Simply Camryn: Fifth Day in Italy: Florence

Hey all! Today was an amazing day but not from the beginning. My mom woke me up at around 7:00 am our time, ( Around 1:00 am U.S time) I was sooooooo tired! But after I got up and started to move around, I was ready to go! Today was the day that we did the thing that I was looking forward to the most. Walkabout: Best of Tuscany Bus Tour. Ohhh myyy goodnesss was this tour amazing! Unbelievable! I would recommend it to anyone! We started our day off on the bus with our tour guide, Alex. (He is actually from Seattle...finally someone who's English I can understand!) He was very nice. We had a nice family of four in front of us from Boston, honeymooners behind us, and people with British accents on our left. Nice little group. We first drove up past beautiful countryside to Siena. Now, one of my favorite book series (River of Time series by Lisa T Bergren. Totally read it!) Is based there. I was super excited to see actual churches right from my book. I wasn't disappointed. Can I just say that I want to LIVE THERE!!!!!! Gorgeous town, nice people, beautiful buildings, and awesome restaurants. Best. Town. Ever!!!! From there we headed to a winery up in the beautiful Tuscan countryside. I cannot even begin to explain the beauty. Rolling hills, countless grape plants, olive trees. SO PRETTY!!!!! (I posted pics...I just had to.) We had a deliciously hearty lunch and toured around this family run farm. After that we headed over to San Gimigianno. This small little town in the mountains is surrounded by a huge wall that closes at night. So cool! I posted more pics of this town. We then headed over to Pisa. Ahhhh Pisa. This is a seriously cool town. We took a train over to the town because our bus couldn't fit through the entrance. Fun :)
Now, the leaning tower of Pisa seriously leans. I always knew this but never saw it in person. Wow. It looks like it could fall any minute. We took one of those pics that you pretend to be holding up Pisa and shopped around a little bit. There is also a Cathedral there that is also leaning. Such a pretty town. Such a leaning tower. Cool!!
Then, we boarded the bus and drove back to Florence. An awesome day!!
Facts: Did you know that Siena is divided into 17 districts (kinda like the Hunger Games.) Each of these districts has an animal (i.e. Snail, Wave, Boar etc.) Twice every year, they do a 90 second horse race called Paialo (I think that's how you spell it.) Each district competes for a banner with the Virgin Mary on it. Afterwards the winning district has parties and waves flags with their emblem in it. Cool.