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Published: April 29th 2010
Day Three
Nobody told me that parking a car in Rome could be so much fun. Watching the Romans do it is even more fun, more like touch parking, bit of push here and a bit of push there. Getting the car into the car park took three of us and 187 point turn, getting it out took just me but again a 187 point turn, but no bumping of cars on my part. Still once the car was out, we loaded up our luggage and out of Rome we drove. Not too hard, just road signs are a bit deceiving, and speed limit, well what speed limit, everyone just seems to do what speed they want and toot if ou are going too slow even if you are doing 120 kms.
We stopped at a little bar for coffee and pastries on the way out, which cost us 7 Euros whereas four coffees and no pastries cost us 16 Euros in Rome, such the tourist rip off. As we were driving we stopped at a road side service station on the autostrada and it was amazing the deli and food that was available there, not like the greasy fast
food at home.
Once again the road signs were a bit confusing, we ended going past the turn off to Siena but with some clever working out, the navigator got us to Siena. Once there we had no idea where we were or how to get to San Gimignano, so we went for a walk up to a place called the Garden Hotel and asked where we were and how to get out. They were really helpful and gave us instructions on where we wanted to go. There were great views of Siena from the hotel garden so we stayed for a drink which we were greatly surprised did not cost us our whole budget for the day, as when he brought out the wine he also brought out two plates of tempura vegetatbles and we thought Oh Oh this is going to cost us heaps, but only 18 Euros.
On we drove and yes we managed to get lost again, but we finally arrived at Poggibonsi which is a small town near San Gimignano where we had some lunch and again got directions so off we set. And yes we got lost again! But by some strange
chance we ended up finding a supermarked that we wanted, bought some supplies and set off again. This time the navigator got us straight to San Gimi and we found our way to our accommodation.
Our villa overlooks the winery and olive grove and is fantastic. When you look at the photo we have the top room with the balcony. The views are magnificent and there is a swimming pool and the weather has definitely picked up from Rome. We have got out our singlet tops and thongs. The drive wore me out and I went to bed at 5.00 and did not get up again. Robyn and Pete had a cat nap and woke at 9.15 only Jenny managed to stay awake. It was really good to get out of the city and into the fresh air of Tuscany.
DAY FOUR
We woke up early as we tend to do and all had breakfast and then headed up to the walled city of San Gimignano to explore. There were narrow cobbled streets with lots of interesting little shops to explore and lots of places to see the views from the top of the hill. We found an
internet cafe and spent some time there having cafe and checked out the great food. We then walked and sat at a lovely little ristorante overlooking the valley on the edge of the city. Here we sampled yet another Bruschetta and a glass of Vino. This turned out to be entree, as laster walked outside the city to a Pizza place and had plate of pasta each and a rather large bottle of red wine. It is always a leisurely lunch spent relaxing and talking and laughing and watching people go by. After our lunch we wandered down to the supermarket to pick up more supplies. As we were leaving I had a message from Kerrie (from Selby, now from Box Hill Norh) saying that she and Lee had arrived. Robyn and Pete took the shopping home and Jenny and I met up with them to sit and chat about the holiday so far and what we planned to do. It was great to catch up but amazing that we cant manage it at home, but made the effort in Tuscany. We left them to their shopping and Jenny and I walked home. We all had a bit of a
rest, reading and relaxing and then eventually we had a platter and fell into bed. We seem to get up early but are lucky if we last past 10.00pm, must be getting old, but we are starting at 6.00 to see the sun rise.
PS..... For those of you who might have wondered why we brought Clarkee with us, it has nothing to do with Clark Rubber funding, THAT was only a joke!! We brought Clarkee with us to identify us as Australians because he is a platypus as we have been told that the Italians like Australians and thought it would be a bit of fun. Sorry if there was any confusion about our motives.
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Jackie
non-member comment
Envy
Hi All, I am so jelous gorgeous scenary and good times! Only 2 weeks of work until where off - Yipee!!!! Have a fantastic time and take care xo :)