San Gimingano and Volterra

Today, we actually found out where the crowds of the shoulder season in Tuscany were! In the morning we left beautiful Siena and drove 45 min to San Gimignano. As we approached the town , we were met with the Disneyland like lineup of the various parking lots that were all full and the attendants kept waving the cars somewhere in the distance. We tried some further away parking that supposedly had some buses shuttling from them, but we failed to see any aforementioned busses on the road. After driving back and forth for 20 mins and trying to find a spot in the hope that someone will leave, we realized that our only option was parking far away and walking for 30 mins under the open sun, along the car road. We decided that it was not worth it, and drove away, another 40 mins to Volterra. The parking situation there was much better and we were able to walk around and enjoy this medieval city. There was no VoiceMap so we felt a bit lost, but managed it, between lonely planet and Google. We had delicious lunch in a small cafe on a piazza and then wandered the streets - Volterra had many well preserved medieval building and even the ruins of a Roman amphitheater. Then, in the afternoon, around 5 pm we decided to try our luck at San Gimignano again, and what a difference few hours make! We were able to easily park in the most nearby parking lot and enjoy walking the streets without the hoards of day trippers. The city is famous for its many towers, and we admired many of them. It was great to sit in the steps of the main cathedral on ten main piazza without the crowds and enjoy the sunset. We then had delicious dinner and drove south to stay overnight on the way back to Rome.Read more