Ed and Cathy’s greatest hits continue. Today we have a car waiting for us on the dock, and our plans are to run to Siena, wander around the Campo, stroll the back streets, then head up into the Tuscan hills for San Gimignano.
All goes according to plan, except the skies look threatening – dark, cloudy, stormy and a little chilly. Nothing we can do about it as we head out of the port – get stuck in 20 minutes worth of traffic just getting through a roundabout – and finally hit the road to Siena.
We programmed Alice (our new name for the GPS – named after the wi-fi network at the hotel Vecellio in Venice) for Siena but took a wrong turn when we went off on the autostrada and she wanted us to stay on the more rural roads. Another 20 minute delay (and a u-turn) put us back on track for Siena at 11:00a.
We rolled into town exactly on time, parked in our normal parking garage (it’s great when you know EXACTLY where you are) and headed up into the centro. All is well (and the same) in Siena (of course it’s the same, has been for centuries and will be for centuries more, I’m sure!). We strolled through Il Campo, wandered around the Jewish Ghetto, looked out over the lush parkland area that sits in the basin below the Campanile, and just generally enjoyed the atmosphere and being there.
After about an hour, we struck out on familiar roads once again in the direction of San Gimignano. 45 minutes through little windy Tuscan roads, heading up hill through towns and villages, finally catching glimpses of San Gimignano on the hillside. We decided to not chance the upper level parking lot, since last time here we got all turned around up there. So we chose to park in the lower lot – which is the furthest away from town. Plenty of parking, and easy access – worked for us!
Only takes about 10 minutes to climb the hill to the main town, where we wandered the somewhat idyllic main street (too many tourists to really call it idyllic) and ducked under cafe umbrellas when the first drops started to fall. As it turns out, it’s the same cafe we ate in on our last trip – not on purpose though – just a timing thing. We had bruschetta with local chiangale proscuitto and an antipasto with all sorts of local meats and cheeses. We nursed our beer and wine as the rain came down in buckets and we watched people scurry to and fro through the raindrops.
When the rain finally let up, we wandered up through the town, under the archway past the church and to the jewelry store where I wanted to get some Lira (old Italian money) earrings. They were closed for siesta, unfortunately, but the store across the street had some cute 5 Lira earrings, so those are coming home with me.
The skies were really starting to threaten again, so we headed out of town, hitting a couple of wine stores to stock up on Vernacchia and then a couple pastry stores looking for Ossi di Morti (“bones of the dead” cookies only made during All Hallow’s Eve in this part of Tuscany). We couldn’t find any, but we did find Ossi di Siena, which are basically the same. We picked up a pack as the lights went out in San Gimignano and we all had to do everything manually.
The storm had really rolled in by now, and it was pouring. Sheets of rain were coming down, thunder, lightening, the whole 10 yards. And here we are, stuck in town, the car a good 10 minute hike down the hill. As one of our friends used to say “this is so not good”! We tried to wait it out, but there was no stopping this storm. So – we took a deep breath and made a dash for it.
You have never seen such drowned rats in your life! I only wish I had thought to take a picture of us once we hit the car. In our lives, we have never been that wet with our clothes on! It looked like we jumped in the shower fully wet. It was hysterical (in one person’s opinion anyway).
We headed out of town following Alice’s directions – and meandered through the Tuscan countryside, heading north toward the main road to Livorno. Even though it was rainy and overcast, it was still a beautiful drive through the Tuscany hills – dotted with vineyards, farmyards and cottages sitting atop hills surrounded by the ubiquitous pine trees found here. The skies finally did dry up – as did our clothes, and the while not exactly sunny – it did seem a little bit brighter as we headed into the Port at Livorno to drop off our car.
Safely back aboard, we hung our clothes out to dry completely and headed off to our normal life at sea – gym, dinner, Adagio for drinks on our “terrace”. Another adventurous day comes to an end aboard the Ruby Princess.
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