Sunday, July 1, 2012

One last stop...San Gimignano

On our last day in Tuscany, we debated between staying around the house and having a leisurely day or driving to the town of San Gimignano. We all agreed you can't go to Florence and not see the beautiful town of San Gimignano, so we hoped in the car and drove south. San Gimignano lies halfway between Florence and Siena, in the heart of the Etruscan landscape. We took a wrong turn, so it took us an hour longer than it should've to get there, but we eventually made it, and we're oh so glad we did. On the way there we passed by a field of large sunflowers so we pulled over to take pictures in the field, starting a trend with others who did the same. We had gone to San Donato, right on the outskirts of San Gimignano, with our food and wine class for the wine tasting a little over a week ago, but Marco recommended visiting San Gimignano on our own if we were able. Although Italy is known for their red wine, especially with the large Chianti region, Italy's best white wine, Vernaccia di San Gimignano comes from this very place. It is also famous for its medieval architecture, especially the tall towers which can be seen from far away.
torture museum



The first thing we did in San Gimignano was buy tickets to go in both of the turture museums, which I was hesitant about, but they were very interesting and graphic to see and imagine how terrible it must've been back in the day. We shopped in a few of the many shops that lined the main street, getting last minute gifts for family members. We went into a delicatessen where the shop owner sliced wild boar and pecorino cheese for our sandwiches. We got a bottle of local San Gimignano Chianti Classico and went to a panoramic view landing where we ate our sandwiches and drank our wine sitting on a bench. It was the epitome of European and even more, Italian, and how their lifestyle is so simple, yet beautiful. After lunch, we went to a gelato shop that won the gelato world cup a few years back (a Rick Steves recommendation). I had a delicious combination with a scoop of saffron gelato and a scoop of pistachio. We headed back to start packing, said our bittersweet goodbyes to Firenze, and took a train that evening to Rome, where we spent the night before our flight to Charlotte the next morning.
The Cistern
Ciao,

Tarra

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