San Gimignano-Bella Tuscany!

Quilted fields...

blue skies-bella Tuscany!

We drove almost three hours north, deep into the heart of Tuscany. Deb and Fred lived in Tuscany their first two years in Italy-close to the town of San Gimignano, where we went. The country we drove through was lovely-rolling hills, patched with olive groves, vineyards and wheat fields.

On the drive, we passed little lakes; ponds really, with people sitting around them in plastic chairs, fishing. This is “sport fishing”in Italy—stocked ponds, strictly catch and release. We saw this billboard advertising what’s been caught in one of the nearby ponds—I wonder if the fish get tired of being caught over and over again?


You too can catch a giant fish in a little pond!

The guidebook describes San Gimi as “bristling with tall towers”; those towers are the first glimpse you get of the city as you approach—tall towers spearing the sky. San Gimi is unique in Tuscany in that it still feels very medieval with the towers and fortifications. Back in the 13^th century San Gimignano (say that five times really fast) was frequently at war with their neighbor of Twilight fame, Volterra. (Deb said that much of New Moon was actually filmed in Montepulciano because Montepulciano has a more beautiful town square and is more accessible than Volterra.)

The towers of San Gimignano.

The many towers of San Gimignano.

The first thing I noticed about San Gimignano was all the tourists-lots and lots of tourists in Tuscany! Granted, it was a Saturday, and the weather was perfect; but I had hardly seen another foreigner in the week I had been in Italy; Deb and I usually wandered around the streets saying “Buona sera” to locals who only spoke Italian; though we did have a shopkeeper in Sutri say to us as we walked by, “And do you like Sutri?” (Totally caught us off guard--we were like, huh?) But in San Gimi, we heard English, French, German, even some Japanese along with the Italian. 

The gate into the city.

Many more people! Note the tower in the distance.

Still more people...

...and more here too.

Medievally arches everywhere.

There were lots of tourist shops lining the road up to the main piazza, the Piazza della Cisterna, named after the well in the center of the piazza. The shops sold everything from ceramics to paintings to tourist kitsch to wild boar products to…

We passed this terracotta shop on our way from the parking lot to the city gate.

Along with terracotta garden stuff, they sold these; this is for Diane and her granddogs.

And they sold these--this is for Sarah; no I didn't buy one!

Lots of lovely Italian ceramics--wish I could have figured
out how to get some home!

Wild boar products.

Paintings of the area.

I bought some watercolors of Tuscany from this artist.
He had lovely paintings; he wasn't too bad to look at either.
(What? Did I just say that?! Sorry!)

gelato! We of course had to stop for some—after grabbing a Panini at a small pasticceria.

Deb and Fred debating their gelato choices.

Nutella gelato--divine!

Speaking of wild boar—we saw one at the end of the day! It was dusk, we were coming home from the neighborhood trattoria, Angelica’s where we had stopped for pizza after our long day in Tuscany, and there was a big boar rooting around in the field below the road! Unfortunately, it was too dark to get a picture. He was digging around in the dirt—when we called to him, he looked up for a moment, then flipped his tail up and raced away into the trees.

While I didn't get a picture of the live wild boar, I did get one of this stuffed one.
Cinghiale, or wild boar stew is a specialty in this area. It's quite tasty.

Fred petting the boar, in spite of the sign on its head saying "non toccare"!

It also said "Don't touch" in English.

Back to San Gimignano—we finally reached the Piazza della Cisterna, surrounded by ancient buildings and the two Ardinghelli towers.

In front of the 13th century well in the center of the Piazza della Cisterna.

Palazzo Tortoli.

The Ardinghelli towers.

A little further on and we came to the Cathedral square with the Collegiata (the official name for the cathedral) a new building, only 15th century. Deb and I went into the Cathedral--the interior was really impressive with frescoes on one side depicting scenes from the Old Testament--the creation, the fall, Noah, Moses, etc.; and the other side had scenes from the New Testament--Jesus' birth, the flight into Egypt, his baptism, etc. We had fun figuring out what all the pictures were--there were a few we couldn't decipher. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside.

The Collegiata-the cathedral.

The Palazzo del Podesta, 13th/14th century with
the Rognosa, the high tower with the bell.

The Salvucci towers.

The Cathedral with the two Salvucci towers.

We noticed people up on the top of the tower behind the palace, so of course we had to go up it too—quite a lot of stairs (though nothing like Nan Shan, for my friends in Shenzhen!) At the end we had to climb a ladder and duck under a bar and then we were on top with the bell (which luckily, didn’t seem to be in ringing order anymore) and with fabulous views of the surrounding countryside.

The first set of stairs.

The view out the stair windows-they are grated down here-
I guess so you don't jump?

Higher window--no grate. Go figure.

Higher window still.

This is looking down the stairs-almost at the top.

Here's the ladder!

Up we go!

Check out this view!

And this one...

and this one...

look at all the little ant-people down in the Piazzo della Cisterna!

Beautiful, no?

Rooftops of the town below.

Yes, it was windy up there!

After coming back down, we found another gelateria--member of the Italian team and organization. A gelato team?? Sign me up! Voted "Gelato World Champion" in 2006/7 and 2008/9. So of course we had to stop and sample it! Ahh, another two gelato day...

There were certainly long lines and crowds outside the famous gelateria!

The raspberry/rosemary was awesome!

Fred and Deb enjoying our former world champion gelato!