Nancy and Ron travels: April 9 Siena and the Chianti region

We were up and gone before 9:30 this morning. Not in a rush as the Chianti region is only about 25-30 minutes away. At the last minute we decide to start at a village that we had not really considered. It ended up being the best one for me. I loved the old buildings and again there were quite a few pilgrims, both hiking and biking.

Village # 1- Monteriggioni

The entrance to the walled city

Another entrance

The church

Water reservoir

View from top of wall

Walkway going down, but now I see it going up. Optical illusion?

Museum where we could try on some stuff. Thank god women didn’t go to battle in those days.

Who is that fearsome warrior?

The “real warriors” in the museum.

Second village was Castellina in Chianti. Small and not a whole lot to see and do. Early for wine tasting.

The black rooster is the symbol of the Chianti region and wines. We saw it in every village.

Inside of the church

The church

Third village was Radda in Gaiole. We figured we’d grab a sandwich in this village. We went into a meat, cheese, bread place that made fresh sandwiches, which is what we wanted. There was no English spoken by the clerk. We said two sandwiches, then I said Tonno- tuna. He started to prepare and before we knew it he was making two tuna sandwiches. Ron was mortified but the guy said that it was too late to change, or at least that was what we understood. He probably said you stupid tourists are ruining my day. Anyway we paid for them and went to a park to eat. Needless to say Ron was disappointed in his lunch.

History of the church

Narrow streets

Medieval fountain

The tower squeezed in between the buildings

Next village was Gaiole. The biggest disappointment of the whole day. Ron had read that the oldest winery in the region was here. Well, at 1:30 in the afternoon 95% of all businesses were closed until later. We’ve seen a bit of this but not to this extreme. We felt like we were the only two in the village.

Cool sculpture at end of village

Nice church

Empty streets with most shops, restaurants, and other stores closed.

Around 2:30, we decide to head back to Siena. We really hadn’t visited the main attractions- the Cathedral de Santa Maria Della Scalia. We were told that it is the tenth most beautiful churches in the world. We then visited the Piccolomini librairie, the Duomo, the Baptistry, the Museum, and the Panorama dal Facciatone.