Siena – June 3, 2023
Jun 18th, 2023 by rallyadmin
We pack up and leave the farmhouse B&B just as the owner arrives to clean up after us. We thank her and head off to San Gimignano to see the medieval city in the daylight.
It’s about 9:00 AM and it’s a beautiful postcard day, almost cloudless. There’s plenty of parking at the parking lot closest to the front gate through the city wall of the old city. Park the car and head into the city.
San Gimignano is famous for the number of towers that have been built in the city. At one time there were 72 towers but over time 58 of them have been destroyed leaving 14 remaining. The story of how such a small town developed so many towers is interesting, to say the least.
In the 14th century, there were two rival families, the Ardinghelli and the Salvucci families who were in a battle to build the highest tower in the city. One family would build a new highest tower, only to have the other family build one higher still.
Interestingly, the only reason the towers were built was to satisfy the family rivalry. Eventually, the town brought an end to the rivalry silliness and forbid any new tower to be built higher than the then highest tower.
Now, of the remaining towers only the highest one is open to climb to the top giving the climbers a panoramic view of the city and the surrounding country side. You have to climb under the massive bell hanging in the top to get from side to side at the top of the tower. Fortunately, the bell is no longer run due to concerns that the vibrations of the ringing bell might damage the tower itself. Well worth the time.
On the way out of the old city, we stop for the first of what will be a lot of gelato. Gelato is the world renown ice cream the Italians devour whenever possible. Wherever there is a gelateria, there is a blocked sidewalk. They love their gelato and for good reason, it’s delicious. Back to the car and on the way to Siena.
We more or less retrace our route back to the autostrada. Finally, we come upon a restaurant on an exit of the autostrada and pull in for lunch. The restaurant is somewhat posh for its location but the food is quite good. There is what looks like a grain process facility at the exit and this restaurant looks like it is here primarily to service the management of the facility.
We have a good lunch and head back to the car to continue to Siena. Just as we start to leave the parking area across from the restaurant when we see the head waiter running across the road with Barbara’s hat in hand. Many thanks to the smiling headwaiter. Definitely a full service restaurant.
We get into Siena and enter the hotel name into Android Auto. The hotel comes up at the top of the suggestions and start trying to follow the route. In these old Italian cities, following the rote can be challenging but, after a few wrong turns, we pull into the parking lot of the most “hotelish” hotel of the trip so far.
Through the front door to a real check in counter with a couple of uniformed women registering us. Fill out the registration form, explanation of all of the amenities, pool, bar, dining room hours, reserve a table for dinner, check out time, copying our passports, map to the room. The whole procedure is the polar opposite of the boutique procedure, all instructions by text or email, entry by keypad locks.
They one thing that we really are interested, laundry, isn’t available. It’s Saturday and laundry isn’t available on the weekend. The woman checking us in shows us on a map where there is a nearby laundromat. It’s disappointing that we have to do the laundry ourselves but it’s better than nothing.
We find the room and gather up the dirty laundry. Out of the hotel, through the park just outside and then down the main boulevard to the laundry. We’re also looking for somewhere to get something to snack on while we wait for the laundry but there’s not much. But just as we reach the corner where the laundromat is supposed to be there’s a bar. That’ll work.
The laundromat has 3 large washers and 3 smaller washers. Some bikers are in ahead of us but there are a couples of washing machines available. We put in some money and apparently screw up the procedure. The machine doesn’t start. We put in more money and try a different machine. This time the machine works and we head off to the bar that we found on the way in for a beer and something to snack on.
The bar is an interesting place in it’s own right. It’s a small place and the snacks are somewhat limited but the seats and tables out on the sidewalk are made from 50 gallons oil drums. It’s a cute idea and we settle in to wait for the washing to finish. The sandwiches that we get for a snack aren’t very good but the beer is fine.
Eventually, the 40 minute wash time expires and we head back to get the wash into a dryer. But there aren’t any of the 4 dryers available, mstly because a woman is using 2 of the 4 dryers for loads of sheets. She’s likely a local B&B owner who isn’t about to waste her dryer on the B&B’s sheets. But she finishes and Barbara loads our stuff in the dryer and we head back to the bar for more snacks.
Then back again to the laundromat. Our stuff isn’t dry yet so we do another run but wait here for the dryer to finish. It does finish and the laundry is dry enough. Back to the hotel with clean laundry and a reservation for dinner in the hotel dining room.
Dinner turns out to be surprisingly good. With a good wine and some dessert. We call it an early night. It’s been a long day and tomorrow it’s explore Siena.
Obi-wan