Saint Jimmy Johns

Which is so much easier to say than San Gimignano.
We found the tourists! There were soooo many busses and cars that ALL if the parking lots were full. That said, I could see why. This is the Disney version of Tuscany - downright perfect.
This village's claim to fame is its towers - between 13-15, depending on who counts them. We had lunch in the main square, sitting in the (yea, finally!) sunshine. Then we discovered a tiny antique fair in the next piazza and I got myself a couple of 1euro treasures.
Joining the herd, we meandered the streets, snapping photos, peeking into alleyways, getting a few trinkets and finishing with a gelato. Despite the crowds, I was feeling Tuscany.

Massa Marittima

This village was hosting a medieval fair over the weekend, so we thought we'd check it out. Unfortunately the events weren't beginning until 5:30pm, but the archers (crossbows, actually) were warming up and setting their sites for the upcoming contest. It was fun sitting on the church steps, eating pastries, watching people show up to watch the archers wearing their 'team' colors. There seem to have been four districts - dragons, lambs, burning tower and walled city. Adults were wearing scarves (square kind) and shirts and kids had those plus drums - all with their district's symbols on them.
Since the parade and contests weren't until later, we headed off to San Gimignano.

The Pope Has Some Cool Stuff

Today, our first day in Rome, we decided to go to the Vatican City to see the Vatican museums because the weather forecast was telling us it would rain. We started our day with a walk down to the metro station and rode it until the stop just outside of the Vatican. We got off the graffiti covered metro and walked up to the surface. This, however was easier said than done, there were tons of people and then on top of that there were vendors selling umbrellas clogging up the stairs. Once we finally did get out though it was not hard to find the Vatican, you can't miss the giant fortified walls around the entire place. We walked to what was obviously an entrance and went inside. We had bought tickets online and we got to skip the line (thank goodness). We walked right in and were soon shown a sign with a ton of museums, and no specific direction to go. After thinking for a while and getting a map of all the museums, we chose a direction. We first walked up a very crowded but very pretty stairwell until we reached the first door on the side, the beginning of the Egyptian museum. It was pretty crowded but not as bad as the stairwell. We looked at some mummies and some hieroglyphs. I liked the canopic jars that hold the mummy's organs. We walked into a room with many statues, some of which were the Roman's idea of an Egyptian statue. I enjoyed telling the real ones from the Roman.
 We walked through this and into some other museums. One of the best was the room with a mosaic floor and statues surrounding the room, including one that was struck by lightning and so the Romans buried it. The room had a big dome and was circular, the pope ordered it to be built like an ancient Roman villa. Then we went to the Raphael rooms, I had not known that the School of Athens was here, and that it was a fresco! I enjoyed seeing how in this painting he depicted Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, as well as himself! It was pretty cool. After walking through the other rooms we started following the signs to the Sistine Chapel and we walked through a gallery to get there. In this gallery there were many famous artists including Chagall and Matisse, the Matisse pieces were huge, taking up whole walls, and people, so focused on the Sistine Chapel, were walking right past them, it was kind of sad really. we continued to the Sistine though, and it was absolutely unbelievable. We spent a while just staring at it and the last judgement on the wall. So many people. I find it mind boggling to think that Michelangelo spent ages up on scaffolding painting those all by himself. He must have had amazing patience.
 We left the Sistine and went first to lunch, the Vatican has a cafeteria and a pizzeria, we chose to go to the pizzeria. When we walked in we noticed that there was a Nutella stand in the shape of a Nutella jar! I t was pretty awesome. They gave us triangular plates for our slices, they had a tomato wearing a crown on them. They accidentally gave us each a few and I'm bringing the extras home for my friends. Yay, papal paper pizza plates!!!!!!! We went next to the Pinacoteca, the Pope's picture gallery.. We saw some amazing paintings, many by Raphael, and even an unfinished work of Leonardo Da Vinci. We soon after left the Vatican and went to Saint Peter's Basilica, the world center of the catholic church. When we got there there was a huge line but someone told us that it was only actually going to take a little while. We got in line and were inside in about 30 minutes. As soon as I walked in though, I was in awe. The scale alone was enough, let alone the sculptures, or frescoes. We first went to our right and saw Michelangelo's Pieta, I was amazed that it was just kinda there. You looked in that direction and there it was. After we saw the rest of the amazing cathedral we walked out and saw the Swiss guards in full uniform. Their uniforms are purple red and yellow, they are pretty funny looking. We were lucky and arrived at the perfect time to see the changing of the guard. It was pretty cool, they made some grunty noises, changed pikes, replaced one of the guards, and returned to position. After we watched them, we left Saint Peter's and went back in the direction of the apartment. Underneath our apartment there was a small snacky place where we got some hand pizzas and some juice and went to bed.

Tuscan Landscapes

Wet Tuscany

So those Cortona storms didn't stop. By the time we got to our next town, Montepulciano, the rain got serious. Soooo, churches sure do look like a great (dry) place to visit! We found our way into a few - one was preparing for a wedding, with ladies tying big bunches of baby's breath onto the pews. We did a quick wander, but the streets were mostly deserted and shops and restaurants were locked up for 'siesta'. We did hear one British couple grumble 'we came all this bloody way for a (h)ot dog...' as they walked by.
So back into the car for Pienza - which had been planned by a past pope as a utopian village. So we called it the Popetastic Popatopia. More rain. Lots. We bought some funny boar tshirts and swam back to the car.
Montalcino - the sun!!! That's the sun! The big draw of this village is a castle that does wine tastings. Unfortunately it was too chilly to sit outside where G could have a good run and inside was like inviting the bull into the china shop. Oh well. But what happens the moment we step back outside? Yup. Major thunderstorm. The temperature drops so far, so quickly that we find ourselves in a hailstorm mixed with snow. Yes, snow. End of May, in Tuscany.
Time to call it a day and find our castle. We ate at the only restaurant in the village, a little pizzeria, which was fabulous. We hunkered down and in the morning, the storms had finally passed.