We woke up very early and had a shower and breakfast. Aviva’s legs and my back are still sore – just too much walking on stone surfaces for our old bodies I suppose.

The weather for our trip has been superb, as its been in the 70s and sunny every day. Diet Coke is called Coke Light in Europe, and I think its a little sweeter here than in the U.S.

We drove out to San Gimignano, one of the small hill towns north of Siena.

Aviva in front of the entrance to San Gimignano that we used

San Gimignano is known best for its towers – it once had over 70 but now has 14 left standing.

Four of the remaining towers

The Collegiata was wonderful (its not a Duomo because there’s no bishop there anymore). The entire inside is fresco. One particular wall is interesting as it depicts hell.

The facade of the Collegiata

The Tortures of Hell from a fresco inside the Collegiata

The ticket for the Collegiata (front)

The ticket for the Collegiata (back)

We also visited the museums in San Gimignano – one is famous for its frescoes which depict the marriage of two people in a very secular fashion.

A fresco of the newly-married couple sharing a bath

One ticket gets you into most of the museums in San Gimigano

We then walked back to our car (after a gellato). I took a picture of San Gimignano as we left.

San Gimignano from a distance

We drove out of San Gimignano and through Colle di Val d’Elsa. We only stopped long enough to take a picture because it was after 4P and we wanted to make sure to reach Siena before dark (we’ve had enough issues with driving…).

The corner wall of Colle di Val d'Elsa

Then, we drove to Monteriggioni, the hill town with the best-preserved walls in Tuscany. It was a northern defensive outpost for Siena during its wars with Florence.

The walls as we climbed up to Monteriggioni

One of the towers of Monteriggioni

The church in Monteriggioni

We got back to Siena without incident (perhaps the first time we’ve been able to do that). We’re now repacking in preparation for the drive to Bologna and my departure in a couple of days. My back is slightly better now, and Aviva’s feet don’t hurt as badly.

We ate dinner in the hotel at their newly remodelled restaraunt, Il Capriccio. Its named after a set of images by Da Vinci that the owner of the hotel actually owns – one of the images is on the business card (the original by Da Vinci wasn’t colored). The food was quite good.

The business card for the hotel's restaraunt

We slept soundly after rearranging our books and souvenirs.