Mystery Critic

4pm - Drove and got lost (thanks for our lack of familiarity with direction and our GPS) and drove some more. Finally we made it to Piazza Michelangelo on the other side of the river. Spectacular view of Florence under our feet! The weather was misty but the scenary was still unbeatable.

7pm - Walked to Ponte Vecchio; many stores are closing but we weren't going to buy anything anyways. The jewelry there is nice to look at, but it has a bit of that Italian "exaggeration" that doesn't really look fit our fine Asian wives. Took some pictures on Ponte Vecchio but the best view of the bridge is of course when we're NOT on the bridge.... Stay tuned!

10am - Leaning Tower of Pisa - Wow, a childhood dream comes true! It's really as tilted as it looks on the pictures, and we of course took some silly pictures under it like all the tourists would.

The Pisa Duomo is interesting - it's got lots of GREAT art inside but it's FREE!  The Pisa
Campo di Miracoli is really a great deal, especially if you can get here without having to join one of those hyper expensive group tours.

2pm - After the heavy lunch we need to walk around a bit, but it was wet out there. Therefore we decided to go see the Mediterranean Sea at a largely over-looked spot that will get you the picture-perfect view of the sea - Terrazza Mascagni. In most of the tour books you won't even find this obscure terrace by the sea, but it's really fun and worth a visit.

Castelfiorentino

10am - What's a nice Firenze morning without checking out some tombs? We headed for Santa Croce in the morning to see the dead famous people. Kids didn't like the place at all - just too dark, cold and spooky even for my taste. If you visit Santa Croce, you've GOT to check out the Leather School. We saw a guy started with a leather letter holder kind of thing and engrave gold ornament around it. It was cool, a first time even for Mr. MC who grew up in a country that makes a ton of leather goods.

2pm - It was in Greve in Chianti where my love affair with Tuscany began. Ok please stop throwing up now. Greve is a super charming town AND it actually has a little downtown that you can drive right into!! The 2nd reason for my love for the place is that it has a Nerbone - a full-size one too, not like the little dump in Mercato Centrale. We obviously had to have another tripe sandwich - YUM!!!

YES, look at the size of this monster..... Biggest vehicle a tourist ever driven in Tuscany.... Or maybe Italy....

9am - This is our biggest day! We packed our breakfast and headed for the Tuscany towns renowned for their historic beauty. It took us just about an hour to get to San Gimignano and WOW, that is one SPECTACULAR ancient town sitting on a hill and has a ton (well 13 to be exact) towers high up in the sky. We took a walk along it's famous entrace path and checked out the stores (many closed because it's Sun). This is a MUST-DO in Tuscany! The piazza, however, has a well and it's not so impressive because you can't really see the towers from there.

11am - We follow some good direction to pull into a garage that is closest to Il Campo in Siena, only to find out that the entrance is too low for our HUGE van. Once again, DO NOT EVER get a 9-passenger van in Europe. It's more a liability than an asset.

The view of the city from the outside is already stunning, but inside the walls is a totally different world. Il Campo, the central square, in Siena is as pretty as everyone described and more! It's got that aroma of history and pursuit of beauty in the air that I can still smell. Thank God the stores are mostly closed (Sun AND noon time), so we had lots of time to sit in the famous Il Palio cafe and enjoy the atmosphere. The square is by no means empty, but we were told that this is as empty as it gets - a Sun in a low season.

2pm - Even though most stores are closed, Mr. MC managed to find some food to buy (ha ha, what's new - the WORLD renowned panforte shop Nannini. It's got an array of meticulously-crafted desserts that look French, so I got a whole bunch of different types of panfortes as souvenirs.

The duomo - main church - in Siena is just as stunning. It's so white that it looks like it's made by marble, but we then found out it's made by the same material as Michelangelo's David. Wow, it must have taken a few days to finish all those statues. The kids are not so excited about checking out another cold and dark church so decided to head out.

6pm - In complete frustration, the group decided to go shopping. Bad move for the pocket. . With the help of GPS and some road signs (ok hardly any that helped) we found I Gigli - a GIANT American-style mall that is actually rather un-american in design details. I have NEVER seen a mall with more people except on Dec 26 in Valley Fair. You have to take out a weapon to grab a parking space.

The ladies got some nice wool clothes for the kids while men watched our kids playing at a 5 Euro jump house (that's right US$30 gone for the lousiest commercial jumphouse I've ever seen) with a bunch of super-charged, WWF-qualifying Italian children whose proud parents must think they are grooming the future Luca Toni.

Mr. MC then found what he's here to find - cheap and good wine - at Panorama supermarket. This is like a Super Walmart - it has like 40 cashiers and it carries everything from cradle to grave under good giant roof. The food sections are huge and fun to shop at. We got olive oil, vinager and wine there - especially the discounted Brunello (YES they actually exist) at 12 euros. SWEET! I don't feel so bad about missing the Uffizi anymore....

To complete the visit, we had some REAL gelatos at the mall at a supposedly famous chain Ice, It. It's cheap - 1.3 Euro for a two-scoop small, and it's not bad. Not as smooth as the others, more like ice cream in America, taste great nevertheless. We're now ready to head back to the ecologically-sound city of Florence.

10am - We did a usual tourist route - Duomo (well because it just on our way to anywhere from the hotel) => Mercato Nuovo (not for souvenirs - just to see the pig) => Piazza Signora => Uffizi (hey need some pictures of the outside at least) => Ponte Vecchio. Passed by the most tourisy street and had one last gelato (not so great - had to have it because we used their restroom).

4pm - 3 hours later, we were informed that all flights in and out of Florence have been cancelled, we are rebooked to a flight from Bologna AND the last bus to Bologna is gone. Time to find the internet - YEAH right, the airport hardly has a working restroom - intenet my foot! We managed to pick up a rental minivan (note the word "mini") and we're heading to Bologna.

Look to your right - would you rather be in this nicely "compact", chaotic and nothing-works Florence "international" airport.....

..... or this bright, spacious and shiny Bologna airport (which is nice and big but very old)?? 

6 pm - After a fun afternoon at the airport, it's time for us to get some food. This Bologna town looks more like an industrial suburb in the Midwest. We drove around and following the recommendation of the hotel front desk we got to this little family-run place. This is a depressing pizzaria with an obviously anxious-looking owner who's never seen this many Chinese people in his life. The pizzas and pasta are not bad, but what's the deal with the 3.5 euro coke (that my friend had to have to relieve himself from his headache)? Also, despite of all warning signs I had to try their dessert. OUCH, another mistake, that was the worst bread pudding I've had in my life.

10am - My friend and I went alone to fill up the tank in the car and get a backpack for the 12 bottles of wine I got. We went to this really HUUUUUUGE supermarket with 50 checkout cashiers (seriously big, bigger than the last one we went to - it's as big or bigger than the biggest walmart!!!).