This morning we were treated to a rare house concert by our main clown, Pascuale- stage name Paco Paquito, who I've just realized looks alot like a dyed-red-headed Danny Devito. If you haven't been following, he is a music teacher and with his wife Guilia, stage name Celestina, is the creator of a beloved Tuscan children's stage show called Circusbandando. Today, our last day together, he pulled out his guitar and performed some originals accompanied by Ezra and Itzel on the recorder. We then got to have a look at the lively hand-painted backdrop murals that Guilia made for the show, each 12 feet wide and 8 feet tall childlike scenes painted in acrylic.
Pisa did not work out, and no matter because everyone here says you go to Pisa to see one thing only, and so what? So we were to spend the day in the local's favorite town of San Gimignano and we arrived after a long breakfast and performance hour, and a stunning 40-minute drive through a part of the Tuscan countryside, which is beyond lovely. Most of the hills are cleared, grassy and pastural. Small curving roads and tiny villages dot the landscape and the hills look like you could roll down or go bounding across any of them. I am so glad to be here now and I especially like that we are in the less touristy places in the least touristy season, however, I hope we come back one day because all the paintings and postcards I see of the summertime Tuscan countryside are so colorful and flowerful it is simply not believable.
San Gimignano is near Volterra and close to Sienna, but smaller than both and completely walled. There are several tall towers which were built forever ago and create a skyline unike most in Tuscany. I heard it was called the Manhattan of the Middle Ages or something, which I didn't understand at first, but now think refers to the height of the towers- which are more like three or four stories than a hundred, but I guess that's something for time when they were built. Its small and charming with nice gifty-type shops everywhere and the best views we've seen yet, marred only by the occasional parking lot or gas station. For the most part, everything for as far as you can see is a picture.
We had a nice walk-about, as usual feeling like the tiny streets are sidewalks until a car comes zooming through. We stopped in the main square at a cafe for an eggplant, mozzarella and tomato bruschetta, some cappuchino, and gelato, of which my kids and I are becoming fairly serious connoisseurs. (The best we've had was at a roadside cafe in Lucca and found the famous gelato in Rome to be not so va bene.)
About 5:30, just as dark was approaching, we made the short hike to our little car - which must be parked outside the walls (so far San Gimignano is the first town where we've paid alot -10 euros- to park.) We were expected at 6pm to meet Pasquale and Guila at Chianni's local pizza restaurant, where we called ahead to make sure they'd be open. We expected the drive home to take about 40 minutes, accounting for the inevitable stops to pee, look at a vista, change seats with Mom to tend to Itzel in the back or navigate in the preferred, more roomy front.
About two hours later, when we were still driving and again saw the signs for San Gimignano and Volterra, we thought maybe we'd gotten trapped in some weird twilight loop.
As chief navigator, the only one who can see well enough and is old enough to read a map besides Josh, who is the driver, I would like it known that we have only a map of all of Italy to guide us through the Tuscan countryside, and no phone. In any case, we eventually found highway 439 and took it in the right direction to find the town of Terricola, and then another, and another, which finally had a sign that pointed us to Chianni. The signs are something. You turn a hair-splitting bend and there are a list of 8 signs of names of tiny towns with arrows pointing in every direction. In a split second decision, you have to decide where to turn or you are off into the night, or back to San Gimignano as it were. And this while using a pen light to look at a map of the entirety of Italy and trying to find the names of towns like Empoli, Castelfiorentino, and San Donato del Lucato.
During the drive, Itzel mercifully fell asleep and Ezra was content to have the IPod all to himself - even though I had to make him stop with the Lady Gaga already- wierdly out of context in Tuscany. He did start to worry a bit about our situation as all the adults in the car where getting loopy and laughing when he thought maybe we should have been crying. I asked him, "But Ez, who would you rather be stuck in a car with than your Mom, Dad, Sister and Babcia?" His precious answer: "I'd much rather be stuck with a stranger with a mean dog."
When we did finally arrive in Chianni, we got right near Pasquale's house but despite Mom's warning, drove down a steep road that we thought was the driveway but got very skinny very quickly and turn out to be the path to the olive fields. With no way to turn around, we had to back up the steep, skinny, curvy hill which caused alot of bad smell due to squealing tires and a small accident when the mirror scrapped the stone wall and popped off its hinges. Ezra was beside himself and has declared that we are all crazy for wishing for a bigger car. "A much smaller car is what we need," he pointed out.
We did make it to dinner- three hours late is not so late in Tuscany.
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