A VISIT TO THE HILL TOWN OF SAN GIMIGNANO

On our second day we took the bus to San Gimignano, a small walled medieval hill town known as the City of Fine Towers. The streets are narrow and the buildings quite tall.

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Along the outer wall of the City

In the Piazza Della Cisterna

 

And here is the cisterna (well)

 

The Collegiata, consecrated in 1148

There are a large number of towers in the city.  Originally there were seventy two but only fifteen survive today.  There is just one you can climb to the top, the Terra Grossa.  Quite a climb it was.

The Terra Grossa, which is part of the Palazzo del Popolo

View from the top looking down on the Piazza Della Cisterna from the Terra Grossa

A view over the city to the West

A view to the North

A closer view of the cisterna

Looking down on one of the narrow cavernous streets

The Rocca, an old fortress with one surviving tower (back right) built in 1353

A close up of the tower at the Rocca

A rather charming doorway

Sant'Agostina, a typical hall-like structure

In the cloisters at Sant'Agostina

Six of the towers

 And one more

Sant'Agostina from the tower at the Rocca

It was very hot day and time to take a rest in the Rocca grounds

It was time to catch the bus back to Siena which we managed with a change at Poggibonsi, always a challenge in a foreign country.

 A DAY OUT IN THE TUSCAN HILLS

On our third day in Tuscany we went walking in the lovely countryside.  We took the local bus the the hill-town of Monteriggioni.  This hill-town is about half an hour north of Siena.  It is a small town with a very well preserved wall around the town.  The guide book states" the walls apart, there are no sights bar a pretty Romanesque church - just the long views over the Tuscan countryside"  All true.

The small town square

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The "pretty Romanesque church"

Monteriggioni as we started out on the walk

We had managed to buy a map of the area we were going to be walking in and this included the footpaths created by the CAI - the Alpine Club of Italy.  We also had a description of the potential walk from the book "Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria" which included an outline map and fairly detailed instructions.  These were helpful, although we took a wrong turning at one point but the good map got us to where we wanted to be on an alternative set of paths.  One problem was that the CAI paths were well marked most of the time with red and white numbers but every so often the numbers on the detailed map and the written instructions differed from each other and from reality.   One other helpful thing we did before we left was to look at the proposed route on Google Earth and we had an IPad with us as well on the holiday, although there wasn't WiFi where we were walking!

Looking back to Monteriggioni as we climbed away from the town

On top of a watch tower to take the previous photograph.  It proves we were really there.

A distant view of Siena on the walk

The little church at Colle Ciupi (a hamlet and chapel with deteriorating frescoes inside (true again))

Holiday rental accommodations in Colle Ciupi

Charming front doors

Poppies on the walk

Always lovely flowers

Another view of Siena as we neared the end of the walk

The end point of the walk was the little village of Santa Columba.  We had researched the bus times and there was just one bus back to Siena that afternoon, so we had to catch it.  As we were finishing the walk the storm clouds began to gather.  We reached the village in good time and in the dry but it was obvious that the heavens were about to open.  At its scheduled time the bus appeared and went flying past us and disappeared up the road.  No problem however as it was going to turn around somewhere up the road, out of sight, and come back to pick us up on its way back.  There were two other passengers and we took off at great speed along narrow Tuscan lanes.  The tiny bus rattled along in the opposite direction from were we wanted to go but it dropped off the two passengers seemingly at the back of beyond showing us a lot more of the local countryside before it rattled its was back towards Siena at even greater speed.  It reached the outskirts of Siena and twisted and turned along narrow streets to eventually reach the bus station. A ride of a least an hour for about $2 or about 1.5 GBP, an amazing bargain.

One problem faced us as we got off the bus, it was still pouring with rain so we made a dash into a nearby gelato shop to shelter.  It was fairly obvious that the rain was going to last a while so we put on our rain gear and made our way back to the apartment.

Time for a nice meal in a pleasant restaurant at a very reasonable price.  It had been a lovely day out.

Our final day was spent in Florence.  We took the bus since we were going the take the train there the next day as we left Italy for Switzerland.  The travel times are much the same.  We had booked to visit the famous Uffizi Gallery which houses some of the world's most famous paintings and draws very large crowds.  We had booked ahead because we knew that you can wait up to an hour and a half in a queue otherwise.  In fact you still have to queue to exchange your ticket voucher for a real ticket but that wait was only about ten minutes so we were ahead of the game.  One risk you take with the Uffizi is that they are always changing things around and many of the galleries are closed.  This was the case on our visit but there was still lots to marvel at. 

We had been to Florence twice before and had seen much of what it has to offer so we were able to take things at a more leisurely pace. We visited the large market and the Duomo and bought a leather wallet and change purse to replace some rather battered old ones. Leather goods are a Florence speciality.  Back to the bus station to catch the Siena bus home.  This nearly turned out to be a bit of a disaster as we got on what we thought was the right bus out of many and a last minute look at the front told us we were never going to get to Siena that way.  

One final excellent meal and we were ready to pack for our morning departure to Lucerne in Switzerland.

LUCERNE

In our planning for the trip one of us wanted to visit Tuscany again (Robin) and the other (Ruth) wanted to visit Switzerland.  We had travelled through Switzerland once before on a holiday to Paris and Venice but although we were travelling by train we didn't stop for more than a short while in Zurich to change trains.

Leaving early we took a taxi to the station to catch the train to Florence.  The two car train was fairly full as we left but at every station more and more people got in and it was really crowded by the time we reached Florence.  Rather poor planning on Italian Railways part.  However, the next leg was much more successful.  The tickets had been bought months before when they are at their cheapest and we travelled in premium class for the same price as a regular ticket,  That meant we got newspapers we couldn't read but coffee we could drink.  The train was a Frecciarossa, a streamlined high speed train, the fastest on Italian Railways.  The train was very smooth and very comfortable and they run on a few limited lines built especially for their use alone.  There was just one stop at Bologna before we reached Milan where we were due to switch to Swiss Railways. 

The new line from Florence to Bologna is quite remarkable in that it duplicates the old line but is almost entirely in tunnels. The line is 78.5 km long and includes 73.8 km of tunnels, nine in all with just 3.6 km on embankment or in cutting and 1.1 km on viaduct in the open.  It travels at 200 km/hr on this part of the journey which takes 35 minutes.

The second leg to Milan is 200 km and takes one hour and two minutes at 300 km/hr for much of the trip.  The train is so smooth you have no idea that you are travelling that quickly and clearly no-one would ever dream of flying.

The stop in Milan was fairly short and we boarded the next train to Lucerne.  The is one of the classic railway journeys as it travels through the Swiss Alps through the St. Gotthard tunnel.  This tunnel was built in 1881-1891 and is 15 km in length. It will be replaced in 2016 by the new base tunnel and that is going to be fifty-seven km in length. As a result the climb up to the tunnel is much less arduous than that to the original tunnel and it will allow much heavier and longer trains to travel through it.  It promises to shorten the time between major stops by quite a large margin.  One other reason for this is that the original tunnel has a series of spiral loops into the mountain which limit the length and weight of the trains that use it.  One sad note is that these advantages will deny the traveller the pleasure of seeing the magnificent mountain and valley scenery that is is so evident on the old line.  We were happy to travel in 2013 not 2016.

Our train was direct to Lucerne and we reached the end of the journey in under five pleasurable hours.  We had booked a hotel within a short walking distance of the station and we were soon checked in and ready for the evening.  The hotel was very close to the river and the famous Chapel Bridge.

The Chapel Bridge in Lucerne

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Lucerne is surrounded by mountains and the most prominent is Pilatus, it forms a backdrop to the city.

Mount Pilatus

You can get to the top by funicular or gondola.  We had many other options available to us so that we didn't reach the top of Pilatus.

We had our evening meal and looked around the old town which was across the river. One thing was immediately apparent, Switzerland is very is expensive compared to everywhere else had been.

We had four days to explore the region.

 A DAY ON LAKE LUCERNE

Lucerne stands at the western end of Lake Lucerne, the fourth largest in the country.  This lake has an irregular shape, basically a right angle with some side arms. It is thirty kilometres in length from Lucerne in the west to Fluelen to the south-east.  One feature of the lake is a large fleet of pleasure steamers that ply up and down the lake.  The principal operator has five paddlewheel steamboats and fifteen motorboats.  The oldest paddlewheeler was launched as long ago as 1901, the "youngest" was launched in 1928.   

An older paddlewheeler now converted into a floating restaurant

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We decided to spend our first full day on the lake.  There is an hourly service from Lucerne to Fluelen and you can get off and on as many times as you like on the one ticket.  The journey time from Lucerne to Fluelen is just under four hours.  We had an excellent buffet breakfast at the hotel and caught the paddlewheeler leaving just after nine o'clock.  We went the whole way to Fleulen arriving just before noon.  Our ship was the Gallia, built in 1913 and renovated in 2004.  It was in quite remarkable condition and you might have thought it had just been launched.  The working parts were visible and they were as clean as a whistle driving the paddles.

Mount Pilatus from the boat

Passing one of the motorboats in the fleet, the Rigi

The village of Bauen

The paddle steamer Gallia at Fleulen

The Gallia

Typical Lake Lucerne scenery

Fleulen is on the St. Gotthard Railway and we passed through there the day before.  Standing at the station you can see just how much rail traffic there is and much of it is heavy freight.  It makes it obvious why they decided to build the second tunnel.  We had a nice lunch in Fluelen enjoying goulash soup and we came to realise that it is a staple part of the Swiss diet.  

Back on the next steamboat, this time the Uri built in 1901, the oldest in the fleet but you wouldn't know it.  We decided to get off at one of the intermediate ports, Beckenreid.  As it was a very warm day we enjoyed sitting on the lake-side just watching the world go by and having a nice cup of tea and a glass of beer. Our last leg back to Lucerne was on one of the motorboats, the Brunnen.

We were back in time to seek out another restuarant, this one in the old part of the town.  As we ate we were treated to an alpenhorn band.  There were about fifteen players in the wandering alpenhorn band and they made a great sound.  You can hear a typical alpenhorn band on  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6qy8RVo4v4

After their performance they all enjoyed large glasses of beer, ladies and gentlemen alike.  We found that beer was just about the cheapest drink available.

INTERLAKEN, THE JUNGFRAU, THE EIGER AND GRINDELWALD

The weather had been good every day and for our second full day we went into the mountains.  There are two separate railways systems in the region of Lucerne, the main Swiss Railways system, the SBB-CFF-FFS and the Zentralbahn.  The former is on standard gauge but the latter is on a narrower gauge, one metre.  The Zentralbarn is centered on Lucerne and its principal line runs to Interlaken in the Bernese Oberland.  Although on a narrow gauge the carriages are not noticeably smaller.

The line runs through the Breunig Pass to Meiringen where it reverses and then travels alongside Lake Brienz.  Interlaken sits between Lake Brienz and Lake Thun.  There are a number of steep sections on the line, the Bruenig Pass being the most formidable, and as a result the electric locomotive runs on a rack for the steeper sections.  It does this seemlessly and you aren't aware of the transition unless you are looking down at the track.  It was a lovely ride.

At Interlaken we switched onto the Bernese Oberland Bahn. With typical Swiss efficiency the train from Lucerne connects directly to this one metre line which took us to Lauterbrunnen. We got off there and connected immediately with the Wengenalpenbahn.  This is a two feet seven and a half inch rack railway that took us to our final destination, Kleine Scheidegg.  Although the trains runs to a timetable it looked as if on our visit they sent a train up when it was full.  It was really busy.  This line was quite amazing as it was very steep for much of the trip.  We passed several other trains on our way up and were even overtaken by one in a passing loop.

The station at Lauterbrunnen with a train on the Wengenalpenbahn

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 As we left Lauterbrunnen

                                

   Typical mountain scenery 

The rack 

 

Mountains in every direction 

 

Looking back towards Lauterbrunnen

Back towards Wengen

In the region there are railways and cable cars.  The map shows the system centered on Kleine Scheidegg

Lauterbrunnen is at the bottom right.  The train ran to Wengen, Allmend and Wengenalp on its way to Kleine Scheidegg in the centre of the photo.  Two lines run from Kleine Scheidegg.  One, the Jungfraubahn, goes to the Jungfrau.  Much of the journey is inside the mountain, emerging at an underground station building near the summit. 

The Jungfraubahn loading with passengers for the run to the summit station

The other line is a continuation of the Wengenalpenbahn and runs down to Grindelwald, on the left hand side of the map photo.

The train on the left has just come up from Lauterbrunnen.  The one on the right has arrived from Grindelwald and is about the return there 

The summit of the Jungfrau (13,462 ft)  is the peak just to the right of centre.  The peak to the left is the Monch (14,474 ft).

The summit station, the Top of Europe (11,332 ft) is just to the left of the summit of the Jungfrau

It was lunchtime when we arrived at Kleine Scheidegg station, so we found a little cafe with a view of the mountains and had goulash soup (again).  The plan was the walk down in  the direction of Grindelwald following the line of the railway knowing that we could always stop at one of the stations to finish the journey.  We weren't the only walkers and we met a number coming up the hill.

The start of the walk down

Kleine Scheidegg is situated at the foot of 10 km wall of mountains that include the Jungfrau, the Monch and the famous Eiger.

The Eiger to the left and the Monch to the right

 

The north face of the Eiger

On the way down

Looking back to the Jungfrau

There a were a few signs on the track.  Grindelwald is in the valley ahead

There were some lovely flowers

A water trough for the animals, our path stretched ahead

A mountain stream

A fine mountain view

The train from Grindelwald on the way up the hill

And one coming down

We passed by the station of Alpiglen and continued onto Brandegg.  By this time we felt he had done enough walking and we knew that the last leg into Grindelwald was a little more difficult so we waited for the next train down, they run every thirty minutes, and got to Grindelwald.  There we connected almost immediately with the Bernese Oberland Bahn to get back to Interlaken.  The Lucerne train runs every two hours so we had a short time at the station, time for an ice-cream.

Another very successful day out.