San Gimignano

I’m starting to learn that the problem with walled cities, as pretty as they are from a distance and on foot, is that parking can be a nightmare.

San Gimignano, in case you had not already guessed, is a walled city. I picked the parking lot the furthest from the route from the main road — quite sneaky I thought — only to find it already full and the path out almost blocked by a badly parked SUV.

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I eventually managed to find a space a little walk out of town, which was fine as it’s not a huge place and it allowed me to catch my bearings. I quickly remembered some of the sites that I first saw in 2004, most notably the famous towers. The number of still-standing towers varies depending on which guide book you read. I won’t add to the confusion by adding my own count.

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Once inside the narrow, cobbled streets also seemed very familiar. This time I took a bit of a detour from the main drag, following some of the even smaller lanes away from the centre. Also familiar was the rain. Does it always rain in San Gimignano?

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In addition to being a very pretty town in its own right, San Gimignano sits in a very attractive part of Tuscany — high praise indeed! Some of the views just outside are truly amazing.

With the weather not being terribly helpful I decided to move on to Siena fairly quickly. Hopefully I’ll have more luck there.