Italy continued

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Now to the next destination, but first a buffet breakfast of meats, cheeses, fruits, pastries and cappucino (without the chocolate on top thankfully. The dude on the desk goes to get my car, clearly they don't trust me! We leave Lucca and make our way through a series of small roads and highways to Pisa, so close we must do the "tower". We drive up a street designated for parking and all these black guys holding packets of tissues to sell - hawkers, handy I think as we both have colds by now, but no, as well as the tissues they want 5 euros to look after our car! No point arguing, we pay. Take lots of photos of the tower (and NOT one of 'those' photos) & other buildings and we are off again, this time to San Gimniano. The Tuscan countryside is quite beautiful & we meander thru the back roads and find our way to SG. We spend 2 hrs exploring this amazing town with all its towers, can't climb today as it's Sunday, settle for lunch in one of the few places open and off again, this time to our overnight stop of San Donato in Poggio. We have our usual problem iof finding the town but not the accommodation. We park and walk, fortunately see signs for the restaurant La Toppa which is quite famous in these parts, and one of the main reasons for staying here, and it is next door the the B&B. Unfortunately the restaurant is closed from Jan 22 - Feb 18, bummer was looking forward to that. We ring the bell and a massive door swings open and Maria meets us at the stairs & shows us our room & where breakfast is servered and bids us goodnight - short and sweet! We unpack and explore the village, which is perched on the top of a hill, make a restaurant booking & find a little corner shop/bar where the locals sit watching Chelsea v Liverpool with Italian commentators. We grab a couple of beers from the fridge, 2 euros each, god I love this. We buy a "very good" bottle of Chianti Classico for 9and a half euros and head back. Just then a knock at the door and we are greeted by a guy with a bottle of Chianti and 2 glasses, compliments of Maria, our good one will have to wait. We head to the restaurant, 2 mins walk, as planned at 8 and the place is packed, on a Sunday night, good sign. We are fussed over, waitresses practice their English, us Italian, order some more Chianti (half litre caraffe) and 2 pizzas to share - they are brilliant, Calzone stuffed with ham, salami and ricotta, the pizza has tomato, pecorino & sausage topped with fresh rocket, yum. Given this is a relatively light meal, we settle on dessert, her a white panacotta with a strawberry coulis, me the chococlate and hazlenet icecream, plus my usual espresso to finish, no grappa tonight.

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