Advertisement
Published: June 21st 2008
Day Nine - San Gimignano and Tuscan Dinner
*** The remaining blog entries will be post-trip as the internet services at the hotels in Florence and Rome were flaky at best and very expensive. Swisscomm cost me either 10 euro an hour, or 17 euro a day. That is a lot of money. And when I spend most of the paid time dealing with availability and performance, it cut into my touring time. Regardless, I sent Swisscomm a nasty note, and abandoned the blog until I got home. The hotels did have computers at the hotel you could use by the minute, but you have to contend with many others. *** Today we set out for the little town of San Gimignano which is about 90 minutes outside of Florence. This town still retains it's medieval character and is a wonderful place to visit. The town square is one you would imagine with a fountain in the center surrounded by little shops and cafe's.
Once we climbed up to this hilltop town, we stopped to take advantage of the fantastic view of the Tuscan countryside. Just wonderful.
While in SG, we shopped, ate, and walked along the
many small streets that comprise this little walled city.
It should be noted that we ate at the world's best gelato shop twice and we were not disappointed.
When we returned from SG, Dawn and I took a little trip down the Arno to visit the famous Ponte Vecchio (Vecchio Bridge). It consists mainly of jewelry shops today. We grabbed some pizza at a local pizzeria and headed back to the hotel to get ready for our optional Tuscan dinner later that evening.
The Tuscan dinner was located at a local winery just outside of Florence that seemed to cater to large tour groups. It was raining so I was glad our dinner was held inside. As we entered the the old building, we were greeted by musicians and waiters singing and busily waiting on another Insight group. The staff recognized our presence and quickly ushered us into our dining area. The tables were all set with water, wine, and more wine. In the center, there was a table fully stocked with every imaginable anti-pasta. We sat down and got acquainted with our fellow dining mates and headed over to taste the local fare. Hmmm. We were
told that this winery is well known for its Florentine steak and those of us who wanted the steak had to put our order in the prior day so they could start the marinade process. All but two of our tour group ordered the steak. And all of our local group had steak. As the meal progressed, we were greeted with a “primi piatti” of selected pastas. The ravioli was fantastic. And then the guest of honor arrived. Stacked on plates. Once I saw the steak, I recognized it as a t-bone cut. These were large in-bone cuts peppered with spices. The looked wonderful, and tasted twice as good.
I should mention that during the entire meal we were serenaded by the quited talented tenor, guitarist and waiters. The tenor had a wonderful voice and was very good at working the crowd. Because we gave him a warm reception, I know he gave us more songs than required. We bought his CD.
Once we finished our “secondi piatti”, followed by more wine, the table that once housed the anti-pasta was filled with cakes, pies and tarts. Yes, it was dolci time!
We headed back to our hotel stuffed
from one of the most memorable dinners I have ever had. On the way back we stopped at the Piazzale Michelangelo which has the best view of old Florence. And at night, with all the lights, it was magical.
EPI Notes: On this day we took advantage of two optionals on the tour. If offered on your trip, I highly recommend attending both the San Gimignano and the Tuscan Dinner as they were worth every cent.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.111s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 12; qc: 49; dbt: 0.049s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb
