San Gimignano 1300

Today was a very big and exciting day. We were picked up from our hotel (after a mediocre breakfast) at around 9am and got introduced to our motorhome for the next 30 days which we have called Nico. Nico is supposed to be a 6 berth, but Jody and I will be very happy that there is only 2 of us as we can’t quite work out how everyone could get past each other if there were 6 people staying. Nico is quite a bit bigger than my last motorhome hire, and I have to be careful when going around corners.

First stop was PAMS where we loaded up with some shopping. Italian supermarkets are quite interesting, and it took us a while and a couple of extra trips back for things we had forgotten. We loaded up with water – around 20 litres, and got 1 pack of fizzy water for Jody. Of course later on we realised I had made a mistake and it was all fizzy, bummer! Lunch was strawberries and focaccia. Then we went to Decathlon in Sienna where we found a very helpful young man man who sold us bikes, and got them all set up. I love the colour of them – fluoro green, so easy to find. We might have both bought a few additional things in Decathlon, my jacket purchasing must be contagious as Jody bought 2.

We had a bit of trouble trying to find the campsite that we wanted to stay at, but posted a message on the Justgo facebook page, and had several replies very quickly with links to the campsite. This campsite is near San Gimignano, and is quite nice tho it was a tight squeeze to get into the pitch – I think Nico is higher than Bob was as well with a luton at the front. We had a vague tidy up, and then went off biking into San Gimignano which is about 2kms away. Oh my golly what a lovely wee town this is. It is a UNESCO site, and I have wanted to visit it before, so pleased that I have now. It was good that we had the bikes with us, as it made it a bit harder to go into each shop and spend some money. We hadn’t taken our bike locks, so just watched the bikes for each other when we went investigating.

The views over the valley are amazing. It is up on a hill, so we walked part of the way there with the bikes, specially where there were lots of people. But the bike back again was lots of fun with big downhills. Before we went out we were feeling a bit tired – quite hard work mentally navigating Nico on quite narrow roads – but by the time we came back we were both feeling invigorated.

Jody cooked up scrummy chicken for dinner which we had with a salad. It is our intention to try and prepare most of our food, and the cooking facilities in Nico are pretty good.

We haven’t quite decided what we are doing tomorrow. Jody has the map out which is a start. I am tempted to buy a leather jacket in Florence, and Jody wants a bag. We both love Florence, so may well get there. But, conscious of all the other places that we want to visit.Les mer