 We rested up for a few hours in our new apartment... well needed after today's ordeal of finding the place. After photographing the view from our window as the setting sun changed its look every few minutes, we headed out to San Gimignano for dinner. The ride to town is short--only about 8 miles--but pretty hairy with lots of curves and hills. And the Italians like to race around every blind curve crossing over the line (if there is one) or hug my tail as I (pardon my safe driving) downshift through a downhill hairpin turn. These people (men & women alike) imagine themselves as race drivers in the grand prix. Today we saw an example of what must happen to some of these speed demons... a huge upside down 18 wheeler on the downhill side of a mountain road. It looked as if they just left it there many months ago. Weird. We parked in a pay lot under the walled side of the village... there was an elevator up to the historic center. Cool... and a nice break for my knees. A slow stroll took us slowly up toward the center... where we found an adequate restaurant with a table next to tall windows framing a wide view of the valley below. As we dined, the lights twinkled in the valley far below us. We then walked up to Piazza della Cisterna with half a dozen of the towers on all sides. Imagine that there used to be almost 100 towers but only 14 remain standing. An amazing gelataria called out our names. I had mezzo ciocolatto, mezzo coco (half chocolate, half coconut). Lucas had chocolate and orange. Lisa had chocolate caramel. We enjoyed the cool air and gelato. Italians think it's winter... to us it's a refreshing night. We sat on the steps of the gorgeous marble wellhead in the center of the piazza... a guitarist played soft music in front of us. A wonderful finish to a long day. --Jerry Finzi Comments are closed.
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