Tuscany 2014

Mountains, vinyards, olive groves, towers.

Tuscany is famed for its scenery, wine, historic sites, beaches and sunshine, as well as making its own contributions to popular Italian cuisine. Whether it is the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or the wild mountains of its nature reserves, it serves as one of the major Italian tourist destinations. Still, it is possible to get to a number of little historic villages where you can get a dose of the local culture without feeling like the place only exists to serve tourists.

Our short visit was to attend a wedding, but we took the chance to visit some of the local sights too.

For those who are familiar with my galleries; I normally stitch all of my panoramas by hand using an image editor - this allows me a little more control about where the stitches will be, and means I can minimise the amount of image area that will be cropped off at the end. Overlaps and errors can be hidden in all of the natural noise. However, with architecture, hand-stitching is much harder, since the images need to be curved perfectly to avoid abrupt angle changes. For this gallery, the panoramas of buildings were stitched using Microsoft ICE, an automatic panorama stitching application. A few little errors needed to be corrected afterwards (duplicate shadows or incorrect angles), but the stitching is much better than others I have tried. It even seemed to detect people that walked into more than one of the frames, and only allowed them to appear once in the final panorama, without leaving any ghosts or partial-people.

• Approaching the Ötztal Alps in Österreich (Austria). This is possibly the Kaunergrat group, topping out at Watzespitze (3533 metress).
• Gurgler Ferner glacier on Hochwilde (3482 metres) and Karlesspitze (3465 metres), in the Schnalskamm group.
• Main part of the Ötztal Alps, where we cross the border from Österreich (Austria) into Italia (Italy). Weißkugel (3739 metres, coated in the Langtauferer Ferner, Bärenbartferner and Matscher Ferner glaciers) is at the bottom of the picture (the tallest in the range is Wildspitze, 3774 metres, hidden behind the jet). The first valley contains the long Hintereisferner glacier, while the second has some smaller ones known as Hochjochferner on its far ridge. Just beyond them, in a valley pointing to the right, is where Ötzi the 5000 year old iceman was found. In the distance is the Gurgler Ferner glacier, with the Marzellferner and Schalf-Ferner glaciers in between. On the top-left (looking like clouds) are the Stubai Alps, topping out at Zuckerhütl (3507 metres).
• The Alps stretching off into the West. The large white group at the top-left is probably the Bernina Range, topping out at Piz Bernina (4049 metres), another part of the Österreich/Italia border.
• Probably the Ortler Alps, with the top at Ortler (3905 metres).
• Secchia (sounds like "sek kya") river, one of many large rivers draining the Tuscan-Emilian Appenines.
• Farmland around the Lago di Bilancino reservoir.
• Landing at Firenze (Florence - the proper Italian name sounds like "Fee-rine-tseh").
• Looking towards Sesto Fiorentino. The mountain behind it is Monte Morello (934 metres tall), but is not named on many regular maps. After all, it's just a little hill.
• Church tower on a hill, at Sant'Alessandro a Giogoli, near the A1, southeast of Firenze.
• Main road south of Tavarnuzze. Our Italian friends had warned us about Italian drivers. We were told that it is common for people to double or triple park you in, but never saw it happen. However, they lived up to everything else. We almost never saw one use an indicator correctly. We almost never saw one obey a speed limit, 90 KPH in a 40 KPH zone was completely normal. Any driving mistakes (eg. a slow start at a junction) and they would sit behind with their hand on the horn. And need I mention gangs of scooters overtaking on either side? What fun.
• Hilltop villages over the Greve valley. In the distance is the Vallombrosa Forest, with the visible hills around 1500 metres high.
• Vinyards at the tiny village of Romita, near Tavarnelle in Val di Pesa, looking over the Pesa valley.
• Approaching Tavarnelle.
• Tavarnelle in Val di Pesa overlooking the Torrente Agliena valley. On the next ridge, to the right of the tall tree, the lighter patch is Petrognano, where we were heading.
• Torrente Agliena, seen from Barberino Val d'Elsa.
• So many times, the Italian drivers were so close behind us it felt like they were in the car with us. To make it worse, except on the motorway there were no road signs saying which lanes go where, and no direction signs until the last moment, so everyone changes lanes at the last second 30 cm in front of you (we avoided sudden lane changes by previewing the entire route on Street View, but that doesn't help the other drivers). This is what happens when they inevitably can't react fast enough to the actions of the car in front.
• Barberino Val d'Elsa, a village with buildings 1000 years old, but with the majority up to 800 years old.
• Porta Fiorentina, gateway to the village.
• Ornaments on a house in Via Francesco da Barberino.
• And a postbox with its own doors and windows.
• This is not a prison door, it is someone's house.
• When windows are not needed, they make no attempt to seemlessly hide them. The arch is kept as a historical record.
• Porta Senese Romana, the other gateway.
• Via Vittorio Veneto.
• I guess this arch wasn't needed any more either.
• Tunnel towards the church door.
• Arched alley connecting the streets.
• Doors so heavy they cannot hold their own weight.
• Crooked streets and arches.
• Shrine hidden in an arch.
• Narrow, crooked alleyways.
• Church of San Bartolomeo, dominating the view of the village.
• View of the Borro di Migliorini and distant Borro delle Drove valleys from Barberino Van d'Elsa.
• Tignano, a typical hilltop village.
• Italian cars are famed for being among the most powerful road cars; Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, and even Alfa Romeo and Lancia make some sports cars. And then there's this Fiat 500; a triumph of Italian engineering.
• View over the Rio Bozzone valley. The hill in the distance is Poggio del Comune (624 metres, sometimes mistakenly stated as 537 metres), and San Gimignano (where we will visit later) sits just in front of it. On the right is Petrognano-Semifonte.
• Petrognano (sounds like "Petron-yano"). The traditional-looking buildings are in fact new-build, but to keep the Tuscan character, new buildings are made to match their older counterparts.
• Shrine at Petrognano.
• Double doors, actually old, not a new build.
• Like an artwork on their own.
• Barns.
• Even a bricked up window on a barn cannot afford to look ugly.
• 900 years ago, Semifonte was a tiny fortified city, but virtually all of it was knocked down 100 years later. These walls are a little newer. The village still keeps the reference in its name Petrognano-Semifonte, but the current village is really just the Petrognano part.
• More fortifications. Incidentally, this is where we were rather abruptly forced off the road by a dustcart - you have no choice, you will get out of the way even if there is nowhere to go. The car failed to restart, so we were able to enjoy the Italian car horn from the driver behind us.
• The hobbit-hole door has been filled.
• Lovely old doors. Horrible new cement.
• Large barns.
• No escape.
• Fencing in Petrognano.
• I am invisible. You cannot see me.
• A male Italian wall lizard. These are a close relative of the British common lizard and slow worm, but far less shy. They could be seen everywhere in the countryside, warming on rocks, paths and (of course) walls. Despite having tiny claws instead of sticky feet, they could climb the rough walls as well as any gecko.
• Scarce swallowtail butterfly, sitting on the most vile-smelling plant.
• The Borro Vergaia valley, with Poggio del Comune in the background.
• The high walls of San Gimignano (sounds like "san jim-in-yanno"). This is a medieval walled town, in an incredibly well preserved state, and a famed UNESCO World heritage site. On the right here is one of the basions (more a short tower than a bastion, but due to their height they are called bastione in Italian).
• San Gimignano is famed for its incredible medieval towers, 16 (or 14, if you don't count both twins of twin towers) in total, visible from a great distance over the surrounding countryside.
• Chiesa di Sant'Agostino, a 800 year old church, as well as being one of the enormous villas in the town.
• The bell tower, which apparently does not count as one of the medieval towers.
• Piazza Sant'Agostino.
• 9 of the towers, seen from the piazza; Torre del Diavolo, Torre Rognosa, Torre Chigi, Torre Pettini, the twin Torri dei Salvucci, Casa-torre Pesciolini, Torre Grossa and Campanile della Collegiata.
• Chimneys trying very hard to be towers.
• Via San Matteo, one of the main streets.
• Arched alley.
• Alley bridges, seemingly structural, to tie buildings together.
• Shutters.
• Decorative arches.
• Della Cancelleria, a double arch, with Torre Rognosa, Torre Pettini and one of the Torri dei Salvucci towers. On the left is Palazzo Cancelleria, one of many palaces.
• The edge of Torre Pettini, all of Torre Chigi and Torre Rognosa.
• Torre Chigi and Torre Rognosa.
• Torri dei Salvucci. Built and owned by the most important family in the town, these were originally taller than most of the towers in the town (only Torre Grossa might have been taller), but are now significantly shorter, as they had violated a height restriction.
• Piazza del Duomo, one of the most famous sights. On the left is one of the Torri degli Ardinghelli towers, followed by Palazzo del Popolo, then Torre Grossa. Torre Grossa is the tallest of the towers, at 54 metres, built in 1311. On the right is Collegiata, the largest church in the town. Despite looking like a wide angle photograph, this is actually a panorama of 7 images.
• Campanile della Collegiata, bell tower of the church.
• Piazza del Duomo, a 7 image panorama. Both Torri dei Salvucci towers, Torre Pettini, Torre Chigi (from 1280), Torre Rognosa (second tallest, at 51 metres), Torre del Diavolo and one of the Torri degli Ardinghelli twins.
• Via Costarella, with a strange dragon ornament on a wire.
• Archway from the upper piazza.
• Vaulted ceiling of the arch.
• Upper piazza of Palazzo Pellari, with Torre di Palazzo Pellari.
• Window in the upper piazza.
• Torre Rognosa and Torre Grossa from the upper piazza.
• Palazzo del Popolo arch looking from Piazza del Duomo into Piazza Della Cisterna.
• Piazza Della Cisterna, a 6 image panorama, with Torre del Diavolo on the left, the cisterna well in the middle, and Torre dei Becci on the right
• Ivy on Palazzo Tortoli.
• Cisterna.
• Torre dei Becci and Torre dei Cugnanesi. The Torre Campatelli and Torre Ficherelli o Ficarelli towers lie beyond these, but we did not visit or see those.
• The twin Torri degli Ardinghelli towers, with Torre Grossa behind them.
• Torre del Diavolo. The supports suggest that it might have once had arches above them, supporting a raised walkway.
• Dragon-like sculpture on the other giant villa.
• View from the town, as we prepare to leave.
• Via Vergine, and our visit is over.
• Firenze airport (another auto-stitched panorama), with La Calvana (about 800 metres) and Monte Morello.
• We fly home with a very confused airline.

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