San Gimignano (San G for convienence)

  San Gimignano, Italy
Sunday, August 19, 2007

Liz and Andrew picked up the car early morning and we made checkout by 11am. Pisa was great fun and we could have stayed another few days, but we were also looking forward to the next place: a tiny walled town with a name we had difficulty pronouncing much to the amusement of the locals.
Getting out of Pisa was a mission and a half. Not very good maps, not much sleep, and Andrews first time driving on the WRONG side of the road...
It took an hour to drive about 10 km to the boundaries of Pisa! Round and round the roundabout we go. Finally on course, it was a short trip to Lucca. The place had been recommended by someone we met at jamboree and was well worth the visit, if only for a break from driving.

Walls of Lucca

Another walled city, where you could walk or bike the top of the wall and get an amazing view of the city. When we went to leave Lucca, we asked for directions to San Gimignano. They told us to take the tolled roads to Florence. This did not appeal at all so we decided to take the back roads instead.
Travelling through Tuscany's back roads was beautiful. But the roads were narrow at times. Buildings came right to the edge of the road and would jump out suddenly in front of whoever was driving.
The countryside had lots of rolling hills, but all the farms were crops. No animals to be seen. Which was strange to a bunch of Kiwis used to 50 million sheep.
Just as we were travelling through the vineyards, Liz suddenly said "oh there it is!" and on the hill in front of us was this group of brick towers and buildings. Just the place to stay for a couple of days!

San Gimignano Skyline

San Gimignano doesn't allow any cars not owned by the residents inside the walls and parking costs a packet. We were lucky to nab a free parking spot after the day visitors departed. Though Andrew wondered about this sign that read "Diveto di caccia" Which (according to our italian-english dictionary) means "Enjoy oneself hunting". This seemed rathed odd at the time, until Shannon figured out how to use the book and found out it meant "No Hunting". The season doesn't start for two weeks. Wild Boar is the speciality.

The two days we spent there were to blob out a bit and get some shopping done. The town itself boasts the worlds best icecream parlour. So of course we had to try three flavours each - just to make sure!

World's best Icecream!

One day, we decided it was hot enough to go for a swim and we had seen signs pointing to a pool. They didn't indicate it was 25mins walk away! Boy was that swim good.
Our accomodation was one of the orginal houses on the main street. The wooden front doors were 3m tall and about 15cm thick! The streets were only just wide enough for a car once all the shops had set up outside their windows and we're talking about the width of a mini here. Most of the cars we saw were 3 wheel trucks and powered by a motorbike engine. One person just fitted into them, and two people was very cosy.
From the top of the highest tower we saw an open air theatre and decided it would be fun to see if there was one on that night... Turns out Harry Potter in Italian wasn't that hard to follow, but produced a lot of laughs, so we'll have to watch it in english now.