Today we woke to a very sunny but chilly morning at our campsite in Siena. Autumn has really arrived now and the trees are full of colour. Yellow, brown and red leaves are falling all around our little caravan. Luckily, we are in a campsite with heating in the shower room (the first such luxury on our trip to date).
We headed out for San Gimignano, a hilltop town out in the Tuscan countryside. After the initial ten miles or so of traversing the bumpiest road on the planet, supposedly motorway, we headed into the countryside. We were soon in some of the most beautiful scenery we’ve seen. Vast vistas of vine covered hills and Cyprus trees as far as the eye could see. We stopped at the roadside to take a couple of pictures.
Our first glimpse of the towers of San Gimignano on the horizon and the beautiful landscape
The streets of San Gimignano
The town is small but has interesting delicatessens and small shops. In the main, it’s the views that attract people who come from across Europe to eat in the many restaurants and experience the views and ambience of the place. It is also famous for it’s 14 Medieval towers which we thought were particularly ugly – so no pictures of those.
We sampled the local wine, Vernaccia, whilst sitting on the terrace of the Wine Museum and taking in the spectacular views, to the accompaniment of a musician busking. His name is Simone Solazzo and he seems to play almost anything with strings, from Classical guitar and violin to Oud and Saz. Roland enjoyed the music so much he bought the CD. Something to remind us of a special day.
Drinking locally produced Vernaccia wine on the terrace of the Wine Museum – what views!
Simone Solazzo busking near the Wine Museum
We had amazing ice creams at Gelateria Dondoli in the Piazza della Cisterna. Angela had blackberry with lavender and coconut and Roland had Expresso, coconut and mint. The mint didn’t taste like mint essence or peppermint flavouring, it actually tasted like mint leaves. They had lots of more unusual flavours, like mozzarella and olive, but we weren’t tempted to take a chance. You can’t mess about with a serious business like ice cream. This Gelateria won the award of best ice cream in Tuscany last year and was crowned world champion ice cream from 2006 to 2009. We don’t know who’s won the award since then but they must be pretty amazing to have outdone Dondoli. Ten out of ten from us!
Roland juggling with the camera and his ice cream for a selfie
We had a couple of beers and did some people watching from the Restaurant della Cisterna. (Oh dear, there seems to be a bit of a theme here, ice cream, beers, wine. WeighWatchers here we come). Roland also took the opportunity of using the bar’s free wi-fi to catch up a few emails whilst I made some tour notes. Many campsites charge for wi-fi access. The Siena site charges €3 an hour. That wouldn’t be a problem for a couple of week’s vacation but for a 365 day tour it’s a hefty expense, so we take our opportunities where we can.
Having a beer in San Gimignano
This was a really memorable excursion and we had a wonderful, wonderful day.
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