San Gimignano, Italy

Getting here was comical. Many, many people told us to rent a car for our 2nd week in Italy. Friends back home who’d been to Tuscany, friends/co-workers in Switzerland – even local Italians. We should have listened. After a taxi, train, bus ride and pickup from our agriturismo (local farm providing rental property) owner we finally arrived to the destination in one piece. The funny thing – the total distance was only 44km. By listening to just about everyone else we’d have been door to door in 40 minutes tops (accounting for at least one wrong turn). We were now situated in Tuscany, about 2.5 km outside of San Gimignano. The farm we stayed on had vineyards (Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet grapes) and olive groves. Walking in to our apartment had complimentary bottles of the farms red, white and olive oil. This was the experience we sought! Our country walk proved daunting on the first night as we had a 2.5km walk to get groceries. Keep in mind these were on single lane roads with no sidewalks and minimal curbs. We survived, but it made for an intense pace. Our first day brought cold rainy weather so we did our best to deplete the farms firewood supply – giving us a great day in the Italian countryside.

Day 2 brightened up a bit and we walked into town. The walk to San Gimignano was just as we expected. Vines and olive trees as far as we could see. Hiking around the outskirts of town offered even more breathtaking views of Tuscan countryside. This is a place you could spend a lot of time. As you look at the San Gimignano skyline you can’t help but notice the towers above. Hundreds of years ago they claimed to have over 100 and now the town is a UNESCO World Heritage sights. We managed to scale one of the towers, which was far less crowded then our last experience in Florence. Apparently after New Year’s tourists disappear – outstanding. We basically had the tower to ourselves. To the north you could see snow capped mountains and we’re still trying to figure out if they were the Dolomites or the Alps – surprisingly you could make an argument for both.

Town was relatively empty and we saw our first dose of the Saldi (famous Italian sales – January and June/July). The weekend would likely bring more crowds… Walking around barren streets was pretty cool in this medieval town; it gave a sense of how removed from the hustle of a city here.

The countryside and our agriturismo were a hit. We reached it just in time as next week they shut down through March (planting new vines). On our walk back home we had a chance to see some of the new fields getting some work done. As we ventured farther along on the farm we heard some shots in the outlying hills. After looking around we realized about a km down the hill was a man in an orange hunting vest. Our trek ended and we opted for the comfort of our apartment through the rest of the trip.

For some addtional pics of Tuscany, click here...