March 24, 2011 Thursday

We tried to get out fairly early to go to San Gimogmano, and didn't leave until 12:30. This cold has set me back further Than I thought it would, and the coughing is terrible, in spite of the cough syrup I bought in Rome. Plus it was laundry day!

The bus was an easy way to go, except the sales person at the station said nothing about having to transfer buses at Poggibonsi. Considering that we're clearly from out of town, and didn't know how to pronounce San Gimignano, you'd think it might have occurred to him that we might benefit from that information. Perhaps it did. The bus driver did say so when I made sure with him That we were on the right bus. The only problem is that I didn't know how far Poggibonsi was, or how obvious it would be when we were there. The bus was stopping on lots of street corners before leaving Florence, then at places seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and in small villages, where those in the know got on and off with complete confidence. My anxiety was mounting and I was prepared to end up in Sienna, which wouldn't be a bad thing. Eventually I began seeing road signs for Poggibonsi and breathed easier, knowing I hadn't missed it. It turns out Poggibonsi is a fairly large city with an actual bus/train terminal, so transferring was easy.

Entrance to San Gimignano

San Gimignano is an interesting ancient town, extremely well preserved and known for it's many towers. Unfortunately, the one it is still possible to climb closed at 13:00, so there was no climbing for us this day. We explored nearly every street in the city, which didn't take long. To traverse the width took five minutes, and the length about ten. Of course, like a typical Italian town, there were many curved streets and alley-sized passages. Though people seemed to live there, it is a very touristy area with lots of shops for souvenier purchases, though at a higher quality than some of the tourist shops in Florence.









We kept ourselves busy for a few hours, found the place to buy our return bus tickets, and waited at the stop where we were dropped earlier. I saw one bus around the corner for Sienna, but none for Poggibonsi or Florence. The weather, which had been shirt-sleeve hot turned to jacket cold and windy. I didn't have my coat. Our bus didn't come. I went to an unfriendly woman at the snack shop nearby who said, yes, stop 2 in front. We were at stop 2 in front and there was no bus. Finally a bus came and we tried to get on, but were refused. He said we'd have to go around the corner. Around the corner I saw that it was also labeled "2". A bus came, and it was again for Sienna. I asked the bus driver and he said get on and change in Poggibonsi! Yes, that means we could have been on the bus that had come an hour earlier. And a lot warmer at this point than we were. Nevertheless, finally we were on the right track and heading home.

By this time I felt so ill, I didn't even want to eat, but had Tenar to consider, so on our walk home from the bus terminal, stopped at a little Osteria across the river. Sitting next to us was a man from San Francisco. On the other side of him were a mother and daughter from San Diego (tables in Italian restaurants are placed very close together). I think U.S. tourists outnumber Italians in Florence. We had a nice visit with the man from San Francisco, who had studied art history and was very excited to be in Florence. As it was his first time also, and he was going on to Rome, we had stories to share. He nicely included Tenar in his conversation also. We left together and parted company at Ponte Vecchio. Even though by this time my voice was hoarse and my ears were plugged, it was nice ending the evening with a little social interaction. Then the usual: home, tea, books in bed.