Today we decided to have a pretty quiet day.
Last night we had a very nice dinner – we had a delicious bruschetta – the tomatoes are just so fresh and full of flavour and the herb flavour superb – I had the local specialty for my main course – wild boar – very tasty too, obviously slow cooked but not gamey in taste. Adrienne had lamb cooked in rosemary which was also extremely tasty. We were sitting near the reception desk and were kept entertained by the little Italian waiter – a bit Alf Garnet in looks and a bushy moustache but very little english. Adrienne must have impressed him with her Italian as I think he thought we were natives as he would have various long conversations with us – none of which we understood ! It was a bit Manuel from Fawlty Towers as well when an American couple came in trying to get a table at the outdoor section and they couldn’t understand he was telling them it was full – we eventually had to translate for them.
The towers in San Gimignano
Breakfast today was very leisurely on an outside terrace overlooking the pool and lovely gardens. Then we headed back to San Gimignano to explore the town in more detail. We got a parking spot in the prime parking lot – parking is also fun when you have small size spots and cars parked very close to one side or across 2 spots. We strolled through the main gates and up the hill via a little alley and into the main square.
We went through the church which has some amazing frescoes on the walls – one side depicting the stories of the old testament and the other side the stories of the new testament.
They also like to display their dead in Italy – in the Basilica in Rome there were the embalmed bodies of a few Popes around on display and this church had a nun being displayed. We then hiked up the hill a bit further to a tower where we could get a view into the town at the towers and a view outside to the surrounding countryside. The weather had improved today – still a little cloudy but a lot more sunshine too.
From the top of the town we walked all the way to the bottom of the town on the other side, past the old gates of the original city before it was expanded.
Gelato Wars ! The Champ……
We walked all the way back stopping at a few shops on the way and back at the top in the main square we just had to visit the Gelato shop which had been world champion on 4 occassions between 2006 and 2011. (mind you there is also a Gelato shop which makes “the best gelato in the world” – just dont know who the judge of that was). Anyway, the world champion was doing a roaring trade and the pink grapefruit and spumante flavour was pretty damn good.
…. And the Best !
For dinner tonight we decided to collect a few meats and cheeses, biscuits and bread and just put our feet up again – saves another drive into town – so we collected some bits in town before heading back to the hotel – it was very humid today so a sit on our little balcony in the cool breeze was refreshing before we head off again.
Those towers are hard to miss !
We decided just to drive around a bit and headed to a town not too far away called Voltarra. Unfortunately when we got there it was full ! – on Saturday there is a market which takes up one of the (small) car parks so all the others were full. So instead we stopped for a late lunch at a little cafe – the first real time where we have struck someone with no english whatsoever. So we had pizza slices – the lady explained what was on them but we had no idea, one had mushroom on it and the other cheese but what else, who knows ! Nonetheless they were tasty and filled the spot – 2 huge pizza slices and 2 drinks for 6 euro !
Adrienne found a loop road back to San Gimignano – being the weekend these windy roads are full of motor cycles – like a weekend in the National Park – but driving all over the road ! The countryside around Voltarra was a bit more sparse -more open hillside rather than cultivated farming land – but still very picturesque. We passed many hillside villas with the classic driveways lined with pencil pines. We also passed a few farms where the grape harvest is in season and the machines filling the trucks with freshly picked grapes.
Ahhh ! That’s living !
When we got back to the hotel we sat on our little balcony and caught up with our blogs and even the hotel are picking their grapes as a little tractor went past a few times – one way empty and on the way back full of crates full of grapes. But the silence has been broken a bit – partly with the motor bikes up and down the road nearby but also the small bus of Japanese tourists who have just arrived and went into raptures when the little tractor went past !
Shortly we are going to put our feet up with our local dinner and prepare for our first big driving day tomorrow to lake Como.