Four towns through Tuscany (well a bit of Umbria too)

Monteriggioni.

A tiny mountain top, walled village. Lovely little feast of salamis, cheese and bread. A great place to visit that the tour buses have not found in great abundance. And, big bonus, you can walk from one side to the other in minutes, well almost seconds actually. The medieval wall still surrounds the entire village and with no new development beneath the walls you really have walked back in time. Rachel discovered a factory shop for a local shoe factory and walked out with some lovely boots.

San Gimignono


I am sure pages have been written about this beautiful town between Siena and Florence. We arrived in the late afternoon, but it was still crowded. You may think, another walled hill top town in Tuscany, seen one you have seen them all, but that is so wrong. Escaping the crowded main street we walked around the outskirts, along the walls. Eventually discovering a little wine bar with tables looking out across the sunset and the Tuscan countryside. A nice local white.
Moving back onto the main drag, the bulk of the tourists had disappeared and we discover a real draw card, the gellataria. We were advised by the NZ family we met in Florence (see previous entry) and, wow, fantastic. Large, (two flavours for the usual price of one), delicious, great texture, good cones… an all round perfect ice cream package. They had won an award of some sort, a poster proclaiming top Gellatria in Italy in 2006. We had a large pizza on the steps of the cathedral after the sun had set. Only a couple of hours in this beautiful town, but a fantastic experience.
We spent the night in a car park campsite having failed to find somewhere in Siena. A friendly attendant who would drive you up to the town whenever you wanted and dropped you right in the middle of a roundabout (the same place he picked up from).

Siena


Bizzare, we arrived in Siena, having been advised by the attendant in San Gimignono that we park by the train station. We look around for the ‘quintessential Tuscan hill town’ (that’s what Lonely Planet says anyway) and see nothing but ugly modern apartments, bridges and train tracks. We head in what we believe is the right direction and catch a glimpse of a red brick town wall. Slowly the town starts to unfold and turns out to be a great experience. The red brick is the Sienese trade mark as we learn from our book and experience for ourselves.


We arrive in the main piazza. An amazing half circular affair that slopes towards the flat side of the half circle. The sun is beating down, and we choose a spot in the piazza for our feast of local salami, cheese and bread. Note on the Tuscan bread, takes some getting used to, Tasha has not managed to get used to it so the search for bread has been a bit of a drama at times.
Bex, Tasha and I climbed the 400 steps up the tower and we are rewarded with a view of Siena that allowed you view the rooftops of the houses and admire twisting streets.


We checked out the museo beside the tower. The Museo is inside the building of the town hall which has the claim of being the oldest building in Europe that has always and is still being used for the purpose for which is was built, dating back to around 1250. The frescos in one of the rooms tell many tales, one of which is about good government ; separation of law making from justice and the feedback loop from the people to the lawmakers. The alternative, bad government portraying dictatorship and justice being tied up and her scales being broken.
Next and last stop in Siena was Il Duomo. The front was covered in building stuff, but the inside had been basically renovated now. The floor, amazing.. The floor was covered in inlaid marble images portraying scenes from Siena’s past, stories of the usual saints and generally stuff about, well, church stuff. But all made with inlaid marble.
Siena is clearly a place that a long experience will be truly rewarded, but we have too many places to go and too much to see.

Gubbio
Following our 1000 Places to See Before You Die book we choose an off the beaten track town about 50k north of Perugia as our next stop.
Unlike the Tuscan towns we visited perched on hill tops, Gubbio appears to grow out of the hill side. Gubio is really very special and a must see, I think in many ways the most amazing town we have visited in Italy. Gubbio really has managed to avoid the tourist buses, which is also a bonus.
This is a medieval town that allows you to step back in time. Climbing the twisty streets up the hill you are surrounded by the sites of the stone houses toppling over each other as if they are scrambling to get the best view down the valley. We scramble to the top of the town and find an enormous piazza / balcony that looks down onto the town below and across the hills of Umbria. A little further around and our walk is rewarded with a little stand selling coffee, tables under the sun and time to relax.
Two of the streets are laid with red carpet, there is some kind of a food festival in town. Large tents at the bottom of town hold the secret. We walk away with cheeses from across Italy, a salami and chocolate bits and pieces. The cheese man, in halting English had us trying everything from truffle cheese, saffron cheese and the yummiest cheese, I think an Umbrian version of pechirino encrusted with grapes… really delicious.
This was truly a magnificent town, well worth the detour from Perugia. We spend the night in another car park… kind of getting used to it now, seems the only option in this part of Italy with most of the campsites closed for the season.
We are now in a real camp site on the outskirts of Perugia, having a day out from touristing as it is a Catholic holiday and everything is shut… and the rain is coming down for the first time in a long time.