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Vacation in Tuscany

Traveler's note:

Two great weeks in Tuscany

We rented an apartment in a farmhouse in Colle Val d'Elsa for our planned two week stay and visit of Tuscany. Colle Val d'Elsa's itself  is a nice town strategically located between Siena and San Gimignano. The upper part of the town of Colle Val d'Elsa is inside an historical fortress. It was possible to enter by car but the sole street was like a big horseshoe that tightly gave an inside and out access. We quickly realized that the street was for dropping and picking up people or stuff but that there were no place to park inside the walls. We also had to negotiate some tight turns in between the old buildings. Every Tuesday there was an open town street market which seemed very popular for the locals. It was quite nice to go and buy local crop food. We also went one evening to a nice Italian restaurant in the heart of the town. Colle Val d'Elsa is also were we took the bus to go to Firenze (Florence). I believe it cost the whole family 40 euro for a daily round trip to this largest city in Tuscany.

We went three times to Siena during our two week stay in Tuscany. The three times we also went directly to the inner wall historical part of Siena. The first time we explored the main attractions of the "centro historico" which obviously led us to the main plaza and campanile. We were able to park about one half mile that time.  The second time we parked at a paid parking inside the walls but got surprised by pouring rain. I must admit that it was quite an experience to stroll under the rain with two small children but I still keep good memories of the struggle.  The third time we went for an evening stroll within Siena's historical center. We had the chance to cross a little movie shooting with world known actor Donald Sutherland. I believe it was a scene for an Italian film Five Moons. In the scene where he plays a judge, he was arriving to his Siena's apartment or house door and saw that it was left open by an intruder. Even though it was only a few seconds shot it was fun about this is that we could actually just hang there and see Donald Sutherland in action. Both my daughters were asleep in their carriage so we did not have to worry about noise they could make and disturb the production. My wife and I then took a drink on the main campanile plaza.

We went two times to San Gimignano. The medieval feel of the town makes it easy to understand why it is a favorite tourist spot and attraction. The view of Tuscany at the top of the tower is breathtaking. Of course we also had to taste some famous San Gimignano gelati. There were was a small group of entertainers that were caught by a local law enforcer because they did not have a permit to collect money for their performances. One fell down of his stilts at that same time which still gave some kind of entertainment to the surrounding tourists. Parking to go to San Gimiano was a bit tedious and we ended up having our car parked further down the towns hill.