We set an alarm for 6:45 AM this morning, so much for a relaxing vacation sleeping in. It was early, but we had a good night’s sleep, and we would rather get up early and get out than deal with larger crowds later in the day. Our plan for today was to leave between 8:15 AM and 8:30 AM, so our alarm time gave us plenty of time to get ready, eat some breakfast, and get on the road without rushing.
Today, we are driving first to the town of San Gimignano, about 51 km away, an hour’s drive from our hotel. It is famous for being a hill town with towers. The second stop will be at Volterra, another Tuscan hill town a little farther away from Montaperti than San Gimignano. If we have time, we will also stop at a small hill town called Monteriggioni.
It was a little foggy when we finally left. We hoped it would burn off by the time we arrived at San Gimignano. The drive to San Gimignano was about one third on a highway, and two thirds on small winding roads with hairpin turns. It was fun to drive with the stick shift in the Peugeot, it handles very well. The speed limits were sort of a mystery, on some really tight winding roads, the limit was 90 kph, which was impossible to do with the severe curves. On other roads that seemed straight and docile, the speed limit was a mere 30 kph. It was also hard to tell when the speed limits changed, sometimes we saw the signs indicating the slower limit was now over, but mostly we relied on the In car GPS to let us know when the speeds changed, but it was not always accurate. No matter what the posted speed limit was, some drivers obeyed it and others seemed to care less. And then there were the motorcycles, none of which seemed to be limited to any speed, nor limited to when they could or would pass. If there is enough space between you and the centerline, the motorcycles are passing, even if cars are coming in the opposite direction.
Overall, driving here was not that hard to get used to once you understood how the Italians drive. More often than not, most are driving at or under the posted speed limit, the fast higher end cars were an exception. The fastest speed limit we have seen so far is 110 kph, which is not really that fast, about 68 mph. overall, speed limits are much lower here than in Germany.
We had already determined which parking lot we would go to for San Gimignano, as suggested by Rick Steves’ Guidebook. We had already programmed the address for the garage into Google Maps, which we were now using as our primary means of navigation. It worked as well as our portable GPS, but was much easier to load addresses into and find through Google.
We arrived at San Gimignano at about 9:35 AM, and the parking lot we wanted to use near the city entrance was almost empty. It was just a short walk to the main entrance to the walled city from there. The streets were mostly empty, probably because we were early, and it was a Sunday. It was nice for photos, and the sun had finally burned off the fog. We were able to walk into the town square without many people being present, and it made for nice photos. Some shops were open, but many were still closed, either due to the early hour, or because it was Sunday.
We sat for a while and read our guidebook about the city. We had wanted to visit the main church, but it was closed for Sunday Mass. Apparently, none of the main attractions here opened until about 12:30 PM on Sundays.
We walked to the other end of the city, and found a restroom to use. It was amazing how few public restrooms there are in these cities. It was a Euro 0.50 fee, but it was clean and that makes all the difference. We visited a ceramic shop on that end of town, and saw some nice Christmas Ornaments there that were hand painted. Unfortunately, we could not find one that represented this city, known for its towers, that we liked. We had seen a couple of other ceramic shops on the end of town where we entered, so we headed back in that direction.
It was now about 11:15 AM, and as we were walking back to the other end of town, we suddenly noticed that it had gotten really, really crowded. Wave after wave of tour groups, and student groups were coming from the end of town we had entered from earlier this morning. It was like a flood gate of people had opened. Apparently, that end of town is where all of the large tour buses come to drop off their passengers, and we were seeing the impact of all the arriving tours.
We looked through three different ceramic shops on this end of town, and finally went back to one where we had seen an ornament we liked. We just wanted to make sure we checked out all of the possibilities at the other stores before we purchased something. Each shop has different designs for their ceramic items, and all are hand painted. The hand painted ceramic here was spectacular, and the stores sold everything from small plates to giant table tops.
We were getting tired of the crowds, but needed a rest stop, aka bathroom, before we got into the car to drive to Volterra. Our only option was to go into a bakery/deli and order some food so we could use their restroom. It was about 11:40 AM, and we needed to stop for lunch anyway. We got two sandwiches, and ate inside, and this gave us “free” access to their restroom. The store was run by three older ladies, and they were hawks when it came to making sure only patrons who purchased food there used their facilities. One couple wanted to use the restroom first, and then order, but that was not allowed, they had to purchase their food first. It was sort of a scheme that we think many of the vendors here utilized to their favor, there were so few public facilities. It certainly helped their sales to promote their restroom use with food orders. Our sandwiches were good, and reasonably priced, so we had no complaints. With full bellies and empty bladders, we were ready for the drive to our next town, Volterra.
We headed to our car, and paid for our parking at the automated machine, and were on our way to Volterra. It was about a 25 minute drove there, once again on winding roads. We wanted to try and get a photo of San Gimignano from a distance as we left, and we tried a couple of times to find a good spot large enough to get off the road and finally found one that gave us a good photo opportunity.
It was an uneventful drive to Volterra, similar to the drive to San Gimignano, winding roads, high speed limits that we could not possibly maintain with the sharp curves, and mysterious slower speed limit areas.
We had programmed the Google Map directions to go to Parking Lot 1, which was the closest to the city, and most popular. They had an electronic sign to indicate how many spaces were open in each lot, and P1 said zero. We headed up there anyway to see if some cars might be leaving since it was already early afternoon.
There was an attendant at the entrance road to the parking lot’s ticket machine/gate, and he said just to pull up to the automated ticket machine and wait a couple of minutes, and sure enough a car left the garage and the ticket machine would now issue a ticket for us to enter. They automatically keep track of the number of vehicles in and out and the ticket machine would not issue us a ticket until someone left first, so it was one in for one out.
We found an open spot easier than we thought, there were several cars in the process of leaving as we entered. It was very, very tight spacing, and Stephanie had to get out and assist me to get our car into the space. It took a couple of tries of going back and forth to get our car in straight.
We grabbed our gear and headed out of the garage and up to the city. We first went into a small square called Palazzo del Priori that was for the City Hall and its tower. We next went over to the Palazzo Viti, which was a Palace from the 19th Century. There were exhibit rooms, and the Palace is still lived in today, but in other areas not open to the public. It was interesting and the admission ticket included a wine tasting in the cellar, which we headed to after looking through the various rooms of the palace, all decorated with 18th century items.
At the wine tasting, our server gave us two glasses each containing only a small amount of red wine, which we had chosen over their white wine. There was a small plate with salami, cheese and bread squares coated in olive oil. It was just a small serving of each, but everything was really good.
We left the cellar and headed along the main street until we got to another square that had a scenic overlook of the surrounding valley.
We wanted to find the Porta all’Arco, one of the main entrances to the city dating back to the first century BC. It was considered an Etruscan Arch, and still existed from the original four mile long wall that originally encircled the city of 20,000 people when the city was first established. The only bad part of going to see the gate was that we had to walk down a nice steep street, and then back up.
We had seen about all of the highlights of Volterra, so we headed back to the car to go to Monteriggioni. We wanted a picture of Volterra from a distance, so we drove down a road that appeared to have good vantage points for our photo. We had seen the road from the city, and it looked fairly open for getting pictures of the city up on the hill.
Unfortunately, the direction we headed to get the photo was the opposite that we needed for going to Monteriggioni, except the phone GPS directions did not really tell us that at first. We found a couple of different spots to pull over for photos and then drove a few minutes more before the GPS said “make a U-Turn”. That was the first indication we had that we needed to turn around and go back Volterra to head toward Monteriggioni. We did get to stop once more for photos, it was easier to see the town going back toward it, and the last spot we stopped at was the best photo opportunity for Volterra we had found.
Monteriggioni is a very small city that has an oval to roundish wall around it with towers periodically rising up from the wall. We headed up to the parking lot nearest the entrance to the city, and it was almost full. Luckily, we saw someone heading to their car to leave, so we waited for them to pay, and then to pull out. This parking lot worked the same as the other’s, you get a ticket upon entry, and then pay based on the time you spend there. The first hour is higher, usually about Euro 2.50, then Euro 2.00 for each additional hour that you stay past the first hour.
We took some photos from the main square, but there was not really much to see here, and we already knew that from our guide book. Monteriggioni is more famous for its perimeter wall than for the town itself. We walked to the other end of the city, and then back in about 15 minutes, and decided we had seen everything here there was to see, so we headed back to the car.
There was now a line of cars waiting to park, it seemed like everyone was coming to the town for an early dinner, most people we passed walking up from the lot looked like locals. We paid for our short stay, Euro 3.50, which was really pricey for only one hour there. I guess that they realize people do not stay here long, so they jacked up the first hour price.
We decided to try and find a grocery store for some supplies in case we had an issue finding a place near the room to eat tonight. Since we are on a farm, and quite a distance from much civilization, we wanted to have a back-up plan in case we needed to eat in. Apparently, all of the grocery stores in the area are closed on Sunday, not uncommon in Europe, but not an absolute either. We headed to the closest one Google Maps found, it did not say it was closed like some others we located in our search. We actually found another one on the way to that one, and the parking lot was full, but the cars were parked there for the restaurant next door, and the grocery was closed. The other one Google found was right down the road, but when we arrived, it was closed also. It was hard to tell at first, we though maybe it was open because its parking lot was also full. However, same story, it was closed and the cars were there for another restaurant next door. We had wasted enough time looking, and it was obvious by now that any stores in this area were all closed on Sunday, so we headed back to the Agriturismo Montaperti, hoping to fine our host Elizabeth to ask about some nearby places to eat..
We actually scouted around the area by car before returning to our room, using Google Maps to find any restaurants nearby. We discovered there were two restaurants fairly close by, one only a couple of minutes away. We actually had passed it each time we came in and out from the highway to our room, but had not really paid attention to it because it had a name that did not sound like a restaurant, it was called Acqua Borra.
We did find Elizabeth when we got back to the agriturismo, but it was by accident while we were just walking around the vineyards and grounds. They were working, processing picked wine grapes using a special machine to separate the grapes from the stems they grow on.
Here is some research we found on the parts of the grape bunches, it is more complicated than I ever knew. “The peduncle is the main stem that connects them to the cane. The main stem of the cluster is the rachis and the smaller stems that grow off the rachis are known as lateral branches. The stems that connect the grapes to the lateral branches are the pedicels.”
We first ran into her husband, and he told us to follow him if we wanted to see them process the grapes. It was really interesting, they had a large dumping bin full of harvested grapes, they were dumping them into a hopper, and the hopper fed the machine that separated the grapes from the parts of the stem that they grow on, as described above. There was some juice flowing from the dumping bin, and they asked us if we wanted to have a taste. They gave us a small cup of the juice and a few grapes, It was really good, almost better than the wine. It was really sweet, and the grapes were good too, but they were seeded. It was much sweeter than we ever imagined.
Elizabeth then took us on a tour of the fermentation room where this juice and skins was being pumped after separation. These were red grapes, so they are fermented with the skins for color. She showed us a similar, but much older technology machine for separating the white grapes. In addition to the stems, they also remove the skins since they don’t want any color from them in the white wine.
We did get a chance to ask about restaurants nearby and Elizabeth recommended the one closest to the property, it was called the Ristorante Acqua Borra, and had good reviews on Google. Unfortunately, they did not open until 7:30 PM, so we had about 2.5 hours more to wait. We opted to have a snack of cheese and meats with crackers, and some red wine while we waited for dinner time. We also got to do some internet work over at the outside picnic table where the Wi-Fi signal is strongest, and we caught up on emails and other things.
We changed into some warmer clothes, it was a little chilly tonight and the wind was blowing. We left to drive to the restaurant at about 7:25 PM. As we approached, there were already quite a few cars in the parking lot, and since we were not sure how large the place was, we hoped we did not need a reservation.
All the cars ended up being from several local families that were there for dinner with their kids. There is sort of a play area on the grounds, so it was a good place to bring families. The kids were generally well behaved, but a little loud at times, and they were running around a bit having fun. There were a few other people eating there besides that large group.
We had to get some translation help with the menu from our server, but finally decided on a pizza with mushrooms, sausage and of course cheese along with a Pici Pasta dish with white sauce, which has become Stephanie’s favorite. We also ordered a bottle of Chianti wine, which was really good. I had asked about two different bottles, so I thought our server got mixed up, the bottle she brought did not say Chianti on it anywhere, so maybe we ordered something different, and much more expensive by mistake. Time would tell, we would see when we got the bill. The owner had a large one year old Husky, so of course, Stephanie had to go and pet it and take pictures while we were waiting for our dinner.
The food was really good, and so was the wine, which ended up being what we had ordered once we saw the bill. It is so nice that good wine here is not so expensive with a dinner, the wine we drank was Euro 14.00 for a bottle.
Once dinner was done and we paid our check, we headed out, glad it was only a short 2-3 minute drive back to our room. Stephanie was tired from today, so she headed off to bed, and I worked on today’s blog post, it is just easier to keep up on the details of each day by writing it on that day.
I headed to bed about 10:30 PM, we have another 6:45 AM wake up alarm set for tomorrow. We will be heading to the Tuscan towns of Montepulciano and Pienza.