Touring Tuscany: Siena, Cortona & Chianti (again)

Another travel post! This one is from my trip to other parts of the Tuscan region of Italy (besides my home away from home, Florence). Follow along below!

Siena

First stop on our tour was the beautiful city of Siena. From the churches lined with history (like a piece of Jesus's cross - how crazy is that??) to the square where Quantum of Solace (the James Bond movie) was filmed! I had no idea this city had so much history within it. I also now get why there's a color called "Siena Brown" since a lot of the building are the same reddish-brown color!

One of the oldest banks in the country

The Square

Fun Fact: Families in Siena used to each belong to a "clan" of sorts that each had a mascot of an animal - think of it like a predecessor to neighborhoods. Each house would have the animal on the outside of their house present (statue, flag, etc) and it was a big deal when a child was born. They would be christened into their symbol by a basin with the matching animal on it (see one of the basins for christening pictured above). The city would have a race every year around the city and each animal would have a team to cheer for - putting ribbons on their houses for decoration to cheer them on!

Amazing dessert - the creme puff was so good! 

The little cookie next to it is a specialty of Siena.

View from our hotel - one of the prettiest ones I went to in all of Italy!

Relic of the Cross

Cortona

This town is known as the location for the movie Under the Tuscan Sun - my roommates and I actually watched it before we went and it helped get a feel of the city a bit more!

Chianti Region (round 2)

We toured a castle that got turned into a vineyard and the grounds were so beautiful as well as the wines and food we tried!

Fresh Rosemary

Lemon Trees

Tried a Chianti & a Super-Tuscan - I approved of both! The salami & prosciutto were great too along with the olive oil we tried on the bread later.

Cantucci with Vin Santo

That's it for now, see you in the next post!

The Venetian Islands + Venice Round Two

Visiting Venice the second time around as well as the Venetian Islands was definitely better than the first. It was a lot less crowded and I really loved one of the islands - Burano - for its candy colored houses and sweet treats.

Here's all we visited!

Venice

Doge Palace

St. Mark's Basilica

Gondola Ride
* make sure to ride with 5 of your friends (six people max can ride & can split the $80 with each other!)

Grom Gelato
Such good flavors & rivals one of my Florence favorites: Edoardo's

Antico Brolo

We went to the cutest restaurant in Padova, near our hotel, the manager (seen above) was such a character taking our order and the food was amazing! If you're willing to spend a little more than normal, this place was a great find!

Burano

All the houses were so colorful and cheery here - I loved visiting it!
It was so quaint and the food was great, definitely recommend a trip if you haven't been.

 One place that we loved was Devil - specializing in Stromboli style sandwiches like the one above.
There was a line constantly out the door so we knew it had to be good (and it was)! I got the mushroom, sauce, and multiple cheese one and it was delicious!!

Another place we stopped at was Panificio - a local bakery run by a cute little old man.
This place had so many options and it was cheap too! These mini pistachio & chocolate filled cannoli were $1.50! When I go to the market - just one mini regular one is $2!! What a steal!

I hope you enjoyed seeing these little islands, got another post coming up about my country-hopping spring break.

Stay tuned!

Ciao for now!!