#74: San Gimignano All To Ourselves
Ciao Nonni,
Hope you are well!
We've had some fun adventures in the past week. We spent last weekend exploring a different part of Tuscany. A part of Tuscany that is much more Tuscan … in the classic, what-you-see-in-the-movies sense. We booked a little apartment for Saturday night in San Gimignano, only 90 minutes in the car from Lucca.
We set off in a rented Fiat Panda (the reason for not taking our car is another story) on Saturday morning and drove south, towards the land of the cypress trees and Chianti.
We had a pit stop in a small-ish town called Certaldo along the way. The main attraction of which is its stunning old town perched on top of a hill. Certaldo Alto can be reached by a short funicular ride up the hill.
The kids loved the funicular, although Raffy asked a lot of questions about the mechanics of the system in her quest to reassure herself that we weren't going to fall too quickly back down. I don't think she was completely satisfied with the quality of my answers (counterweights, emergency braking systems, etc), but she boarded the tram nonetheless and had a great time looking back out across the classic Tuscan countryside view as we ascended.
After a little wander, and a quick coffee (of course) we rode the funicular down and got back in the car. Onwards.
San Gimignano is a place that I have been once before, many years ago, but only for a few hours as a quick day trip in the height of summer. My memory of it is limited to overwhelmingly large crowds of tour groups, and nowhere to park. Our experience in the off peak month of February could not have been more different.
The town is absolutely beautiful. If you asked a movie set designer to build the quintessential medieval Tuscan hilltop town, they would present you with San Gimignano. It was stunning, alarmingly clean, and completely deserted. Almost creepily so. We had the run of the place, and the kids took full advantage.
We enjoyed scoops of gelato from a gelateria in the main piazza that I am advised has a one hour wait to be served in the summer months. It has won the title of the world's best gelato on multiple occasions. There was no line at all.
The owner of the apartment we stayed in, Claudio, advised me that February is a ferie month, and most of the local businesses take a break to fortify their strength for the hordes that descend on the place for Easter and summer. Nevertheless, he pointed us in the direction of a bar that served good coffee and pastries for breakfast, and a local spot for dinner.
It is also a town that is clearly geared for the day trippers, I'm guessing mostly from Florence. Many of the restaurants and bars only provided a lunchtime service, and by 8pm on a Saturday night the whole place was completely deserted.
After a little more exploring on Sunday morning, we headed off. We stopped in at a small working farm (Fattoria Poggio Alloro) a few kilometres outside San Gimignano and took a tour of the farm and on-site winery. The highlight for me was walking through a shed full of about 40 Chianina cows, which are the source of the true bistecca fiorentina - those huge steaks that Florence is famous for. The herd included a few calves that were only a few days old, and they were very cute.
We returned home after a fantastic little getaway, but at the same time glad that we picked a town like Lucca to live in.
Of course Lucca has less busy periods, and many more tourist crowds in summer, but there is still life in the place in months like January and February. Ours were the only kids we saw in San Gimignano, while in Lucca there are still many families and local residents - even in the historic centre.
On our return, we were greeted on the stairs by our gorgeous neighbour Maria. The upstairs one. Last week she had given us a bag of ice cream cones (called cialde) that she had made by hand earlier that day. To say they were delicious would be a serious understatement. Light and crisp, they have ruined fat and soggy waffle cones for me forever. We were effusive in our praise the following day.
Maria beckoned us into her apartment, and showed us that she had prepared the same batter. We sat around her kitchen table, and watched as she and Raffy together made a fresh batch - the two of them chatting away together in Italian, pouring the mixture into the toaster press thing, and then rolling them quickly around a wooden cone to shape them before they cooled and hardened.
It was hard to tell who was enjoying the experience more.
Maria speaks no English, so interactions with her are an excellent test for my Italian. While the conversation is still basic, I always take satisfaction in being able to say more and more each time.
We really are very lucky.
Lots of love and hugs,
Kate
