• Sun 17^th Sept: Viareggio ⇒ San Gimignano 

It was partly cloudy for our last morning in Viareggio but still lovely and warm. Mark went for a last ride and I went for a walk. Our check out wasn’t until 12 noon so we used the time after breakfast to relax by the pool; we’ve been on the go for almost 5 months, and it was taking its toll, so this down-time was greatly appreciated.

Our accommodation in San Gimignano for the next three nights was at Casa Bardi that I had secured through Booking.com. This was a lovely 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom apartment located inside the city walls of the medieval city; in fact the city walls formed up the perimeter of the rear wall of the apartment. Access on our arrival went as smoothly as we could hope for as we were able to stop and drop off our luggage about 200 m from the apartment and there was only one short flight of stairs up from the front door. The apartment was lovely and clean and had the most wonderful huge terrace with table and chairs, an outdoor lounge suite and two day beds where we looked forward to enjoying some meals. One of the things that attracted me to this apartment was the presence of a plunge pool which I thought was on the terrace but it turned out to be in an internal room with no windows off the master bedroom. This was a little disappointing as I had envisioned coming back in the afternoons after sightseeing and dipping in and out of the pool whilst lounging on the terrace. Our host, Cossimo, was a lovely young man who lived upstairs with his father and they rented out this apartment, and another smaller one downstairs, and he gave us lots of useful information for our stay.

It was almost 3.30 pm before we ventured out to explore the area and we wandered up through the main square to check out the Cathedral, the location of the start of our walking tour and the location for our wine experience that were both booked for the next two days. It was not surprising to see the place very busy but Mark assured me the crowds will ease for the evening and overnight. We ran out of things to do rather quickly so headed back to the apartment to spend some time relaxing on the terrace before heading back out for dinner. Mark and I had been a bit concerned that 5 nights in San Gimignano might be too long and, after our short walk today, that confirmed our concern. Our apartment is absolutely lovely and well located but we both think 3 nights is sufficient here. Given that, we have decided to stay here for just 3 of the 5 nights and then head down further south for the last 2 nights. My desire to try and find places for long stretches of time, so as to avoid too much moving around, whilst reasonable when planing a long trip, just doesn’t work in this part of the world. We had found a nice hotel, Hotel Vannucci, with an outdoor pool that is located just at the top of Umbria and just below our favorite wine area of Montepulciano so we have some other areas we can go on to explore.

Cossimo had suggested one restaurant, Locanda La Mandragola, that I had also identified and so we decided we would try this place for our dinner tonight as it was also very conveniently located just 200 m away around the corner from our apartment.

 

 

Mon 18^th Sept: Exploring San Gimignano day

It was a slow start today as neither of us slept well but we still managed to get out for a bit of a morning walk. This was well worthwhile as we got to experience the medieval beauty without the crowds. It was near 11 am before we headed out for the day and our first activity was to revisit the Cathedral of San Gimignano. We had apparently been to this Cathedral back in 2010 with Tom, although none of us remember it, and looked up my blog entry for that period to check that, yes indeed, we had all been to the Cathedral. Back then, I’d had a bit of a whinge about having to wear a modesty scarf and how someone constantly shadowed me to make sure I kept it on and, lo and behold, yet again, I had to don a modesty scarf and the modesty police were still on the prowl. One lady occasionally barked at offending visitors but I was well behaved and escaped scrutiny; it was all rather comical. These days a visit to the Cathedral comes with an audio guide which made the whole experience more meaningful. The facade of the Cathedral is rather auster but the inside is quite beautiful and it is well worth a visit.

It was 1 o’clock by the time we finished at the Cathedral so we stopped in one of the squares to have some lunch. After that, we headed to the Museum of Torture as that was a highly recommended activity and was one we haven’t been to before. Well, I didn’t last long in there at all as it was so gruesome and Mark was happy to exit with me. I’m not sure I would put this place on a must-do list for San Gimignano as so many others had done! One of the exhibits highlighted the role the Dominican Order played in developing methods of torture for use during the Inquisition and they had even produced a handy little go-to manual for others to follow. How barbaric! The depths of depravity and evil on display at this Museum was very confronting and to think much of it was borne out by so called Christians! It was all rather depressing.

We had a walking tour coming up at 4.30 pm so we went back to the apartment for a bit of a break before heading back out for the tour. The walking tour was a pleasant afternoon and there were only two other patrons apart from Mark and myself and they were a couple from Victoria (Sue and Robert). I would have loved more of an opportunity to talk with them as they had also been on a long holiday, theirs was just four months and they had spent most of their time in Europe. I would’ve loved to have compared details about what worked well and what didn’t but, sadly, we didn’t get a chance to have that chin-wag. Our guide for the afternoon, Laura, was a lovely older lady, but she had quite a strong accent, was softly spoken and spoke very quickly so Mark and I had a little bit of trouble picking up much information. I did pick up a couple of things though:

• The population of San Gimignano is 2,000 inside walls and 5,000 outside walls
• There were initially 72 towers but now just 14
• Dante and Michelangelo were known to like the local wine
• St Gimignano was revered for his 6th century protection against the barbarians
• Laura lives just a few kilometres outside of San Gimignano but won’t walk home due to the risk from wild boar and wild deer!

We were sorry to leave our small group tour but we had managed to snag a restaurant booking for 6.30 pm at one of the few places that opens early, Spizzicheria Le Chicche Toscane. This proved to be a great find and, whereas we thought we would be the only people there at that relatively small early hour, the place was packed. It just goes to show that other people like eating at inhumane hours. We had a delicious meal, which was rather simple, but so much more enjoyable than the expensive one we had the night before. All in all, it had been a very good day.

 

 

Tue 19^th Sept: Day trip to Siena

Our plan for the day was to visit Siena in the morning and then we had a wine tasting experience in the late afternoon. Mark managed to fit in a short bike ride beforehand and I had another walk around the town, enjoying the bliss because there was literally no one out on the streets so apologies in advance for all the streetcape shots again today.

It was about a 45 minute drive to Siena so we decided to head there early to make sure we got a park and to arrive in time for the 10 am walking tour. We stopped off to have a coffee and a croissant after we parked and were pleasantly surprised to find the bill for two coffees and two croissants was just €6.20. Mark had paid over €5 for one coffee in San Gimignano the morning before!

Our walking tour in Siena was with Tuscany By Locals and our guide was an American lady, Julia, who had lived here for 35 years after marrying an Italian from the region.  She was a great communicator who gave a very informative 2 hr tour. We had apparently done a walking tour when we were here back in 2010 but, again, neither of us remember this. What we do both clearly remember though is Mark accidentally driving up right in front of the Duomo in the pedestrian only area. That is etched on our memories like it was carved in stone! Today’s tour took us on a route through some parts of Siena that we hadn’t seen before and was very interesting. Some points that caught my attention are below:

• The population of Siena is around 65000 people and this is similar to that back during the time of the Medieval republic, mid 13 th century
• Siena on top of 3 hills whereas Florence is in a Valley
• Siena was larger than Paris London during this period.
• Cathedral was built in 1250 but never fully completed. The plague may have been a reason for this as it killed 60% of the population
• There were around 60 towers but most were cut down once Florence conquered as the materials were used to build the fortress
• Catherine of Siena is a most popular saint as she convinced the king of France to return the papacy to Rome
• Siena is a red brick city.
• 11 of the 12 original city gates remain
• Etruscans were here 3,000 yrs ago
• Siena is home to the oldest bank in world 1472
• Tuscan bread is very dry and uses little salt and hence is often eaten as part of other dishes. For example drizzled with oil and put into salads like panzanella salad.

Our tour wound up by around midday so we decided to have a bit of a break and then visit the Cathedral. There was a lengthy queue to obtain tickets but it was worth the wait as the inside of the Cathedral wax just spectacular. There was an audio guide with the entry ticket and this was helpful as there were so many features inside the Cathedral it would have been rather overwhelming to just wander the space aimlessly. We also stuck our head into the Crypt and the Museum but the crowds were huge so we didn’t last long in either of those two spaces. We had thought we would have lots of time to explore Siena but, given our 5 pm wine experience back in San Gimignano, we ended up having to hurry back home.

The wine experience was with La Vernaccia di San Gimignano and involved tasting of 4 x white wines and 1 x red wine. I was lucky I had Mark with me as I didn’t like a single wine so he very graciously finished off all my wines as well as his own quota; he’s such a martyr! There were 12 in our group and we were seated beside a mother/daughter couple from NZ that were doing a walk through Tuscany, of about 100 km in total, that was organized by an Aussie firm. The couple walked from hotel to hotel during the day and their luggage was transported by a porter service. They were heading to Puglia next so appreciated the link to my blog for tips about what to do and see down there. We had a great time chatting and had to be reminded on occasion that we were in a wine tasting class! The advice went both ways though as I now know that the best vineyard to visit in NZ is Poppy’s, near Wellington.

It was around 6.30 pm by the time we spilled out out of our wine class and, although not hungry, we went and had a pasta meal as our apartment host was meeting a dishwasher repair man at our place at 7 pm and we didn’t want to overlap with them. It was a lovely meal that capped off a lovely day and we got back, thankfully, to an empty apartment.

This was our last day in San Gimignano. We were meant to be here for two more nights but, as explained above, we were heading off early in search of some more variety. Five days is way too long to spend in the Old Town of San Gimignano and I know that now. As I keep telling Mark, I’ll be able to help others with their planning of future trips to this region!