Our Italian Honeymoon - Part 3: San Donato

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April 28th 2007

Published: August 18th 2007

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Jay and Sue

Waiting outside the Walls of San G.

This area was marked "Taxi Stand", however after two and a half hours no taxi was seen...

Day 5…Getting to San Donato

Up and on the go early in the morning we said our farewells to Florence and headed for the train station. Our next destination was a farmhouse/vineyard located in San Donato, a tiny medieval village located about 5 miles from San Gimignano, in the heart of Tuscany. With the two of us being wine lovers (especially Chianti/Sangiovese) this destination was especially exciting for us. Arriving here however proved to be a little more difficult than anticipated…and not because I never researched my butt off before we left!

First we had to get the train from Florence to Poggibonsi. No problems here. After waiting in Poggibonsi for a while for the bus (where we discovered why there is such a big fuss over Gelato…mmm…Gelato) we were off to San Gimignano.

The sights out the bus window were amazing…up and down, up and down the rolling Tuscan hills. Our first view of San Gimignano was amazing. The town sits atop a large hill, with it’s many towers reaching upwards towards the sky. We were pumped…little did we know what lay ahead…do-do-do-dooo…

The excitement quickly turned to frustration when we realized there was no real

The View from Our Room

Looking out our bedroom window over our great view

form of public transportation in San Gimignano to go to the local area. After several running trips inside the city walls to ask for advice/assistance as to how to get to San Donato (while Susan waited at the so-called “taxi stand”), several calls to non-understanding taxi drivers, and two really bad sunburns, we finally managed to speak with a local taxi operator who assured us that he would be there to get us.

Three hours after arriving in San Gimignano we finally made it to San Donato, thanks to Claudio, our very kind driver guy. The drive wasn’t too far (~5 miles like I said), but to walk it with our backpacks and roller bags would have surely proved strenuous. San Donato was everything we could have hoped it would be and more. We later decided that if we ever come back to Italy we would surely come back to Fattoria San Donato, where we would be spending the next three nights.

Our awesome host Umberto showed us to our room (called Castlevecchio Appartamento), which contained a working fireplace, fully equipped kitchen and all the amenities of home. The view out our bedroom window was beautiful, looking

The Courtyard

This is the central area of Fattoria San Donato. We drank many a glass of wine at the table there under the tree

out over hills of endless vineyards.

We spent the afternoon exploring the Fattoria, tasting Umberto’s Family wines (mmm) and playing in the olive grove. For supper we walked down the road a short way to a hotel resort where we ate and drank to our hearts content. I actually drank a little too much! ;-)

After unsuccessfully trying to light the fireplace we spent the night relaxing over another bottle of Unberto’s Chianti Colli Senesi “Fiamma”. This translates to “the hills of Chianti” and is named after his daughter. Whatever it was, it was great!

Day 6…A Day in San Gimignano

Today we decided to explore San Gimignano, this time without luggage, and with Claudio’s business card in my pocket for the ride home. Umberto was heading into town and offered us a lift, so after a breakfast consisting of cereal, croissants and dried meats, we were off.

We were dropped off at the bottom of the hill and followed the crowd up the path towards the city walls…where there was a bigger crowd. The town that looks like a castle…very cool. Oh and did I mention how crowded it was?

Walking into San Gimignano

This pic shows some of the crowd...on the road leading up to the town centre

The hoards of people didn’t bother us though…after all, how can tourists complain about tourists??? There was one thing that I really wanted to do in San G, apart from just explore…to climb the Torre Grossa (tallest tower).

We jolted up to the centre of town (UP should be stressed!) and straight to the ticket office in an effort to beat the crowds, as we figured this would be a popular attraction amongst tourists. It worked, and we got up without any trouble at all. On the way up we passed through the town museum and admired some artwork, which of course included many renaissance paintings (i.e. virgin and child paintings). The climb to the top was cool, and the views from above were amazing. The pictures don’t do it justice!

After descending from the tower we explored the square and some of the many shops, then stumbled upon a wine shop that offered many, many tastings for a nice price. Needless to stay we tasted a few…some better than others, but all good! Buzz-on we then left to go out exploring further, taking pictures and souvenir shopping. Susan got a leather jacket and I found the hat

Main Town Square

Yet another pic from the top...

that I came to Italy looking for! After some pizza we headed into the torture museum. After all, what trip to a medieval castle town would be complete without a trip to the local torture museum!?

After an hour or so discovering new ways to near kill a man (or woman) with crazy inventions, we explored a little more and then decided it was time to call Claudio for a ride back to San Donato. Unfortunately he was unavailable, so we studied a map and left to hike it. For some reason it seemed that day that the “rolling Tuscan hills” always rolled up! When we finally made it back we were beat, so we decided to relax in the courtyard and…you guessed it, drink some wine!

Umberto informed us that being Sunday, the restaurant down the road wasn’t open. He told us not to worry, and that they would prepare a meal of dried meats and breads for us. What eventually came to us was much more than that! Sure there were dried meats and bread, along with a huge bowl of delicious pasta, a couple different cheeses, two bowls of onions and peppers and other

Our Feast!

This was above and beyond...and frikkin' great!

pickled veggies, a huge basket full of biscotti, and bottles of wine and sweet wine! After eating and eating and drinking and drinking, we still had enough for lunch the next day. Thanks to the Fenzi Family!

Another great day and another relaxing night, this time the fire was successful!

Day 7…Old Castles and New Friends

We'd decided that we had enough of San Gimignano's busy streets, so we decided to spend the day relaxing around San Donato. While talking with Umberto the day before he had mentioned an old castle ruin nearby that would make for a nice morning hike, so we decided to get some more information from him anbd take it on.

It turned out that the ruins he mentioned were that of Castelvecchio (in English simply “Old Castle), the same castle from which our apartment at the farm was named. We got our directions (twice!), packed a lunch from our leftovers from the night before (and also our umbrellas, as it was beginning to rain), and headed off on our adventure.

The road to the castle path was located just across the road from our residence. Once

On Route to Castelvecchio

You can see the top of the castle keep over the trees...

again today it seemed as though the “rolling Tuscan hills” only rolled up, as the road ascended steep through the hills, past a couple farmhouses. From the road we could see in the distance the tower of the old castle peaking up above the trees…had sort of an Indiana Jones feel (though I’d left my hat back at the farm!). After about an hour we found the path leading off the right of the road as Umberto had told us wed would. This path went down (way down all the ups!) to an old dried up riverbed, before heading straight back up all the ups to the castle path.

Before long the castle tower loomed above us, lightning scarred and ruined through the years. I attempted to climb it, but soon chickened out under fear of the stones giving way and Susan having to drag my broken ass 3 or 4 miles back to the road! We soon found out that the remains of Castelvecchio were more the remains of an old fortified town (as most old Tuscan towns are/were fortified) than that of a castle per say. Still very cool none the less! We explored what was believed

One of the Towers

to be many old residences, the old church (which along with the castle keep was the most intact structure) and parts of the town walls. We stumbled across what looked to be an old excavation base, where we stopped for a picnic. The dried meats, bread and cheese, coupled with some biscotti and wine proved to be very fulfilling.

After returning home to Canada I decided to further research the ruins to learn more about their past. One useful website is:

http://www.castellitoscani.com/castelvecchio.htm.

The closing statement on the web page is as follows:
“Who today succeeds in reaching the zone, invaded from the vegetation and at perennial risk of ulterior collapses, walks on the earth consecrated by a mysterious people where the history has confined its ghosts.”
I particularly like this statement, as while walking through the ruins we had a very eerie feeling, almost creepy, as though we were walking among the ancient ghosts…I know this sounds really corny, but it’s true!

On our way back to the farm we walked around the town walls (I’m kind of an “old wall” freak!) and Susan seen a wild boar. After so many dead (stuffed) ones it

Susan and our Host

was nice to see something move!

Back at San Donato we enjoyed another bottle of the Fenzi’s delicious Chianti in the courtyard while chatting with a local bus/taxi driver out from Florence for the day with a busload of tourists. Little did we know at the time would be calling on him (Alesandro) the next day….

Feeling the effects of the wine we strolled around the farm and it’s vineyards and poppy fields for a while snapping pictures and taking it all in. Being only April yet, the vines were small, however we were surprised to find little baby grapes clinging to them. We headed to Umberto’s office to purchase 3 bottles of wine for the trip home (somehow now 4 month later still sitting in our rack!), and met an American couple Fred and Janet who were just arriving and looking for advice as to what to do with their next few days.

Later when we went out for supper we banged into them again, and the four of us headed down the road to the hotel once again. Good wine, good food and good company…the perfect way to end our awesome stay in Tuscany.