Today first we're exploring - 3 towns in one day. After a quick
breakfast we head off to our first destination, San Gimignano, an
historic walled city dating back a thousand years or so
(http://www.sangimignano.com/sghomei.ht m ). The drive thru the Tuscan hills
is amazing, hills lined with grape vines and olive groves, the leaves
on the trees turning gold and brown. Everytime we come over a hill there
is another photo opportunity to be had. Navigator Julie is the
designated piccy taker, which is just as well because its freezing
outside the car (about 3 degrees with a wind chill factor of 50). when
Gimignano comes into view the first thing you see are the towers which
the town is famous for, dwarfing the town beneath it. after some tricky
GPS'ing and maneuvering, we make our way to a parking area and start to
explore the town on foot. The3 town is the best example of a preserved
medievil, feudal town in Europe. You could just imagine yourself going
back in time. the streets are really narrow and the buildings prevent
any sun from sneaking down to street level, and the wind is fairly
howling thru the streets. Still, its an amazing walk, with lots to see
and do (Vincent, you would go ape over the artwork and sculptures and
picture opportunities here).

After Gimignano we
headed back to Certaldo to explore. However, navigating around proved
too difficult (even with the GPS). so after a quick coffee and bite to
eat ( a bruschetta to die for) we decided to head off to Pisa to see the
Basilica and Leaning tower.

After about an hours
drive thru the village backroads we arrived at Pisa
(http://www.endex.com/gf/buildings/ltpi sa/ltpisa.html). A quick stop to
recalibrate the GPS, and soon we're standing in front of the Pisa Tower
complex - I say complex because the Tower is just one part of it. There
is also a magnificient church and basilica to be seen (all constructed
out of marble from the local area)Words don't really do it justice.
Suffice to say we were blown away by the sheer scale of the structures.

A
couple of hours and we're done, so it's back to Certaldo for the night.
Tomorrow we head off to Verona for a few days (or weeks depending on
the weather patterns further north)