3 Locations, 1 Day in Tuscany

When picturing Italy, I thought of rolling hills and medieval towns. Florence was a lot more city than I was expecting, and I hadn't been exposed to those initial images yet.

Saturday changed that when my roommates and I took a trip to Tuscany, Italy and viewed 3 different locations! Our schedule started in Siena, continued in San Gimignano, and ended in Pisa.

It was my favorite day yet filled with good food and new sights to see! We booked our trip through a program called, SmartTrip, for $60 and I really enjoyed it. The trip included a bus ride to all of the locations there and back, and a lunch included at a winery!

After waking up at 6 a.m. we all headed down to the bus stop to check in with the SmartTrip workers. The bus first dropped us off in the city of Siena, Italy. We made a pit stop to grab a cappuccino since it was still about 9ish in the morning and I also bought a nutella stuffed croissant because it looked soooo good. And I was completely right, it was delicious!

Our next stop in Siena was to the Duomo. We bought $4 ticket passes to walk instead, and it was so beautiful. There were paintings and sculptures everywhere you looked. Some ceilings were made out of pure gold and most of the floors were covered in mosaics. You could spend hours in there and still find new artwork to look at.

After another short intermission on the bus, we headed to San Gimignano (still can't figure out how to say it). This is a medieval town that sits on top of Italian hills. It had the prettiest views I have ever seen and the town also hosts the gelateria that has the best gelato in the world (held a record for 2 years).

Our tour also included a lunch at a winery called, Poggio ai Laghi, and we taste tested an appetizer, pasta, dessert, and different glasses of wine. The appetizer included meat slices, cheeses, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. The pasta was very good and it came with beef sauce as well. We taste tested 4 different types of wine ranging from Rosé, white wine, and red wine. And for dessert we had a lemon apple pie.

The last stop for the day was to take a trip to Pisa. The city of Pisa was actually not my favorite, there wasn't much there and the area seemed kind of rough. But once you stepped into the plaza that hosts the Leaning Tower, your mind is only focused on the fact that it looks more tilted that you thought it would look. Of course I had to stop and take the stereotypical photo and we spent another hour just walking around and looking at the cathedrals.