San Gimignano - Manhattan in Tuscano

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 and the sun was rising over the hills in Monticchiello. It was another day of discovery. We'd read about San Gimignano in our DK Eyewitness Travel book before we left Australia.
It's one of those must see hilltop villages in Tuscany. Why do I call it the Manhattan of Tuscano?
It's because it has 13 towers rising from the village dominating the skyline.


San Gimignano - Go on, knock on this door. I dare you!





San Gimignano was on the Pilgrim route to Rome.
During the mid-1300s it went into decline when hit by the black plague.
Today it is on the itinerary of most tourists through Tuscany.

 Built in the middle ages, 12th and 13th centuries, the towers are truly majestic. Even before we arrived at the village walls, several of the towers could be seen from afar. We arrived to the eastern side of the village and naturally the car needed to be parked outside the walls. Fortunately, as I've mentioned several times before, we had very few tourists about. Is October a non-tourist time?



Now tell me, is this a medieval Manhattan?



Piazza Della Cisterna and the fountain in the centre - there's a nice Gelato shop nearby.



A lovely drawing of Piazza Della Cisterna
from a different angle from where I took my photograph.
Not my drawing and no ownership known.



After a somewhat drive of misadventure (we got lost a few times) we entered the city walls and decided that an espresso was required before discovering San Gimignano. Just as a side story, I had difficulty in pronouncing the village's name, so I renamed it, "San Jiminy Cricket." I have since improved but found when quoting Italian, I need to wave my hands around alot.

Again I digress (I do that a lot - sorry), anyway we had a lovely coffee in the sunshine at the first cafe just inside the first gates. As pleasant as this was, the sad part was that Sue, feeling rather warm and taking in some vitamin D, decided to hang her woolen cardy over the chair and that was where it stayed after we moved on.

On these steps we ate pizza in the sun and took in the local atmosphere of San Jiminy Cricket.

We must have come from the high side of the village as the narrow main thoroughfare took us towards the Piazza Del Duomo. There rising above us was the oldest of the towers built in 1239. We sat on the steps of the Duomo eating a slice of pizza and drawing in the atmosphere of the Piazza Del Doumo and the adjoining larger Piazza Della Cisterna. It was named after a well that sits in the middle of the Piazza and is the centre of the old part of town.


The towers of San Gimignano - an amazing sight. I'm glad we went there.

 We moved on from San Gimignano in the mid-afternoon arriving back at Monticchiello in time to enjoy the sun setting over the Tuscan hills with a chilled glass of Bianco.


Andrew, our son joins me for a glass of chilled Bianco as the sun sets over the Tuscan hills.

The following day was to be our last day in Tuscany with Andrew. We were driving to Chuisi to have our Citroen C3 serviced and then taking the train to Florence so Andrew could fly out to Moscow, but that's another story full of misadventure and drama. More of that next Wednesday.

A Sign with a story, Birds in the Trees, and Empty Chairs .

A Sign with a story.

During the latter part of the week, I drove over to spend some time with my father at the indoor velodrome on the other side of Melbourne from where I live. I may have mentioned in past posts that Jack is now 89 years old and still enjoys cycling five days a week at the local cycling track. He loves the sport and joined the Northcote Cycling Club in the 30s.
About 3 decades later I also took up the sport as a member of the Preston Cycling Club. A friend of mine who was a member of the Northcote club invited me down to the local Northcote bike shop, The shop was also the Club's registered club rooms. I was introduced to the President of the Club and he said, "You must be Jack Sims' young bloke. I may have something here for you."
Looking through some old files, he then pulled out a membership form that just happen to be my father's.

The sign below is all the remains of the old Northcote Bike shop and the Club's club rooms. It has been hidden for years by a taller building which recently was demolished to make way for an even higher apartment block. The sign will once again disappear soon. I'm glad I just happen to be there at the right time.

A sign of special memories.



My Father's membership form to the Northcote Cycling Club dated 1938.
At 89, he is still pushing the pedals.

Birds in the trees

Doves are a regular visitor to our backyard and they know I'm a soft touch.



This guy although wary, was looking forward to an easy meal.



Well come on, feed me now.....

Listen to the Turtle Doves song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCB4-JWZ1kQ&feature=related



Empty Chairs

Towards the end of the week we had some heavy downpours from the skies and this kept the garden chairs empty, but Saturday brought sunshine (as it should).

Rain filled garden chairs Friday Arvo.



But by mid arvo on Saturday a cool sparkling red awaited me, after I'd mowed the lawns, that is!

Sue enlisted a David Libovitz chicken recipe for tonight's dinner with potatoes cooked in duck fat, broad beans and sweet corn. A glass or two of a crisp white wine went down well on a balmy evening while sitting on the timber decking with a James Taylor CD playing in the background.
Back to work in the morning.

David Libovitz link - http://www.davidlebovitz.com/recipes/

Funky Friday Foto

Our cat Rosita enjoys teasing the garden dog but he just ignores her. 

Maybe someone can add a caption!



Or this one!

Montepulciano - Tuscany

Now let's see, where were we last Wednesday - Oh yes, I remember, Pienza! Our our trip in 2006 was the first overseas trip together in more than twenty years of Marriage. With four trips to France (and Italy) in that time, we wonder why we didn't travel earlier. Easy answer - money and children. Our holidays were limited to a day's drive away to such places as Lakes Entrance in Gippsland.

Before entering the village of Montepulciano, we took in the map located in the car park.

Sue was not looking forward to the climb and many, many steps that were in front of us.

Back to the story, Pienza is between Montepulciano and Montalcino in the Val d'Orcia, both which are hilltop villages. Our hostess Barbara lives in Montepulciano - check out her website http://www.lemaribelle.it/

Montepulciano is located to the east of Pienza and was only a 30 minute drive from our little villa in Monticchiello.

As in most hilltop villages, only the locals can bring their cars behind the walls so we had to park the car in one of the surrounding car parks outside the walls. At Montepulciano the first lot of steps into the village from our car park was a lung busting climb but once into the village it was worth the effort.


We needed to climb the steps into the village proper.

The streets level out at the top of the village but we needed a rest and popped into a cafe where we had our very first Italian hot chocolate, so thick that the spoon stood upright. Cioccolato Caldo....Yum.
The recipe:
http://www.food.com/recipe/italian-hot-chocolate-cioccolato-caldo-334403
We didn't have Internet back in Monticchiello so we decided to find an Internet cafe in Montepulciano but had to wait for it to open after their very sensible lunchtime break. Here at home I usually have a sandwich at my desk, although I do admit that I now enjoy going out at lunch time with a book and following the Euro lunch habit.

And still, onward and upward.

We were first in at the Internet cafe when the doors opened and were welcomed by a nice Italian man who was most helpful. As we sat there sending news back home, a very loud American woman announced over the top of our conversation with the manager that she needed to ring the US.

But it was worth it to enjoy the many outdoor gardens lining the paved streets.

She wanted to call home but didn't have any Euro to pay with. She said, "But don't you take real money", meaning dollars and cents.
Yes, we have them also from Australia - the ugly tourist.

One of the things we most enjoy is sitting in a piazza with an espresso or a vino and watching the world pass by. Montepulciano was no exception to this. The sun was shining and the local red was Bellisimo.


Not to mention these lovely clay wall hangings.

For more photos of Montepulciano, check out this sight - the village is to be the scene of a movie soon.
http://www.newmoonmovie.org/2009/04/beautiful-sights-of-montepulciano-italy-volterra-redefined/

Since returning back to Australia from our 2006 trip we discovered we could buy a Montepulciano wine but later discovered it was not from the area around the idyllic hilltop village of the same name. There is also a grape variety of the same name grown in the Abruzzo district. Montepulciano d'Ábruzzo is available here in Melbourne and is a full bodied red that is very enjoyable with pasta or a meat dish. The wine that we really did enjoy comes from across the valley from Montepulciano at Montalcino.  It's the famous Brunello, but more about that in a future post.

It was time to drive home and this time it was in the dark. We returned through the small forest before taking that beautiful cypress tree lined road that is photographed in every Tuscan scene that you could imagine. Our car lights cast shadows through the trees and across the valley, giving it a appearance from our daylight drives.

To come over the next few weeks;
Montalcino, the home of Brunello wine, Florence, San Gimignano, Venice and Arese before returning to Paris.

Melbourne and the Cycling World Titles.

As I sit typing, I look out of the window into the back yard and the sky is cloudless and very bright blue. I’ve just returned from watching the start of the UCI World Cycling Road Race. It actually started in Melbourne and proceeded down to Geelong on Corio Bay. For the next 5 hours I expect I will be sitting here in front of the TV to the end of the race.
But let's go back to the beginning of the weekend - Friday night.

La Rafle - the DVD.

Friday night I was determined to watch a DVD that was sent to me by my Parisian friend, Michel. Starring Jean Reno and Melanie Laurent, it is set during German occupation of Paris and centres on the 1942 Vel d‘Hiver roundup when the Jewish population were herded into the Velodrome d’Hiver before being trained off to the concentration camps. Although very depressing, the light in the film was of a young boy escaping and surviving. The movie is called La Rafle.
Not wishing to give away too much more info with a clip can be seen here.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1382725/

Saturday

Deb with hubby, Mark celebrating her win in the Australian Masters Road Championships during last week.

Our Saturday morning ride was special - we had a new champion within our group. Several of our riders competed in the Australian Masters road racing championships and “Our Deb” won her division. It was time to celebrate with Champagne after the morning ride.

With a magnificent sunny afternoon, it was time for our very first spring barbeque. I cranked up the BBQ and guess what - out of gas, a quick trip to change over the gas cylinder and back on the job. My first BBQ is usually not my best but this time the steak was just right, so Sue said.



Asparagus and onion about to be BBQed.



The first BBQ for the  summer season - and listening to Cyndi Lauper.



We sat on the deck, music playing and having a chilled rose from Chile. How good is that?

Sunday

The riders flashed beneath us as we looked down from our bridge.

This morning (Sunday) I was caught out by daylight saving. We usually hit out for a ride at 7.30 am and guess who forgot to reset his clock. We decided we would ride into the City to see the start of the World Title - quite thrilling with all of the color of the different nations. Located on a bridge above the freeway, we saw the riders, support cars and Police directing traffic as helicopters flew overhead..

After a coffee and an asparagus and sweet corn pie, it was off home to catch the live telecast.

Thor God of Thunder from Norway wins the World Title Road Race

And yes, I sat there till the end to watch the Aussies being amongst it all but sucumbing to "God of Thunder", the Norwegian Thor Hushovd - we did however get an Aussie on the podium in Alan Davis. He was third.

As I sat there, I heard Sue calling me to get ready as we had been invited to a Sunday BBQ at our friends home nearby.

I think this summer is going to be a real outdoors BBQ season - bring it on.