We finally got into San Gimignano just before 8pm on Wednesday, 1 September. The bus trip from Poggibonsi was a quick 20 minutes, with the view amazing! I'm super pleased I've come here. It was on my hit list when I lived in Venezia in 2003 but I never seemed to make it.
We had to locate the pasticceria to get to the apartment keys, all went nice and smoothly. Dumped the bags, after having to walk up 3 flights of very steep stairs (will definitely have to be careful when I leave), and headed out to explore. What we had seen so far was great! The view from the room was great - you could see for miles and miles and I know staring out the Tuscan countryside is never going to get boring for me!
Given it was after 8pm when we got here there didn't seem to be very many people around, I'd read that come night fall the town decreases in size. The majority of the tourists come during the day, just for the day.
We had a good wander around, stopped for a drink and had a delicious lemoncello. Ooh how I've missed this!
We decided to head home around 9.30pm for an early night, it had been a long but awesome day. Well the best laid plans of mice and men....we had gotten ourselves slightly lost so retraced our steps.
San Gimignano is very small, you can walk from one end to the other in 20 minutes so we knew we can't be that far away.
Thursday morning we were up early, we wanted to be at the information centre at 9am when it opened. Bridget was heading to Volterra for the night and I wanted to get some info on what to do and see here (hopefully not much!)
First stop after this had to be coffee, yesterday we had our first coffee at 12.30pm so today had to be sooner than that!
Now that we are fully functionable time to wander the streets. I am amazed at how many people have come through the gates while we had coffee, the guide books are spot on saying tour buses arrive by the dozen.
San Gimignano is famous for it's towers, currently there are 14 of the original 72. It's a walled city which is mainly for walkers only, the locals can and do drive there small cars around. I would hate to be driving here as some of the streets are very narrow. No doubt years of practice would help.
Bridget had a bus at 11.45am so we had a couple of hours to wander the streets, looking into a few shop before going to the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta, which is also known as the Duomo of San Gimignano.
The facade is very plain, however walking in you soon realise its extremely different inside! There are frescoes everywhere, scenes the Old Testament cover the walls on the left side while Scenes from the New Testament cover the walls on the right hand side. There is also the Last Judgement scene.
I could have spent hours sitting there staring at the walls, however Bridget had a bus to catch so we hot footed it out of there back to the apartment, collected Bridget's bags and were off. It was very strange waving her off on the bus, we are meeting tomorrow afternoon in Florence.
I returned to the apartment to change, it was now rather hot. Thank goodness summer had returned, Bologna hadn't been as warm and at times a wrap was required - I didn't come for cooler weather!
Decided it was the best time to go to Torre Grossa (the tallest tower that is open to the public) and was not disappointed. The views of San Gimignano and the surrounding towns were out of this world. Photos to be uploaded soonish.
It's now coming on 2pm so time to mangia. I choose a small wine bar/cafe that has outside seats and am loving just sitting drinking my vino, playing sudoku and people watching.
Ideally a siesta would be perfect about now but I am worried I would sleep until the morning! After wandering around for awhile, I went into the Museo Archeologico and Spezieria dis.Fina. Rather an interesting place, the ground floor was all pottery from the "old days" and the second floor all super modern paintings and sculptures.
I wandered back to my apartment, although really I have no idea how it could be an apartment when it's just a small room which has a bathroom. Stopped off enroute to look at the shops, if only I had room in my elephant! Purchased some lemoncello and was set. I had a couple of hours just chilling out - sipping on my lemoncello reading a book of Bridget's.
Early evening I headed out again, I was hoping that a lot of the pesky tourists had left for the day. Of course I'm not one of these :) Unfortunately not, there is still lots of people around but it was still pleasant wandering and taking in the wonderful view.
I decided to go for dinner at a place I'd seen on my hunt for lunch, but after sitting at the table for at least 10 minutes with no service and the fact that nothing on the menu jumped out at me I decided to leave and go elsewhere.
Found somewhere close to my apartment and enjoyed sitting reading and eating.
Friday (3 September) I had a sleep in then received a phone call from the place in Florence we are staying at tonight for 3 nights. A bit of a pain but I have to leave San Gimignano this morning as they only allow check-in to happen in the morning.....I had previously been emailing them about checking in around 6pm. Thank goodness I had a good look around yesterday!
I packed up, such a chore, and headed out to buy my bus ticket then to the pasticceria. Had my caffe, paid for the apartment and had 30 minutes to wander before my bus arrives.
Another beautiful bus trip, the countryside is so picturesque. On arrival into Poggibonsi I had 45 minutes before the train left for Florence. Filled in the time by having caffe and a snack then playing on my iPhone.
I've had a wonderful time in San Gimignano and am very pleased I had two nights to explore.
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