Took a 2 hour train ride to Pisa Central Station where we spotted fields of sunflowers along the way - simply stunning. We left our baggage at "Left Baggage" at the station and took a bus ride to view the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
As expected, the area was full of tourists. A climb up the Leaning Tower would cost us 15 Euros each (compared to 10 Euros to enter all other buildings in the vicinity. We would have paid for the climb up the world-renown tower if not for the 3 hour waiting time. So we ended up just snapping pictures of the tower, and paid 6 Euros each to visit the cathedral and cemetery instead. I visited this area 10 years ago, but but still felt pretty amazed as I admired the beautiful architecture and how the design of each building complemented one another. In my opinion, the prettiest building was the round baptistry, but the one that truly captivated me was the Leaning Tower of Pisa - simple in design, but the way the building leaned was truly intriguing.
After spending a couple of hours at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and had a Macdonalds lunch (my first Italian Macdonalds meal - fries were quite nice but my Fillet-o-Fish was so-so, and we had to pay 0.2 Euros for ketchup) we headed back to the train station to collect our luggage and then took a cab to Hertz to collect our car.
We took our rented Ford Fiesta, went to the supermarket to stock up on fruits and snacks, and the hit the highway towards San Gimignano. We reached San Gimignano a few hours later - thanks to the long days of daylight, the sky was still bright and sunny when we reached the town in the evening.
San Gimignano is a fortress-like city, and no vehicles are permanently allowed within its walls. We drove in to drop our luggage and had to drive our afterwards to park at the designated carpark areas outside the town. I have to say that our car looked really out of place when we stopped it for a few minutes outside our hotel. The town is built out of brown brickwalls, and has a medieval feel to it. If everyone were wearing robes instead, it would feel like we have been brought back in time.
This is a beautiful town with a stunning view of the surrounding landscape. Our hotel, Hotel Leon Bianco, is centrally located in the city square. Nearby is a famous Gelato shop that is always full of customers - and that would be the place I get my daily dose of dessert for the next few days.
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