Siena, Italy

After Florence, we took on a whole new adventure and drove through Tuscany.  We stopped in the awesome small town of Siena for lunch.

Siena is most famous for their annual horse racing in the Piazza del Campo.  The Palio

We found this awesome restaurant called Zest down a random street in Siena.  Every road is very hilly in this area so the outside cafe's are built on the hills themselves.

We even splurged on dessert.  Not our best eating day - ha!

I had one of my favorite dishes of the trip, Pici Pasta with Wild Board - awesome!

Other posts from around Tuscany:

Florence, Italy

Everyone has asked what our favorite location was over the course of this trip.  We have all answered by saying we really didn't have one.  It's a hard question to answer.  However, if phrased a different way...  "What location did you need more time?"  That answer is simple.....Florence.  

Sunset from Piazza de Michelangelo

Sunset from Piazza de Michelangelo

Duomo di Firenze

Duomo di Firenze

Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio

Went rented an apartment that was right around the corner from the Ponte Vecchio.  Another great AirBnB experience!

The girls had their own loft that they shared.

One of the coolest things about this apartment was the automated door.  The woodwork was beautiful and big enough to fit a car through.  This doorway lead to a set of stairs that went to our apartment as well as two others from the same owner.

Sunrise at Piazza de Michelangelo

Sunrise at Piazza de Michelangelo

One of the mornings we decided to go on a sunrise run.  We ran from our apartment to the Piazza de Michelangelo before 5:00 am.  We learned pretty quickly that Italians can party.  There were still people up there enjoying the night before and the street vendors were still open selling beer and wine.  Made me feel old!  Ha!

From a Photography Perspective, the colors at sunset were much better!  However, there were much less people early in the morning and 

We toured the Duomo di Firenze and climbed the steps to the top of the dome and the tower

This is...the sandwich nazi (Seinfeld reference for those that don't remember).  One of the best lunches we had in Italy.  But you have to know what you want and they don't have a lot of patience for a family of 5 (one who doesn't eat meat).  Great good and great wine though!  

Also one of our funniest stories from the trip.  Right  when we took the photo of all our sandwiches, a pigeon decided to poop on Allie's.  She didn't think it was funny...but we all sure laughed about it later.

The girls decided they saw way too many naked man statues....

One of our favorite meals was a local place that the owner of our apartment recommended.  This was right around the corner in a small piazza.  Trattoria 4 Leoni!  We liked every dish that we ordered and ended up ordering more risotto and pear ravioli.

On our final day in Florence, we let the girls sleep in.  Sarah and I did our own little Dan Brown's Inferno tour and explored the Pitti Palace & Boboli Gardens.  

We think we found all of Robert Langdon's secret hiding places...

I was only half way through the book when we visited Florence, finished after the trip.  It was very cool to visually picture the places referenced having just been there.