A Final Day in San Gimignano

On Wednesday after our busy day in Sienna we returned to San Gimignano in the evening for dinner in a lovely little hidden-away pizzeria on the hillside. With our four different selections we could have quite a variety and each one was superb as was the local wine of course! After our meal we walked back through the walls and into the town. There had been a huge wind rushing through the town earlier in the evening and quite a bit of damage had been done in the garden including smashed pots. However, when we emerged from the restaurant it was dead calm and the township was really quiet as I think people were staying inside. Later it livened up a bit but we enjoyed the relative peace and it gave us a chance to explore a bit more.

Thursday

CJ and I went for an 8am run extending it to extra hills and we ended up running a bit further. There were a lot of uphills but there were a lot of downhills too and overall I really enjoyed this run - not fast but very pleasant.

Total distance: 11km

I don't have the details with me but it did burn up plenty of calories and every calorie helps!!

Today we stayed in San Gimignano as it was market day. We managed to buy a few goodies for our evening meal and there was a lot of climbing up and down the hill from our apartment to the town as we also later did more food shopping for the meal in the supermarket.

Today we incorporated 'The Museum of Torture' in our explorations. What an horrific experience. How can mankind be so cruel! Those instruments of torture were absolutely revolting and mind-boggling and graphic to say the least! What really surprises us is that in this small beautiful town there are THREE museums of torture - aaaaaah - enough to give one nightmares! The details of how they all worked were translated into English but some of those torture methods were very self-explanatory. Incredible punishments were metered out for women who gossiped, anyone caught smoking tobacco and for those not attending church regularly - hmmm - just as well we didn't live in those days!

In the evening the CJ's came over to our place for our cooking efforts. We started with antipasto as we had found some various prosciutto and salami and melon and crostini. We had also found some fresh Italian bread at a bakery. The Tuscan bread is unsalted and different from other parts of Italy. We followed this with a pasta dish, salad and grilled veges and an apricot pastry dessert we found at the markets and of course the prerequisite local San Gimignano wine, chocolates and limoncello. No wonder we have to continue burning calories with our running and walking all these hills! However, the burning of calories does not seem to compensate for all the calories we are eating and the clothes are definitely feeling tight!

Friday - Last day in San Gimignano

This morning CJ and I ran at 8am again while Mr B ran at 9.30am! It was a hot day today so I was glad we ran early. This time we ran up to the town and ran round the walls - it was still undulating but we saw lots of little interesting niches that we hadn't seen before. However on the return I had to cut my run short and return to the apartment.

Total distance: 6.5km

Although we all had a pretty good night's sleep everyone was a bit tired this morning and we decided against returning to Florence. Instead we decided to spend our last day ensuring we didn't miss a single thing in San Gimignano. We walked up to the town and explored every little street. Mr B and I walked to La Rocca where there is a wine museum and a stunning view. There we sat on a wall and listened to a harpist playing and singing beautiful music outside in the sunshine.

We walked through the back alleys discovering little nooks and crannies hitherto unseen and stopped for delicious bruschettas in a hidden away Taverna - absolutely yummy. Later after finding all sorts of gorgeous artwork we ate our last gelato here and sat in the piazza watching and listening to the locals. This was a much more relaxing day.

This afternoon we will go inside the cathedral. Later we need to pack before farewelling another beautiful Tuscan town.