[Itinerary Page]The daily diary of a wandering restaurateur
May 24 - Siena/San Gimignano
Left Gudiolo and headed for Siena. Autostada most of the way so it was a quick trip ... but Siena is a big city and it was a hot day and the place was crawling with tourists. I was reminded why we stay away from cities. We made a few obligatory stops but got out of town as quickly as we could!
The rustic place we were supposed to stay in outside of San Gimignano was way too rustic, even for our simple tastes. I could have had possibilities as a summer camp for college students, but after driving down three miles of narrow dirt road, we said "thanks but no thanks" and drove out again. Since we were in the area to see San Gimignano anyway, that seemed like the best place to head. While I circled endlessly looking for parking, Margene and Marv talked to someone at the tourist office who referred them to someone in the tobacco shop who had three B&B rooms above their house. The stairs up there were a haul, but the rooms were clean, the bathrooms large and the views terrific.
If you have to be in town, this was a nice town to be in, particularly in the evening and early morning when the tourists were largely gone. We had a glass of wine on the main square, did some people-watching, then headed to a restaurant a few doors down from our lodgings for a pleasant dinner.
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