San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, driving around and getting lost

Tuscany can be hard to navigate.  First off, mio Italiano non e buona.  Secondly, the streets are poorly marked, the signs are often weirdly placed (or nonexistent) and every other driver is in a huge hurry to get around you (no matter where you are or where you want to be going).

That's a longwinded way of saying this day got off to a mildly inauspicious start when a poorly marked roundabout flung us in the wrong direction for about 20 minutes before we realized that I'd screwed up.  Wasting 40 minutes of time on a hot day is not a lot of fun.  Fortnately Luigi (our Fiat) has pretty good A/C but it did sort of set a tone for the day.

We set off this morning with high hopes - we wanted to see San Gimignano (a famous walled town) and possibly Siena.  Our hostess insisted that we stop at Monteriggioni, another walled city (less known than San Gimignano and less overwhelmed with tourists).




Going from our agriturismo (near Rufina) to San Gimignano is already a bit of a long day but even with the 40 minute diversion - and late start - we soldiered on.

San Gimignano is gorgeous.  It's also filled wall-to-wall with tourists of every stripe.

San Gimignano...

I took this after a couple of people stepped out as it was the only passageway I saw in the city that wasn't clogged with tourists (for a moment)

I am still coming to terms with my impressions of San Gimignano.  The city is beautiful, the people are great but everything is a bit too Disney-fied.  All of the shops are a bit too strong in their come-ons, the food prices are quite steep, and it felt... sanitized, or packaged, or like that type of cake icing that's just a bit too sweet.  After the long drive and the heat we were all tired and to top it all off we spent too much money on the Museo de Tortura.

The Torture Museum *is* cool, but on a day where everything was not-quite-right it was a bit much.  On the upside, Erin enjoyed it (not sure what to read into that) and it got us out of the heat of the day.

Leaving San Gimignano (around 2:00) we realized we'd never get back to Rufina at a reasonable hour if we tried to pack Siena into the same day, so we bagged it and decided to pick up Monteriggioni and then head home.

Monteriggioni...

Monteriggioni was truly a hidden gem - it's a classical "castle town" that (oddly) hasn't seen development spill outside the city walls.  As a result it's extremely tiny, but feels much more intimate and authentic than San Gimignano.

I was quite struck by the engineering of this bit of road.  There's a significant slope here and the herringbone pattern was designed to drive water away from the center of the road and into gutters on the side, where it would drain out.  The usage or porous soft stone made this quite treacherous to walk on, even on a dry sunny day.

There is an EXTREMELY cheesy "Templar Museum" but they had stocks you could use for a photo op.

So we did.

I climbed the city walls for 2 euro.  Shannon stayed in the shade because it was hot as Satan's armpit.

Great view.

Looking out

Panorama over the town

We headed back to Podere il Poggiolo and immediately we all changed into our swimsuits and jumped into the pool.  It's amazing how much a nice dip can refresh you and change your perspective.