the Tuscany border into Umbria at lake Trasimeno

Only a short drive away is a large lake south of Arezza. 

We found a town called  Castiglione del Lago with access to the lake and up the hillside the old town. 

First we did our shopping and went to see the lake which seemed to be attracting mosquitoes.😩

So we climbed some steps from our car park and through the towns wall at a gateway into the old city. 

It has one Main Street leading to a theatre at the other end and views down to the lake. The lake is a green colour!

The buildings were just as they had been built in medieval times times and very picturesque. 

We stopped by a restaurant before we descended the steps and had our late lunch in the shade outside the restaurant. Pasta and salad mmmmm

On our way back we attempted the steep winding road up to Cortona but it was a bit scary near the top we were tired and so decided to to forget this idea. I fact the view to the lake was not so good from this side and there was too much haze in the mountains. 

On return we sat outside in the sunshine on the houses patio and relaxed with a cup of tea….. wine comes later!

New day new holiday house

Today we moved on south towards Arezzo (Still in Tuscany ) I felt sad to leave San Gimignano appartment as it was so comfy and big but onwards and upwards. Here are my last views as we travelled down the winding road from the tour at Di Montauto. Where we stayed. 

It only was a fairly short trip to our next location and we reached there in 90 minutes. As we are 30 minutes from Arezzo  and we intended to spend the day there. It is so hot now in the thirties but the tall buildings and narrow streets with shadows help to keep it cool. 

Well Arezzo is a dream of a place. It is divided into piazza squares with joining streets and loads to explore. It wasn’t very busy and the crowds were not there. I managed much better here! 

A wedding was in progress as we arrived in the Grand piazza and the cake was cut in front of everyone on the steps of the museum. Then the wedding guests were in a restaurant at the side. You should have heard them and seen all the bottles of wine in readiness for the reception.

We picked up lots of useful info from the tourist information. It’s the first one that’s actually been open since we arrived in France and Italy! 

We made our way up above the cathedral duomo to Parco il Prato. It has a huge white statue of Saint Francis of Assisi. 

The cathedral was so overpoweringly beautiful with frescos and painted ceilings and I’ll let the photos speak for me. 

We had to leave Arezzo to meet the lady at our apartment but we will return several times over the next 8 days I think. 

Our new house seems modern and has everything we could possibly need. 

So a new part of Tuscany to explore I’m so loving Italy and all we have seen so far. 

A day in Tuscany hills

Our last full day near San Gimignano so we explored the hillsides and visited Monteriggioni

Last night there was a deep pink sunset and here are a few snaps of it from our holiday home looking towards San Gimignano. So rich and vibrant. 

Monteriggioni is only a half hour journey for our home. It is a walled hillside medieval town with an intact continuous wall enclosing the town. 

It is on a cycling route and so was full of cyclists and other tourists. We managed to park at the top of the hill so we didn’t have to walk up the hill as people were doing.

Some of the scenery again of this part of Tuscany. 

We have seen lizards egrets and heard owls and a cuckoo each night. Lots of jays and magpies and a few birds of prey. 

Fields of barley and oats covered in poppies. The lines of vines sometimes have rose bushes at the ends of their row. 

The smells of roses and jasmine all these things are what I’ll remember…

Colle di Bal d’Elsa and Volterra Tuscany 

Today I was much happier and really enjoyed my day.

We explored the close by roads and towns today 

Firstly Colle Di Bal d’Esla

It is a walled town on a hill as they all seem to be ! 

This town seemed to be a long street stretching along the hill. The houses and shops were not touristy and I liked this. We saw a bakers shop and had coffee and a pastry there. Very tasty and cheap to buy too. Mine had custard inside and was enormous and delicious.

We walked along the streets a little and explored outside the portal entrance. 

Next we travelled towards Volterra and the scenery is stunning. The sun was shining and it reached 28*c

This is the countryside around Volterra. 

Volterra is well worth a visit. 

It is famous for alabaster work and we saw three shops selling carved alabaster. So pretty and skilful but surprisingly cold to the touch. 

We took many pics and treated ourselves to lunch 

Home made tagliatelle vince had a meat one and I had vegetarian with truffles… so delicious. We shared a salad with it and sat outside with our lunch and drinks in the shade…. Very pleasant. The waitress was nice and there was a lovely atmosphere . 

There was a huge square and narrow streets coming off and ending in portals to the outside of the town walls. The views from up there are stunning, red roofed tiles and stonework. We stayed there for quite a while. The tour buses do not seem to go there and it was much more easy to walk around. I loved it.

It looks like we are having dry hot weather for the next few days as Italy should have 😉

We set off earlier than usual and arrived at the Michael Angelo square way up above the city. Look at the views you get from up there!

The statue of David was revealing 🤣

From here you can walk down through a beautiful rose garden into the city to cross the river and find the sights. ( we came back this way) 

We made the mistake of getting on a local bus which took us further away dropping us off by the railway station and so a long way to walk. (The central part of the city is restricted to locals for travelling through.)

I can’t truthfully say I enjoyed this experience in the centre of the city. Queues to enter the cathedral stretched as far as the eye could see and for me there were too many people milling in front of me all the time. So we took our photos and decided to leg it back up the hill to our car park . (But that’s another story as the heat got to me…. I’ll say no more)

So now we are back in our holiday rental and with thick walls it is cool and I’m recovering slowly 😉)

Today we woke up to rain pouring down but never say die, we pulled on our rain gear and off we went towards Siena.

Siena is south Tuscany and surrounded by the beautiful hills.

The rain had now stopped.

We had located a car park nearest to the cathedral Duomo and joined the queue to enter the car park. To my dismay we were at the base of a cliff like hillside that we would have to climb up! But nevertheless with a stick in my hand and bag and camera we set off up a hill.

To our relief we found there were a series of several steep escalators  ascending the hillside almost to the top. All free no charge ….phew!

At the last elevation we followed signs to the cathedral through a maze of narrow streets. 

The streets had tourists shops and restaurants.

The outside of the building was huge with spectacular towers.

You buy a ticket to go inside the cathedral.

What an amazing place,marbled floors,huge painting’s,magnificence and opulence!

The pulpit was unbelievable I’ll let my photos show you.

We spent a long time in there and afterwards wandered exploring the streets.

Down all the escalators was fun then to the car park.

On our way back to San Gimignano we took the picturesque route via volterra

There are many views to take photos from. We will return to that route on Friday. Meanwhile tomorrow we are getting up early to go to Florence for the day ….wish us luck!

Ps vince cooked our dinner tonight spaghetti Bolognese all brought from uk with us!

We needed a quieter day today so stayed locally. We are on top of a hill looking down on vines and farmland. We can see the many towers of San Gimignano on the top of the next hill in the distance.

We really like Tuscany with its hills and valleys … so picturesque.

After doing our washing( an essential task for today! ) We drove along down and up to the walled old city. 

It seems building towers was a sign of how wealthy you were. The higher the tower the richer you were. 

Here we have a tower attached to the main house and we are in apartments close by.

It is quite a tourist attraction in San Gimignano and we could see why. Americans were bussed in and escorted by guides with flags so you understand what it’s like. The small shops were in plenty and the restaurants were very popular.

We escaped the crowds by following the walls around and away from the main centre. The views were spectacular and the buildings were very architectural.

There was not much sign of Roman but mostly medieval in age. 

We could smell  the smells of leather shops and again the jasmine and the roses. 

There were artists painting here and there and a priest dressed in a dark red and white gown ranting in Italian. 

Now we are back in our rented house and just in time as it started raining and now we have a thunderstorm. 

Lucca and journey to San Gimignano

This morning we went to breakfast in the villa. It was a grand affair! Cakes and scones and pancetta all home baked, followed by meats cheeses omelette and tomatoes lettuce etc fresh squeezed fruit juice coffee and more cakes and cereals. 

The room was huge with a 

Mosaic floor.

The little lady who had prepared it was so sweet and thanked us for eating it! We should have stayed there longer.,..

Next stop to Lucca via the coastal motorway. We weren’t prepared for all the tunnels we travelled through. You don’t see much of the coastline just tunnels🤣

Lucca is very interesting. An ancient Roman town with a wall all around and gateways into the old city. The narrow streets and squares are medieval. Napoleon’s sister had a lot to do with the development and its conservation in later years. 

We wandered around there and had our lunch looked at churches and views.

We saw towers and walked around part of the perimeter . We eventually found our way back to the underground car park with help from google maps! A magical place and well worth a visit. 

Then onto sanGimignamo  for our next 6 nights stay.

It is in beautiful Tuscany rolling hills.