Chianti country. We jumped a train for an implusive day-trip from Manarola. Despite the return journey being an equivalent distance to the width of the country it was easily undertaken. Italian trains are good and the country is narrow. Mostly lovely countryside from the train - stereotypical Italian villages and farmland with mountain backdrops. Saw none of the wilderness such as we later saw in Croatia - human habitation was obvious everywhere and grafitti was rampant at train stations but overall it's very pretty.
The gorgeous capital of Tuscany where you can readily imagine the place in the Renaissance. Visually Florence makes it obvious why Italy was the heart of European art and culture. Hisorically its residents have included Dante, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Donatello and the Medicis.
To look across the city from the surrounding hills is to time-travel. Large, vintage Italianate villas with big, landscaped gardens look across a city-scape that must not have changed much for hundreds of years and is dominated by the majestic dome of the 15th century Duomo.
The view from the hills obscures the Mussolini-era train station with it's fascist history and appearance (and the even worse MacDonalds opposite). The station is efficient but it looks like a boil on Sophia Loren's bum.
The Leaning Tower could be dismissed as a tourist cliché but if you're on a train passing through Pisa you'd be mad not to hop off and have a look. It is well worth it despite the tourist hordes, most posing for photos as if they are propping it up, making the grounds appear as one large, uncoordinated tai-chi session.
The Tower is the campanille (bell tower) for the adjacent duomo (cathedral), itself quite impressive. Pisa seems like a story-book, mid-millenium looking town straddling the River Arno. We just shunted through from the station by taxi. Probably worth having an on-foot explore if you are not in a hurry. We weren't in a hurry, we're just old and easily tired