This is Pienza, a small walled hilltown built in the mid-1400s in the Tuscany region of Italy. In this photo you can see the white stone belltower and spire of the Pienza Cathedral rising up above the town. Photos used in this post are from a 2000 gardening tour of Tuscany. Pienza was our base location for the tour. Click on the mosaics to enlarge for better views.
From the left: side garden of Pienza Cathedral, the cathedral altar, flowers decorating the baptismal font where we saw a baby being christened on the day we toured,and the sandstone arches of Hotel Relais which was once a monastery and our base for the tour.
Pienza is such a small town that very little car traffic is allowed on the narrow stone and cobbled streets. Everywhere you walked the walls were decorated with flowers and live greenery:
On this tour we not only visited some fabulous gardens, we also traveled many miles each day through the Italian countryside and saw scenes for which Tuscany is known. First photo is a tour bus shot of the sheep whose milk is prized for making the classic Italian pecorino cheese--nice of them to be grazing in a field of wild poppies! In the last collage clockwise: 1. skinny cypress trees accent the hillside looking down into a valley, 2. fava beans growing in some of the reddest soil you've ever seen 3. an olive grove for the famous Italian olive oil, 4. wild poppy fields as far as the eye could see.
Linking to InSPIREd Sunday and Mosaic Monday .
(Blogger trubble! Kind first commenters, TexWisGirl and Eileen, have given me the heads up that the text is not showing up in this post without highlighting it (??) I am getting the text as well as photos so don't know what the deal is EXCEPT that Blogger has been giving me trouble--freezing up, etc.--for this entire post. Sorry for the glitch--just enjoy the photos! Faye)
your print is not showing up, but if folks highlight they can read it.
ReplyDeletei like the poppy fields and the stonework.
Tex, is right about your print not showing up and had a great idea to highlight. Lovely tour of Tuscany. I like the sheep and the poppy field is gorgeous. Have a happy week!
ReplyDeleteTexWG and Eileen--thanks so much for the heads up about post viewing problems. Blogger has been giving me fits this afternoon so not sure I can fix the problem. Hopefully others will follow your good idea--or just enjoy the photos. These scenes pretty much say "Italy", I think!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful buildings! Very scenic looking. I love the fields, too!
ReplyDeleteThe text might be hard to see but the photos are grand. I'd love to be heading to Tuscany!
ReplyDeleteoh good ... now that i found the comment section i see i am not the only one who is having reading issues.
ReplyDeletegorgeous views. just lovely. have a great week. ( :
gorgeous views of a place I would love to visit one day. I hope you fix up your print problem!
ReplyDeleteI am linking up to you through Mosaic Monday.