(Continued from previous page)
That evening, we went into San Gimignano (location 29 on the map). San Gimignano is a lovely walled medieval hill town. Here is a picture from a street just outside of the old city center. It is famous for the many towers that dot the skyline (14, according to Wikipedia, although not all show in this photograph).
In this next picture, you can see the different styles of stone and brick used in the wall, which indicate different timeframes; the oldest were placed around 1000 AD:
It was a pleasant enough Saturday evening, but it was the end of October. In the summer, the street must be very crowded.
A note about smoking in Italy: While there are still more people who smoke there than we generally see in the United States, we were pleasantly surprised that smoking is no longer allowed in restaurants, and people generally don't smoke inside their houses.
We went down one of the side streets
which brought us to the edge of the old City Center. The view was magnificent. It is very much what you see in paintings and movies.
Cyprus trees, olive orchards, and vineyards:
The video linked below shows the countryside from the pictures above. It was rather windy that day, so some of Paul's dialog is masked by the wind noise. Reminder: if the video is small on the screen, click it to make it larger. (44 seconds)
Looking back into town we could see some of the towers.
As in Monteriggioni, some of the streets are very steep and designed to have water run off and provide footing.
This next linked video (50 seconds) shows a little section of the city, including the road above. Don't bother with the sound on this one; all you hear is the wind blowing on the microphone.
Perhaps this is to tie up your horse?
In the center of town was a well where it is considered good luck to throw in a coin. In the video linked below, you can see the well. Doni is at the base, Anne is by the well (you can see her barrette), and Francesco walks up the steps to talk to Anne. There is no narration in this video.
Here we are, with Doni behind us at the well.
We had supper at a restaurant recommended to us by the inn keepers. It was about 6:40 PM when we found the restaurant. It was a mild evening, and the door was open, so Anne walked in. An employee said something to the effect of "Siamo chiusi." Anne thought to herself "Why would they be closing shortly?" After a couple back-and-forths, everyone else got it through Anne's thick skull that the restaurant hadn't even opened for supper yet! They, along with many restaurants in Italy, don't open for supper until 7 PM. Anne still has trouble comprehending this concept. But everything in Italy is about an hour and a half later in the day than here. Lunch is generally at 1:30 PM. Instead of supper at 6:30 PM, it is typically at 8 PM. Bed is 11:30. So it isn't that they actually eat later than us per se, it is simply shifted. Getting back to the restaurant ... they prepared risotto with no onion or garlic for us, and we enjoyed the meal.
Last on this page is a link to a video Paul took as we left San Gimignano. (He said the name incorrectly in the video; don't let that throw you off.) (41 seconds)
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Updated July 2020