We now return to our regularly scheduled programming…

When we last left our intrepid honeymooners they had arrived in Siena and spent a nice evening exploring the town and relaxing. We rejoin them the following morning…

After waking up way earlier than we wanted to thanks to more church bells than any one town needs, we headed for the rental car office to pick up our car. Once in possession of our four door Smart car, we made for San Gimignano. The drive there definitely made me realize we were in Tuscany.

Every time we looked out over the scenery it looked like a postcard. Villas dotted the hills, and fields of grape vines and gnarled olive trees lined the roads. Basically it was everything I thought it would be and more. When we got away from the main roads it seemed like the only thing to remind us that it wasn’t one or two hundred years earlier was the car and the asphalt road.

We arrived in San Gimignano late in the morning. Since we hadn’t eaten much for breakfast we (or at least I) started looking for places to eat immediately. We wandered into the old walled part of town for a little bit, but in the end we returned to a small trattoria we had passed about 100 meters outside the wall. Mixed, grilled vegetables, ribolitta soup, gnocchi with a four cheese sauce, and grilled pork steak more than filled us up.

Our walking pace slowed by the good food and wine, we ambled through the streets, browsing in shops and enjoying the vistas around the edge of town. Feeling refreshed after a gelato we made our way back to the car having thoroughly enjoyed San Gimignano.

The next stop was Volterra. Volterra is a site of some of the earliest Etruscan artifacts. After a quick stop at a café for a coffee and to dodge the rain, we went to a museum with many of the artifacts that had been found in and around Volterra. At the very least we learned that the Etruscans were very adept at giving their citizens a very nice burial. It seemed like half the museum contained funerary statues and urns. Wife probably got a lot more out of it than me because she’s more knowledgeable about art history.

Feeling that we had covered Volterra we returned to Siena for a small dinner and a quiet stroll around town. We had to marshal our strength for Chianti was still to come.

Frog