Holiday in Tuscany: 7. What to see & do
What to see and do in Tuscany is of course a highly subjective question, the answer depending on where your particular interests lie.
Luckily Tuscany has something to offer for everyone: there is both natural beauty (the famous Crete Senesi landscapes) and man-made beauty (the architecture, historic buildings, art), there is exquisite stuff to eat (I love Italian cuisine), and fantastic stuff to drink (the wines of the Chianti region and the area around Montalcino and Montepulciano), there’s the elegance of Italian fashion to shop for, and there are of course the beaches along the Mediterranean sea and the right weather to enjoy them.
So unless you are on a permanent vacation with unlimited funds, you will probably have to make a choice about what to see and do. We only had a meager six days, which is of course way to much even to do one of the above properly, so we decided to do a little bit of everything 
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Being interested in photography, we spent some time touring the countryside, stopping now and then to take pictures of the (truly amazing) landscape. We were staying in the Crete Senesi area, so we were right in the middle of the ‘typical’ Tuscan scenery of gently rolling hills dotted with cypress trees.
Our stay was also intended for relaxation however, so we didn’t really scout for locations or get up before sunrise to capture the morning mist caressing the valleys like the pros would do. Instead we combined our photography with other activities, such as visits to countryside towns.
This meant of course that we were seldom in the right location at the right moment to capture really stunning shots, we sort of had to make do with what we got whenever we got somewhere. If we passed a great scenic at high noon on our way to visit some other location, then our pictures of that place were with the midday sun right overhead (ouch – not really the most flattering light).
This approach of course has its drawbacks artistically speaking , and so we ended up not really taking that many pictures, and the ones we did take were far from masterpieces. The old adage still holds I guess: never combine your photography with your vacation, because the vacation will inevitably get in the way of your photography (or vice-versa, depending on how you look at it and where your preference lies).
Of course you can combine both as long as you can live with the compromise and are not too picky about the sort of pictures you will take home. I knew what I was in for, so didn’t expect to produce too much photographic art. Still, browsing through the pictures I did get, I can sense a slightly disappointed feeling about lost opportunities. But hey, instead I got a great vacation with the most wonderful woman this side of the milky way (I love you honey!), so I’m not really complaining 
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As a final note on our photographic activities, we were there in late July, which means that most of the crops were already harvested, and so the hills were mainly shades of golden yellow. It was a beautiful sight, but I sure would like to return in other seasons to see what they look like then – spring and autumn in that order to be precise.
Of course, photography is not all about nature and landscape, and Tuscany has other great visual stuff to offer. One thing I particularly liked was the architecture, with many buildings dating back to the thirteenth century. I was really impressed at how well complete town centres have been preserved throughout the centuries.
Every town, big or small, seems to have at least a few streets lined with beautiful old buildings. Absolutely magnificent to stroll around in, although a little harder to photograph, since those streets are not only very old but also very narrow, and for most of the day filled with hordes of colorfully clad tourists . Then there are also specific buildings to visit, like the Duomo in Siena or the one in Firenze: absolutely stunning inside and out. I also liked the old town square in Siena a lot, the Piazza del Campo, with its impressive bell-tower Torre del Mangia. Here’s a few late evening shots.
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- Torre del Mangia
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- Piazza del Campo
Besides architecture, Italy, and also Tuscany, is of course known for its art. There is an abundance of museums, large and small (with the Uffizi in Firenze being among the most famous). But you really don’t have to go to Firenze though to find art (although it does help of course ). Like with historic buildings, every town seems to have its own museum with local or regional (mostly historic) art.
We didn’t actually visit any of those, but we did encounter some beautiful frescos, on the walls of the atrium of the Abbey Monte Oliveto Maggiore. We stopped by the abbey on our way to Montalcino and, well-prepared as we usually are, arrived there during closing hour at noon (the abbey is closed for visitors between 12 and 15:15 – now you know, so at least you won’t have to wait for over an hour in the burning midday sun when you go there).
When we were finally allowed to enter, we couldn’t visit the chapel because a service was about to begin. So we ended up in the atrium, the walls of which are covered with religious frescos. We spent about an hour or so walking around admiiring the paintings, and took a lot of pictures of details of the frescos, trying to find nice compositions-within-compositions. J turns out to be very good at this – she found all the interesting details (mostly the devils and demons and their interactions with the monks) and managed to create a number of sublimely composted cutouts. Take a look at the gallery she set up in picasa here.
So we as you can see, we did indeed manage to cover art and architecture, landscape and photography in the few days we were there , but since this was also supposed to be a relaxing vacation, we also spent two full days at the swimming pool, so we didn’t have any time left to indulge in the other niceties of Tuscany – we didn’t get around to doing any decent shopping (although we certainly intended to), and as already mentioned, we only found some art to admire almost by accident in the monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore.
Finally, as I mentioned in one of the other posts, we also spent a day at the coast, in Cecina di Mare. But since it is such a long drive, I can’t really recommend it as a good way to spend your time in Tuscany if like us you are based in the Siena area, unless of course you have ample time and don’t mind spending a few hours in the car.
If you want an overview of our vacation schedule, check out J’s blog. Here’s the link to the exact blog entry, but her blog contains other posts about our holiday too (as well as other funny and interesting stuff), so please browse around a bit more when you get there.
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Tags: Art, Crete Senesi, fresco, Photography, Siena, summer, Tuscany
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