Day 15: September 8, 1999
Day trip to San Gimignano, Italy (from Siena)

We had originally planned to go to Florence this morning and then visit San Gimignano in the morning the next day, mainly so that Walendo could see Florence. As we were getting ready, though, Walendo said he'd rather go to the smaller town, which was fine by me since I'd seen Florence a few times. This turned out to be a good decision.

Just outside San Gimignano Tuscany, Italy

We drove to San Gimignano, an ancient Tuscany town with 13 towers built by the wealthier families of the town. Apparently, there had been as many as 72 but only 13 remained. We drove mainly through backroads (via Pogibonzzi, a fun town to say), and got there around 9:30 am, stopping once for a shot of the Tuscany hills. We passed tons of fields of dead sunflowers, and wondered why they hadn't been harvested. It was very sad. When we got there, the parking lot was fairly empty and the streets, though not empty of tourists, were faily quiet. The street up to the main square was lined with little shops selling all kinds of neat stuff, including artwork, stonework, woodwork, and food of course. Walendo was hungry, so we stopped for him to get a panini, which had yummy tomatoes, and by the time we walked out, the street was teeming with tourists.

View from tower in San Gimignano

We figured we'd wait to buy stuff till the way out, so we wouldn't have to carry it, but ended up abandoning that when Walendo saw artwork he liked and didn't want to miss. He bought a little square watercolor from a guy sitting by an easle of his stuff. After a few more stores, I decided I better go back to get the one I wanted, and it was a good thing cuz the person right ahead of me bought that one, and he had one other one available, which I snatched up. Walendo decided he wanted to buy all his Xmas gifts now but I wanted to wander more, so we split up (again, with FRS radios as our friends).

Patchwork roofs and patchwork hills

As he shopped, I found some ruins high on the hill where some artists had laid out their pictures. I bought one from the first one I saw, and then a second from another woman who turned out to be from the US and had lived in Marin. I asked her what a seragraph was, and she explained that it's like a lithograph, but it implies that the prints are limited in number. I bought a limited seragraph from her.

More views from tower in San Gimignano

I also asked her why so many sunflower fields were filled with dead flowrs, and she guess it had something to do with a limited supply of sunflower oil making machinery, but she wasn't sure. All the art was somewhere between $10 and $25, pretty amazing. She also told me about a place wher we could pick up some boxes for protecting stuff on the trip home, which we later used. A short way off, I saw the remains of a small tower that you could climb up, so I took some shots of the lovely Tuscany countryside, just as I'd imagined it.

Towers in San Gimignano

By this time, Walendo was done shopping, so we hooked up again at the piazza. We wandered into a store that sold stone stuff, and ended up buying a gorgeous chess set for $150, about $70 of which was shipping. We were about to buy a smaller one that we also liked when Walendo realized it made more sense to buy the one that was much nicer, again what's the point of saving $40 in a situation like that? Supposedly, the set will arrive by boat in about a month. Good that we don't have to schlepp yet more rocks. Walendo also bought a shoulder bag that he can use on his motorcycle to haul groceries and such. I assured him that it wouldn't look gay.

Ellen overlooking San Gimignano

We wandered around some more, again going up to the ruins, where a Spanish guy was selling his paintings. We both really liked one of them, so we got that, while Walendo bought two others for gifts. He had to go to a cash machine to pay the guy, so while I waited, I chatted with the artist. He'd lived in SG for about two years and loved it. (This is when I found out he was from Spain.) I coaxed Walendo into climbing the oh, 20 stairs, to the top of the little tower to see the countryside. I took more pictures (with the lighting better, I think) and Walendo offered to take a picture of an English couple, yet again making his mark. By this time, I was hungry, so we went back to the panini place that had been so good and got sandwiches and three different kinds of chocolate cookies. Yum! For all the pastries in Italy, not many are very chocolatey. We dropped off our stuff at the car and continued to amble about.

Grapes seen on walk to midieval fountain

Man looking out window in San Gimignano

At one point, Walendo led the way based on some signs to an old "fonti medieval" thingee. It was a very steep downhill and yet still Walendo led us there, quite against his nature. It wasn't that dramatic, but it was very old so that made him happy. Back up the hill and eventually we rested at the piazza and watched the people, playing "guess that nationality." I wanted to climb up the tower, so, for the Standard Italian Monetary Unit, I did. It wasn't that high so it wasn't a surprise that the FRS radios worked yet again. While I was up there, a band started playing in the piazza, and then some drummers came up from the other way. I came back down and we started to head out, but stopped for a bit to watch the drum and flag ceremony, kind of like drum corps, Walendo says. I noticed that a bunch of the marching drummers were women, which was neat.

By the time we headed back to the car, it was after 6pm, we'd been there 9 hours and we'd bought:

Jointly:
• chess board
• long narrow art from spanish artist
• cheese grater

Pottery outside San Gimignano store

Walendo:
• shoulder bag
• first watercolor near entrance
• two small watercolors
• medium watercolor (for d,j)
• wine rack for r,m
• olive oil + spaghetti seasoning for l,t
• two more small watercolors
• necklace for Jen
• watercolor for Ellen

Ellen:
• small square art
• print from artist at ruins
• print from woman from marin
• two stone necklaces
• 3 fold out cards
• 2 post cards

Farm outside San Gimignano

Before heading out, we found the dumpster the Marin artist had told me about, and Walendo grabbed a bunch of boxes. We'll need these for all the crap we've bought.

San Gimignano skyline

God only knows how we'll get it all home. (Don't you worry, Ellen the master packer comes to the rescue, though I fear no matter how well it's packed, Walendo will be annoyed at having to carry anything.) We headed out of town, as it turned out going the wrong way, but just as we realized it, we saw a fabulous view of SG with the lighting hitting it just right. We stopped the car and took a bunch of pictures. (I'd supidly not put the tripod in the car, which I really regretted.)

The drive home was uneventful, until we got into Siena. Despite having a real map of Siena and having paid attention when we had out, we still couldn't find our way back to the hotel. We drove into the city proper until we were scared to go further, following the signs to Piazza Del Campo, until we got to the point where we couldn't even turn around.

Farm outside San Gimignano

We headed back out as best we could and tried to go around the city in a clockwise direction. Eventually, I had the instinct to turn right, and at the end of that street, Walendo was able to figure out where we were on the map, which wasn't far from the hotel. Great teamwork, once again. Once we got there, the parking adventure started. No parking anywhere. Found a spot on a bridge and an old priest came up and pointed at the Swiss Lion on the back of the license plate and kept yelling something. I took this to mean that only locals could park there, though Walendo thought that he may have been off his nut and yelling about lions in general. We decided to move and wound up finding a spot that was a little closer anyway, although on a busy road.

After resting a bit, we walked back into Siena for dinner, looking for a pizzeria for a quick, informal meal. It was late, so not that much was open except for restaurants at the Campo, and that seemed too heavy weight. So we decided that since I would be happy with a gelato, Walendo would just go to McDonalds to have a burger. Yum. While Walendo was on line, I watched a kid who dropped all his fries on the floor, and tried to pick them all up, with almost good success, and then proceeded to walk on the few he left in the floor when we went to get more. Doh.

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