Tuscan Towns

Tuscany has many amazing towns and cities and in a week you can barely scratch the surface.
We were staying in the north of Tuscany so we were close to Lucca and Pisa. We were quite impressed with the leaning tower and some of the other Pisan architecture and had some nice sunshine whilst we were there.
Lucca was a definite highlight for me. Its a walled city and is mostly pedestrianised so i hired a bike and rode around the walls and between the alleyways which was very cool. It has some nice towers and we climbed up one which had great views toward the surrounding mountains and across the village.

We went on a bit of a rode trip to Sienna which was about a three hour drive. It's a great little city and has a unique main square. We also checked out the 'Duomo' Church which had an incredibly detailed facade.
We also checked out some local towns which aren't really on the tourist trail. Peitrasanta was a nice town with an old roman wall running up the hill and is also known for its marble.
It is set back in the hills not far from the coast so after visiting it we headed to the beach resort towns of Viareggio and Forte dei Marmi. The beaches have thousands of beach chairs and brightly coloured umbrellas.

Although it's not in Tuscany we were not far from the Chinque Terre where we went for our anniversary last year. So we took a day trip there and met up with Renee's Uncle and Aunt who were passing through on holiday so that was fun.

After a great week in Tuscany we packed our bags and headed for Paris.

Some pics here

The Hills of Tuscany

Alan and Darlene (Renee's Parents) arrived from Australia in may.
Darlene and Renee have both read many books about Tuscany and it has long held a special appeal. So we booked a Villa in the Tuscan hills for a week and meet Alan and Darlene in Pisa as they had been to Berlin for a few days prior.
The villa was part of a tiny hillside hamlet in a place called Peralta. We arrive late on Saturday afternoon after negotiating the steep winding access road. We had a 3 level place with incredible views over the hillside and out towards the Mediterranean.
This was our base for the next week and we spent many evenings sitting on the balcony eating cheese (Pecorino from sheep's milk) olives, bread and drinking local wine.

The hillside was covered in Olive groves, lemon trees and wild Flowers and we wandered around some of the tracks on the property and even stumbled across some ancient ruins.
Most days we headed off to explore the Tuscan cities but i will cover that in a separate blog.
We also really enjoyed spending time at home and had many a home cooked Tuscan feast thanks to having our own kitchen and produce supplied by our local store in the village below.
The view from our balconies were spectacular and we had some memorable sunsets and skylines.
Click here for pictures
Tuscan Cities blog coming soon