Cities and Towns of Italy

Driving and stopping here and there on the tour bus - after a while, you realize that you've seen a lot!  While we have been in Florence, here are a few of the cities and towns we have visited - I will write about Florence in the next postings:

NAPLES:
After Pompeii, we traveled further south to visit Naples.  Our tour guide explained that this city's recovery after WWII was not as progressive as the No. Italian cities, but it was moving itself forward, albeit perhaps a bit more slowly than necessary:

PISA:
On Wednesday, we traveled to Pisa. Very much a touristy town, Pisa is also the home  of the Pinocchio story and the famous leaning tower.  The leaning tower was recently restored and shored up to last another few centuries - with the cleaning you can now see  the beautiful marble and artistry.  What was a particular surprise to Mark and me was that the tower was part of a large Duomo and Bapistery - for some reason, we thought it stood all by itself, but is an important part of the Piazza del Duomo.

SAN GIMIGNANO:
On Friday, we traveled to Tuscany to the beautiful hill town of San Gimignano which has local crafts and art stores in its narrow ancient alleyways, along with cafes and gelato shops. 

SIENA:
Just beyond San Gimignano in Tuscany is Siena, the arch-rival of Florence - unfortunately for Siena, Florence kept winning the battles relating to banking, trade, and military power.  Siena has a huge Il Campo square that hosts a no-holds-barred horse race each July and August.  During its Middle Ages competition with Florence, Siena embarked on building the world's largest Catholic cathedral, but with black death taking out most of the population, Siena was unable to achieve this goal, but what it did achieve was a beautiful Duomo (church):