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Published: October 16th 2010
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I’ll admit it. I was getting tired of travelling.
I was still loving Italy, loving everything we were seeing and doing, but walking into the luxury hotel at San Giminano, enjoying their buffet breakfast, knowing that the town was so small we didn’t have to rush to anything - it made me realize I was kind of tired of roughing it, and kind of tired of sightseeing, and kind of tired of the pace travel requires no matter how slow you take it. That, and we had received the official word that our house had closed and everything went smoothly, and Sam’s mom was minding the shop. All of it kind of made me a little homesick.
But we had more to see, and as tempted as I was to sit on our gorgeous balcony all day, the town of San Giminano awaited. We started at the Rocca, an old fortress on the edge of town. We climbed its small tower, visited its gardens, explored its walls, and stopped for a few moments to listen to a woman in the centre of the fortress playing a harp. From there, we walked the trail around the outside of the town,
then criss-crossed the interior streets. We visited the Museo Civico, which had one of the most memorable paintings of the trip - the painting of a Saint or a monk, holding a miniature model of San Giminano. and climbed the Torre Gorossa for views of the town and spectacular views of the Tuscan counryside. While we were up the tower its bells started clanging! The entire group stopped what they were doing and covered their ears, but all with a collective smile.
We visited the Duomo and found a carving of San Sebastian in one of the other churches.We skipped the Museo della Tortua - its just not my thing, I would have had nightmares for weeks. It was hot and I wanted a quiet lunch, so we found a small restaurant with air conditioning and a dark, candles and dim lights atmosphere, off a small side street (didn’t jot down the name, sorry!). We had a wonderful lunch of risotto, bruschetta and beer, followed by a shared desert and a late afternoon nap in our luxurious room. We were once again supposed to eat at the hotel restaurants, but once again chose instead the solitude of our balcony,
snacking while we watched the sun set quietly over Tuscany.
Of course, not all moments can be peaceful or perfect. One of the slices of pizza Sam brought back was a vile tuna thing that we ended up tossing, it was so bad. And, as we were trying to enjoy the glow of sunset, an extended American family decided to pose for a picture on the walls beneath our balcony. This prolonged twenty-five minute attempt at a photo shoot started and ended with most of them yelling loudly at each other, and arguing about where to eat dinner. We just looked at each other and shook our heads. They seemed to be having a good time, and at the end of the day everyone does that differently. Eventually they passed, and we had our peace and quiet back.
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