Day 33 - San Gimignano to Monteriggioni- Friday July 17, 2015

Our room at Il Pino had a fan, and I at least had an excellent night’s sleep. Russell complained it was noisy outside, and there was a light on all night, but I slept through it all. We actually had a bathtub for the second time on this trip, and when I got up I soaked my feet I Johnson’s foot soap for 15 minutes.

We got down to breakfast about 8:30am and had just gotten our coffee when the fellow from our B&B tonight arrived for the bags. Russell had his all packed but I didn’t. He said he usually comes later but all the pilgrims are leaving really early now because of the heat, so he came now. I went upstairs and packed my suitcase and wheeled the two of them into the hall, and before I could lock the door the breakfast host lady had carried them down stairs. I can’t even lift them!

We told him we were going to take the day off and sight see in San Gimignano and take the bus to Monteriggioni later. He warned us to go get our ticket early and be careful because most of the buses to Siena didn’t stop at Monteriggioni. I was trying to say that Russell had checked this out on the internet, but the lady at Il Pino was shaking her head and said she would get the times.

We had three places to get our bus ticket. We started off with the newspaper stand across from the bus stop, but he couldn’t do a ticket to Monteriggioni, for some reason? Next we went to the tobacconist who could have done it but her computer was down. Our only choice was the information center. I have been feeling totally out of fashion in Italy because all the women wear shifts, which just look so nice and cool. So we went into some shops and I tried some on. They were all extremely expensive (100 euros plus), probably because we were in tourist heaven.

We went to the cathedral ticket office, which we thought was the information center as well, but that wasn’t the case, and didn’t get any credit to visit the basilica/cathedral because we were pilgrims. Oh well. We bought our 4 euros each tickets, and went off in search of the bus tickets. Finally we found the place and got tickets for 14:38. Some of the times the hotel lady wrote down were not available, welcome to Italy. Russell wanted to go later, but I didn’t have a good feeling about that. Here this was our day off and we were on our feet walking around all day anyway.

We visited the cathedral, which had some excellent frescoes, one a depiction of hell, which was really very gruesome. I think the church flourished as long as people believed in heaven and hell. A good amount of the money poured into devotional gifts was probably people trying to buy their way into heaven. Well now people don’t believe that anymore, and all these beautiful churches are turning into museums, or turning into ruins. Russell said ‘think not about what God can do for you, think about what you can do for God.’

We also went in search of an ancient yew tree, which ended up taking us to the wine museum and a park around the city walls. We passed an artist and got talking about the VF. She said she wanted to do the Camino, and we told her that would be a good start. 

We talked on about pilgrimage, and in the end she thanked us for encouraging her. She pointed us in the direction of a staircase with what she described as a 350 degree view. I was wondering what was obstructed, but when we got there it was actually a 360 degree view. We also found the yew tree. It was truly incredible. It was also nice to stroll around gardens and the top of the wall had a magnificent view.

I lost an earring. I thought it might have been when I was trying on shifts and we went back there, but no luck. I also went back to our room, and I did a simple search and concluded it was not there, but the lady cleaning the rooms did a very thorough search, saying ‘just wait’, but that didn’t turn it up either. I was hoping it might have gotten caught in my jewelry bag (that has happened before), and it would be in my suitcase.

We went over to the bus at 2:15. I wanted to call Beppe because tomorrow we arrive in Siena, and we are supposed to meet him, and our voucher for today has the wrong name again, but that doesn’t seem to be a big deal. I tried calling but the phone didn’t work. We asked an Italian fellow at our hotel to translate the Italian messages Russell was getting from Vodaphone, and he said we were down to 10 euros. If we still had 10 euros why weren’t our calls going through?

We tried at the newspaper stand and the tobacconist to add time to the phone, but neither could help.

We got on the bus okay. I asked the driver, who I had the impression spoke English, if he would tell us when to get off, and I thought he agreed. At one point Russell said we had a new driver. We should have checked that out. Monteriggioni is a fortress town, and we got to a road sign saying we were there, you could see this walled fortress on a hill, we stopped at a roundabout below, but the bus driver said nothing. 

I thought maybe the bus would go up to the city. No, the bus sped off to Siena. I sent Russell up to ask the bus driver, but he came back saying the driver just said something in Italian he couldn’t understand. So I went up and talked to the driver, which I should have done in the first place, and found out we missed the stop and would have to go back from Siena.

We got off at a major bus terminal in Siena around 15:30, all confused, and went in to a tobacconist. No one spoke English, but suddenly a lady materialized that could talk some English. Note that I definitely don’t want to give the impression I think the fault lies with them that we can’t communicate, it’s entirely our fault. We are in Italy and the onus is on us to speak their language, Italian. Anyway, the lady said since we had missed the stop we would have to buy a new ticket from Siena to Monteriggioni, which we did. She told us to get the bus at Area 3, but told us the wrong destination and time. We went to area 3 and started trying to figure out which bus to take. There were several bus drivers standing about, and one of them spoke good English and told us to take the bus to San Gimignano that stopped in Monteriggioni, which was at 17:10.  

We had a long wait, so I decided we should go off in search of a vodaphone dealer. I got the impression Russell just wasn’t getting the concept that the phone wasn’t just a luxury, but a necessity in case we got into an emergency situation.

Anyway we found a Vodaphone dealer, discovered that we were really 10 euros over on our sim card, so no wonder it didn’t work. She advised getting a new sim card, same plan, and bilking vodaphone for the 10 euros we were over on the other sim card! Doing this was taking a lot of time, but we still managed to make the bus. The driver was very nice, and seemed committed to taking good care of us. Instead of dumping us at the roundabout, he stopped and let us out on the via Francigena. Thank you Lord. From there we were easily able to figure out how to get up to Monteriggioni and find our B&B.

This is an incredible city. Monteriggioni castle was a powerful defensive fortress, built in the name of the Lord by the Senese in 1213 against Florentine attacks. Dante, the first Italian poet, compares the towers to the central pit of hell. It is said that Dante received the announcement of his exile from here. The church was absolutely lovely. Compared to a lot of the ornate churches we have been in, this one was very austere. It exuded a spirituality that was very hard to describe in words. It was a thin place, is the best way to describe it. We also went to the information centre and got a stamp, and I bought another via Francigena t-shirt. 

They had a museum, which we toured. After we left Russell said it cost money to go to the museum, but the lady said nothing, so perhaps our credenzias got us in. There were buses of tourists arriving constantly.

The B&B is another house. Very lovely, with our own garden where we sat before dinner. Russell thinks it is way too hot, but we have two fans, and I think it will be perfect. I’m becoming convinced that in this heat, and given the type of accommodation we are primarily staying in, a fan is the best solution, not air conditioning.

The lady running the B&B is from Holland. I asked how she ended up in Monteriggioni, and she said she fell in love with an Italian, and now she has 4 children and runs a B&B. Her children are twins, aged 14, a boy 9, and a girl 2. We said she must have her hands full!

Dinner was included, but she doesn’t do it, so she gave us a voucher for dinner at a restaurant in the main piazza. Again, they let us order off the menu (although I think we got a special menu – Russell disagrees). Way too much food. The couple running the B&B came to the square while we were having dinner. I was trying to call Beppe with our new vodaphone sim card and we were getting the no coverage message. The fellow called Beppe on his phone and handed me his phone! He gets his service from Wind. So we are meeting with Beppe at our hotel in Siena tomorrow at 6pm.

There was one good thing about our unplanned bus ride to Siena, we went past our hotel for tomorrow, so now we know where it is! Sadly, my earring was not in my jewellery bag, so I guess new earrings from Italy are going to be a souvenir.