August 22 - How Many Hill Towns Can You See?

How Many Hill Towns Can You See?

As we traveled through Central Europe, moving from one medieval, overtaken, WWII occupied Capitol city to another, I started to wonder if they weren't so similar as to make seeing four or five a bit redundant. But each time we found something new to learn or see.

The hill towns of Tuscany are a bit like that also. For one, they are all small walled towns on top of.....you guessed it, Tuscan Hills. The hills are pretty much the same color and topography with the roads leading to them packed with roundabouts full of blue directional signs, which only half the time have the town you are looking for. So, as we conquer these towns, from far to near our little farmette in Pancole, we finally drove yesterday to OUR closest little hill town of San Gimignano. 

We are total fans of Rick Steve's guides for helping us pick towns, or when to go or how long to stay and his guidebook clearly says 'TOURISTY', go at night when the busses leave and lights go on. So, not only did we decide to go during the day, we picked the weekly market day. As it turned out, we all disagreed with the assessment and it was lively and fun. Steve and I headed first to the Post Office to send packages #6 and #7 to the States. One full of our purchases and another to a friend (a blog reader for sure) as a gift- so keep watching your mail, you may get a surprise in a few weeks. Or it may never come based on the reputation of the Italian Post Office and our own 40 minute visit with very nice,but apparently unfamiliar with sending packages, Italian Postal workers. It took about ten pieces of paper, eight signatures, four photocopies and consultations with three employees to finalize our transaction.

The market was lively and not touristy. It really was a weekly market for the locals with everything from a pharmacy trailer selling soap and cosmetics to summer clothes and leather goods. The biggest lines were, of course, the food.

And the biggest food lines were at the whole, roasted pig stands where for four Euros they would had carve you a roasted spiced pork sandwich as a tasty takeaway breakfast or lunch. I was the only one who passed on this tasty treat, instead standing in line for the #1 ( World Champion!) gelato makers Limone.

San Gimignano itself begs the use of all the same descriptors that have filled pages and pages of this blog. It is charming and winding and stone and medieval. You walk the footsteps of pilgrims on the Via Francigena, the Italian version of the Way of St. James. 

But it also has many more surviving towers (14), a way better parking lot system, and a bit more nice art and craft. 

In the center of town you can still see the old Cistern well, filled by an inventive system of catching water from the roofs of the town houses and storing it underground for later use. The Cistern is so old and was so well used that the edges of the well have deep grooves from hundreds of years of drawing the ropes up and down daily. 

At the southern entry gate to the city are large posters advertising what is showing at the cinema, mostly 1-2 year old American films, likely dubbed, but they changed every day! 

Imagine our surprise when after climbing up to find the tucked away 360 degree view of San Gimi and Tuscany, we stumbled upon their movie theater.........a simple large green screen and folding chairs set up against the Tuscan sky. 

If I lived here, this would surely be my nightly entertainment to watch a great film as the warm day changes to a cool night under the stars.Although there was no film showing, there was a talented Django/Grapelli like musician worth listening to and a view to die for.

The rest of the day was swimming and .....eating. I have not written too much about our food for a few reasons. First, we are with friends and so at our meals there is much less photographing and much more conversation. 

Second, although we have had great food, it IS all Italian....pasta, pizza, gelato, more pasta, espresso, more pasta, and some wild boar, bruschetta and biscotti and some more pasta. The squarish cut spaghetti is always delicious and always served very al dente, toothy and perfect for the simple sauces of pomodoro tomato. Our one pizza dinner so far, literally filled our entire table with four paper thin, crispy pies topped with anchovy or ham or rucola. 

And to wash it all down, we have had San Gimi's famous white wine, Chiantis, Brunellos, reds from Montelpucuiano (really nice), Prosecco and aperol sprtizers. 

We have one more day and one more hill town left before we leave-today we set off to discover Volterra!