Day 2: VOLTERRA - SAN GIMIGNANO - MONTERRIGGIONI - SIENA
Friday, January 7, 2011
Today the alarm clock rang at 7 in the morning, although we let it ring for a few more minutes. It seems that no, but we are busted, we need breakfast and that gives us the air to cool off and start with a day that promises to be the most complete, where we will have the opportunity to know the famous town of San Gimignano.
At 8 we are in the breakfast room.
Before checking out at the Albergo Etruria, we decided to go for a walk and enjoy the scenery by day.
We are touring the streets of Volterra until 10 am, we decided that it is time to return to our rental car in Tuscany and to go to our next destination trip to Tuscany.
Volterra
We go to the hotel and check out, it seems a lie as when we arrived we thought it was further from the parking lot and it turns out that it is 100 meters away ...
We pay for parking (11 euros), which seems like a gift… and we are on our way.
Shortly after leaving Volterra, we see the famous red circle on the right and without thinking twice, flywheel and technical stop to take some photos!
Volterra
Volterra
The GPS tells us that we will be in San Gimignano in Tuscany in about 30 minutes, but first we want to stop at a site, which we don't know what it is, to take some pictures of the town from afar.
After about 20 minutes, we see the town in the distance and a detour to the left.
We do not doubt, blow of steering wheel and there we go. We reach the top of a climb and from there we see what we were looking for: exceptional views of San Gimignano and of its 14 towers ...
San Gimignano
San Gimignano
After taking the pictures and recreating in the landscape, we get back in the car, to reach the town.
In less than 5 minutes we are at the gates of the walled city.
We are looking for the parking that we have closer to the street where we want to start the visit, but we see that cars park next to the road on the side of the road, so we do the same (we had read this in several forums).
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We enter San Gimignano by Porta San Mateo, to meet almost directly with the street of the same name and that leads to Piazza del Duomo.
Upon entering San Gimignano We remain with our mouths open, admiring above all the amount of impressive corners that are in the city.
We imagine how the streets have to be in summer and we appreciate having come at this time. The truth is that we can walk quite calmly, although we meet many tourists.
The Via San Mateo is full of handicraft shops, food ... some are closed and the schedules do not correspond exactly to what they actually do. We imagine that these days, after Christmas are a bit weird.
When we arrive at Piazza del Duomo, the first thing we do is get the tickets for La Collegiata.
But before entering we take pictures of the square of San Gimignano, from all possible angles, trying to capture the best image or rather, the image that reflects what we are seeing. But that I think will be impossible, no matter how much we try.
San Gimignano
We see that our time is over and we go straight to visit La Collegiata, we are surprised by the frescoes that are inside, almost intact.
It is an essential visit in the city.
When we realize, it is after 12 in the morning, so we go in search of the Piazza dilla Cisterna, to see the ice cream parlor awarded for its magnificent ice cream and of course, the most famous cistern in the city.
Once there, we stop at a bar for a snack.
Here the appetizers are complete, with the drink they put a small pica-pica, but that when you realize it keeps the stomach quite entertaining !!
So after the break and the pica-pica, we see that it will be better to go directly to the Rocca, before eating.
San Gimignano
There we are surprised by the great views we have of the landscapes of The Toscana and especially of some of the towers of San Gimignano.
We look again at the clock and we see that it is almost the time we had marked to leave, so we are going in the direction of the San Giovanni shopping street.
There we stop at different stores, more than anything to get an idea of the things we like.
We see several restaurants, but none convinces us ... until we find one, I do not remember the name, with an incredible look ... from the outside!
Once inside, we pay the hazing. The truth is that we left quite disappointed.
The service fairly fair and the food roughly the same.
But hey, we go out with the idea of putting on our boots tonight and thus replace the noon !!
It's almost 4 in the afternoon and we decided it's time to go to Siena our next stop at the trip to Tuscany, where we have our accommodation for the next 2 nights.
In the middle of the road we go with our eyes wide open, because we want to take a picture of the town of Monterriggioni.
And we see it, in the distance, so I prepare the camera and as soon as we pass, I start shooting the camera.
We are on the highway, so it is impossible for us to stop.
About 5 and shortly we arrive in Siena, we go directly to Albergo Chiusarelli to leave our bags, before going to park.
The room is quite large and cozy and the hotel looks pretty good.
After parking where the receptionist tells us (in the blue zone, but not paid from 8 at night to 8 in the morning), we will go directly to Siena for the first time.
It is almost dark, so we decided that it is best to make a first tour of the city, to locate ourselves a little and especially to wander.
More practical information to prepare your trip to Tuscany
- 10 essential places to see in San Gimignano
- 10 essential places to see in Tuscany
- 10 essential places to see in Siena
- 10 essential tips for traveling to Tuscany
- How to go from Florence to San Gimignano
We are next to the Church of St. Caterina, so we go to visit it.
There we are impressed to see the finger and the head of the Holy ... as "announced" it is quite true that they belong to her.
After this and almost without realizing it, since we are walking around, we face the Baptistery.
We see the time and prefer to leave the visit for the day after tomorrow, which is the day we plan to dedicate to the city.
From there we go directly to the Duomo and that is when we have finished opening our mouths completely.
It is impressive to arrive and be right in front of you ...
There we are sitting for a while, admiring the architecture and taking pictures, until we begin to notice the cold a bit and decide that it is time to go on the way to Piazza del Campo.
We enter one of the sides and we have the same impression of when we have seen the Duomo.
We are trying to recreate each detail for a while ... we take a walk around and take a few pictures.
It's 7 in the afternoon and we see one of the terraces of the Piazza where they have stoves, so before dinner, we decided to go for a drink.
Once there they tell us that we can take the appetizer with the drink.
So see you with 2 plates full of canapés. After an hour it starts to get really cold, so we decided it's time to leave.
After such an aperitif, we don't feel like having dinner too much, so we go straight to Albergo Chiusarelli, to rest a little.
Tomorrow touches tourist route by The Toscana.
Day 3SIENA - MONTALCINO - ST. ANTIMO - BAGNO VIGNONI - PIENZA - MONTEPULCIANO - SIENA
