One of the cutest cities in the world is little San Gimignano in Tuscany. I visited this city in '98 and knew I wanted to go back on this trip. Plus it is an easy day trip from Firenze and was kind of a test run of the solo traveling situation. I sat down last week and made a list of all the places in Italy that I want to visit on this trip and easily came up with 10 places. Then I counted the weekends that I have left and realized I only had 11! Plus, I knew I wanted to be in Firenze on Easter so that counted for one of those. So I had to go somewhere this last weekend. Not that I am complaining...but I just realized how fast the time is going to go!
So I got up early Sunday morning (about 6am and I had been out at the club/disco until 2:30am...) and walked across town to the main bus stop. I took the bus to Poggibonsi (a very fun name for a little Italian city) where I changed buses to get to San Gim. This photo is the sunrise while I was on the bus.
I arrived in the city at about 8:30am. I didn't realize it at the time but it was really nice to see the city while it was still quiet--before the hoards of tourists (who knew so many traveled in April!) descended upon this little medieval town. I walked through the main area of the town (this takes all of about 6 minutes) and then settled down in a cafe for un caffe latte and una pasta (pastry not spaghetti). I stayed at the cafe for about 2 hours reading my guide books and trying figure out what I was going to do on my other weekends. Fortunately, as long as you buy something you can sit for hours at a cafe undisturbed. This has been a good thing when it so cold out and I am tired of walking.
One lady came in with her cute little squish-faced dog and they all thought it was funny that he wanted to sit on the ground near my feet. I pet him and we were fast friends. When his owner called him over, he would only go "mezzo" or halfway to her--they thought it was really funny that this dog had taken to a stranieri (foreigner). At least I could understand when they were talking about me.
Once it had warmed up outside a little bit I cruised around town a bit more, this time walking through the small streets and up to the old city wall. There are beautiful views of the surrounding Tuscan landscape from every angle of the city.
Throughout the city there were locals walking back home with bunches of olive branches with leaves. I thought it was kind of strange and couldn't figure out where or why they were buying these branches. Then I finally realized that since it was Palm Sunday, they were walking home from church with their "palms". Of course you would use olive branches when you are in Italy. We use palm tree fronds in California!
The towers in the middle of the city:
Looking out towards Siena, the Tuscan landscape and the "new" part of town (outside the city walls, built in the 1500s):
Towers surrounding the Piazza della Cisterna:
An italian cat (for my cat-loving readers esp. Julie, Elana & Jennifer):
And what he was looking at when he wasn't looking at me:
A pair of old doors:
Another view of the landscape, on the other side of town:
Entering the piazza (you walk through the archway on the lower left side):
For lunch I went and sat in this cafe where they had a beautiful display of homemade chocolates and these large wrapped chocolate Easter eggs lining the top shelf of the pasticceria.
This is pretty much what a typical pasticceria looks like, this one is particularly fancy looking for the tourists but all of them are selling those huge Easter eggs right now. I had a mozzarella and tomato sandwich here and then worked on my homework for a couple of hours. It is fun to spend a longer amount of time in the cafes because you see the tourists come and go and you see how the employees interact with each other. Again, they don't care as long as you buy something.
I walked back up to the Piazza della Cisterna (plaza of the cistern or well) and had another caffe latte (I am beginning to think that this blog is just a description of all the food and beverages I am enjoying but really it is just so good that I have to tell you all about it!). This time I was sitting in the square which gave me the perfect vantage point for people watching. So many different people from all over the place!
Here are the hoards of tourists who arrived later in the day:
Okay, so there weren't exactly hoards but it was amazing how quiet it had been in the morning. There were still tables available for sitting and I am sure in the summer there is a long wait. And these bikers made it all the way up the hill and ended up in the piazza:
My friend from school, Vitor, had texted me about going to see a movie so I took the earlier bus back to Firenze.
Unfortunately, the first bus (the connection to Poggibonsi) was late so that we missed the connection to Firenze. Since it was a Sunday the next one wasn't scheduled to come for another 2 hours! Ack. This bus stop is also the train station so I decided to go with some other travelers that were taking the train since I was supposed to be meeting my friend in an hour and a half. Unfortunately, the ticket dispensing machine wasn't working and being a Sunday there were no station agents. So, I thought, oh well, I will just have to buy it on the train and they will have to understand that it is not working. So I got on the train and when the train ticket guy came up to me I tried to explain my situation (bus late, ticket machine broken...) but I still got charged more! And if I understand him right, normally if you don't go up and report it to him immediately (that you don't have a ticket) you have to pay an extra 40 euros. Fortunately, he only charged me an extra 5 euros because I had to buy it onboard. Blech. That was very annoying. Plus, the dumb train took much longer than the bus because it had to stop at every little podunk town on the way to Firenze. Oh well, I made it back home and then had to run all the way across town home to change and then run back out to the Duomo to meet my friend.
Vitor took me to see my first movie in Italian at a real Italian theater. Did you know that they have an intermission in their movies here? This was completely foreign to me--I thought the roll had broken when the picture stopped but then they flashed up a card that said intermission and the lights came up. Vitor had been to a movie before (he took classes in Rome before coming here) so he knew what to expect but said that it was a shock to him the first time. We saw the movie about Nelson Mandela's life in prison. I don't know what it is called in English (or Italian for that matter). I understood everything that was going on even when I couldn't understand all the words. After the movie, we walked around a little bit but Vitor is doing a home stay so he went home for dinner (he has to be there at a certain time) and I walked home and made the best plate of penne with pesto and tomatoes and provolone cheese on top.
Walking home after the movie with a nearly full moon:
One of the cutest cities in the world is little San Gimignano in Tuscany. I visited this city in '98 and knew I wanted to go back on this trip. Plus it is an easy day trip from Firenze and was kind of a test run of the solo traveling situation. I sat down last week and made a list of all the places in Italy that I want to visit on this trip and easily came up with 10 places. Then I counted the weekends that I have left and realized I only had 11! Plus, I knew I wanted to be in Firenze on Easter so that counted for one of those. So I had to go somewhere this last weekend. Not that I am complaining...but I just realized how fast the time is going to go!
So I got up early Sunday morning (about 6am and I had been out at the club/disco until 2:30am...) and walked across town to the main bus stop. I took the bus to Poggibonsi (a very fun name for a little Italian city) where I changed buses to get to San Gim. This photo is the sunrise while I was on the bus. 
I arrived in the city at about 8:30am. I didn't realize it at the time but it was really nice to see the city while it was still quiet--before the hoards of tourists (who knew so many traveled in April!) descended upon this little medieval town. I walked through the main area of the town (this takes all of about 6 minutes) and then settled down in a cafe for un caffe latte and una pasta (pastry not spaghetti). I stayed at the cafe for about 2 hours reading my guide books and trying figure out what I was going to do on my other weekends. Fortunately, as long as you buy something you can sit for hours at a cafe undisturbed. This has been a good thing when it so cold out and I am tired of walking.
One lady came in with her cute little squish-faced dog and they all thought it was funny that he wanted to sit on the ground near my feet. I pet him and we were fast friends. When his owner called him over, he would only go "mezzo" or halfway to her--they thought it was really funny that this dog had taken to a stranieri (foreigner). At least I could understand when they were talking about me.
Once it had warmed up outside a little bit I cruised around town a bit more, this time walking through the small streets and up to the old city wall. There are beautiful views of the surrounding Tuscan landscape from every angle of the city.
Throughout the city there were locals walking back home with bunches of olive branches with leaves. I thought it was kind of strange and couldn't figure out where or why they were buying these branches. Then I finally realized that since it was Palm Sunday, they were walking home from church with their "palms". Of course you would use olive branches when you are in Italy. We use palm tree fronds in California!
The towers in the middle of the city:
Looking out towards Siena, the Tuscan landscape and the "new" part of town (outside the city walls, built in the 1500s):
Towers surrounding the Piazza della Cisterna:
An italian cat (for my cat-loving readers esp. Julie, Elana & Jennifer):
And what he was looking at when he wasn't looking at me:
A pair of old doors:
Another view of the landscape, on the other side of town:
Entering the piazza (you walk through the archway on the lower left side):
For lunch I went and sat in this cafe where they had a beautiful display of homemade chocolates and these large wrapped chocolate Easter eggs lining the top shelf of the pasticceria.
This is pretty much what a typical pasticceria looks like, this one is particularly fancy looking for the tourists but all of them are selling those huge Easter eggs right now. I had a mozzarella and tomato sandwich here and then worked on my homework for a couple of hours. It is fun to spend a longer amount of time in the cafes because you see the tourists come and go and you see how the employees interact with each other. Again, they don't care as long as you buy something.
I walked back up to the Piazza della Cisterna (plaza of the cistern or well) and had another caffe latte (I am beginning to think that this blog is just a description of all the food and beverages I am enjoying but really it is just so good that I have to tell you all about it!). This time I was sitting in the square which gave me the perfect vantage point for people watching. So many different people from all over the place!
Here are the hoards of tourists who arrived later in the day:
Okay, so there weren't exactly hoards but it was amazing how quiet it had been in the morning. There were still tables available for sitting and I am sure in the summer there is a long wait. And these bikers made it all the way up the hill and ended up in the piazza:
My friend from school, Vitor, had texted me about going to see a movie so I took the earlier bus back to Firenze.
Unfortunately, the first bus (the connection to Poggibonsi) was late so that we missed the connection to Firenze. Since it was a Sunday the next one wasn't scheduled to come for another 2 hours! Ack. This bus stop is also the train station so I decided to go with some other travelers that were taking the train since I was supposed to be meeting my friend in an hour and a half. Unfortunately, the ticket dispensing machine wasn't working and being a Sunday there were no station agents. So, I thought, oh well, I will just have to buy it on the train and they will have to understand that it is not working. So I got on the train and when the train ticket guy came up to me I tried to explain my situation (bus late, ticket machine broken...) but I still got charged more! And if I understand him right, normally if you don't go up and report it to him immediately (that you don't have a ticket) you have to pay an extra 40 euros. Fortunately, he only charged me an extra 5 euros because I had to buy it onboard. Blech. That was very annoying. Plus, the dumb train took much longer than the bus because it had to stop at every little podunk town on the way to Firenze. Oh well, I made it back home and then had to run all the way across town home to change and then run back out to the Duomo to meet my friend.
Vitor took me to see my first movie in Italian at a real Italian theater. Did you know that they have an intermission in their movies here? This was completely foreign to me--I thought the roll had broken when the picture stopped but then they flashed up a card that said intermission and the lights came up. Vitor had been to a movie before (he took classes in Rome before coming here) so he knew what to expect but said that it was a shock to him the first time. We saw the movie about Nelson Mandela's life in prison. I don't know what it is called in English (or Italian for that matter). I understood everything that was going on even when I couldn't understand all the words. After the movie, we walked around a little bit but Vitor is doing a home stay so he went home for dinner (he has to be there at a certain time) and I walked home and made the best plate of penne with pesto and tomatoes and provolone cheese on top.
Walking home after the movie with a nearly full moon:
2 comments:
i love the cat pic!!!! also the full moon on your romantic date!
Sarah! These pictures are so magical! You are in such a beautiful place! San Gimignano looks incredible! Thanks for the shout out and the kitty picture! I LOVE IT! Yay Italian cats!
I love hearing all about the food in italy! I am such a foodie, so hearing of all the yummy stuff you get to eat is wonderful!
Post a Comment