Today we are heading out to San Gimignano & Siena. Driving takes full concentration there are so many things that are different when you are driving on the other side of the road. I don’t know how many times I reached for the door handle rather than the gear stick. You have to remember which way to look for traffic when you come to intersections. Anyway we headed off to San Gimignano first, it took about 30 minutes or so.
San Gimignano is another, you guessed it, walled hilltop town. This one is a lot bigger than Orvieto. San Gimignano rises on top of a hill 334m above sea level, clearly visible in the distance with its many towers. Today 13 towers remain of the 72 towers of the fourteenth century, when every well off family built a tower to show its economical power.
We climbed one of these to get a great view of the town and surrounding countryside. For a cost of course, 7 euros each. There are a number of Piazza’s but it must of been market day as they were all filled with stalls selling all sorts of wares. Di enjoyed the shopping of course. Stayed there till about 11 am and then headed back to the car for about a one hour drive to Siena.
Siena is a much bigger town the centre of which is the old walled city. The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation’s most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008. Seemed to me that there were that many there today. Siena is famous for its cuisine, art, museums, medieval cityscape and the Palio, a horse race held twice a year on the 2nd of July and the 16th of August. We were right in the middle so missed all the action.
The Palio horse race (no I didn’t take this photo)
The race itself, in which the jockeys ride bareback, circles the Piazza del Campo, on which a thick layer of dirt has been laid, three times and usually lasts no more than 90 seconds. It is common for a few of the jockeys to be thrown off their horses while making the treacherous turns in the piazza, and indeed, it is usual to see unmounted horses finishing the race without their jockeys.
The Piazza del Campo is huge and I guess it would need to be to host a horse race around it. We had lunch at one of the cafe’s around the perimeter.
We decided that we craved the solitude and relaxed atmosphere of San Donato so headed back to the car for the trip home which took about an hour. Had a great day and saw heaps.
Tomorrow we head to Vareena on the shores of lake Como, by train of course, the trip first takes us to Milan and then on to Vareena. Train is the best way to travel in Europe. I find driving although good from the point of view of being flexible with when you want to travel, as the driver you have to concentrate so much on driving because your driving on the wrong side of the road. It’s much more pleasant to watch the world go by in the comfort of an air conditioned railway carriage. It also allows me time to blog.
Well done driving Lee. What a lot of interesting things to see and do there. Are you loving the food and wine.
Missing that weather tho. How’s the wifi there
Loving every moment so far, all has worked like clockwork. The WiFi has been really good too. Orvieto and San Donato have faster internet than I do at home.
Reaching for the door handle instead of the gear stick….seems like many similarities to driving on the wrong side as entering the wrong cabin on a catamaran. You guys are getting to see so many places, you’ll be well traveled and well versed on Italy!