Siena, San Gimignano, Rome

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38. Siena, San Gimignano, Rome

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I awoke to clear weather — finally — and decided to head for San Gimignano. However, I was ignorant of the bus schedule. I left my bag in the hotel and walked over to the bus station. Here I discovered that bus service is drastically reduced on Sundays. So by the time I got there around 9:00, there was already no way I could get to San Gimignano and back and still make it to Rome at a reasonable hour, even though San Gimignano was only around 40km away. Back at the hotel, I noticed a car rental sign, and decided to try something crazy. Fortunately, the hotel was able to hook me up with a rental service in a hotel near the train station, and I got a Smart car! They promised to pick me up in an hour, a delay which turned out to be a great blessing as it gave me just enough time to climb the Torre del Mangia (closed the day before due to rain) for a fantastic view over the town and the Tuscan countryside.

The Smart car is really cute. I had seen one once in the Bay Area, where it was involved in a photo shoot near the Golden Gate Bridge. I have heard they will begin selling them in the US in 2006, but not at a cheap price. There is room for two people to sit upright comfortably, and given that constraint, the car is about as small as it could possibly be. But it feels quite sturdy on the road for its size; the only thing I didn't like about it was that the automatic transmission felt somewhat clunky. I drove up the superstrada towards San Gimignano. I didn't push it much past 120 km/h — little chance of getting a speeding ticket, but even the freeways here are quite narrow. Almost like a very long version of the Pasadena Freeway. After the exit, the route is well signed. I arrived a bit before noon. Parking here is a big hassle, even with a small car! All the lots were full, so I drove down the hill to the northwest and parked on the side of the road. The legality of this was dubious, but I think you only get parking tickets in Italy if you really get in the way of something.

San Gimignano is in a gorgeous spot on top of a hill looking out over the rolling green landscape of Tuscany. The town itself is also unique and lovely, with several tall rectangular towers — a more primitive, earlier medieval design than the elaborate towers of Florence and Siena. A pair of towers here looks strikingly like a scaled-down World Trade Center. I climbed the tallest of the towers for a gorgeous view. Then I ordered a fresh take-away sandwich of prosciutto and enjoyed it in the warm sunshine in a park at the south entrance to the town. For dessert, a hefty dense slice of the local chocolate panforte — not dissimilar to fruitcake but pretty much infinitely better.

After driving back to Siena, I walked to the train station and headed for Rome. The first segment to Chiusi was on a cute, small but modern train with views out to the many hill towns in the distance. Even as I approached Rome at dusk around 19:00, the landscape was still quite hilly, though with fewer trees than in the north. After the crime of Milan and the horror stories I had heard about Rome — gypsies throwing babies at you and taking your wallet when you catch them — I was worried. But the worries proved groundless; Rome was much more pleasant than I expected, and, as far as I could tell, much less crime-ridden then I had been led to believe. The train station and subway were not even particularly crowded, and I felt in little danger.

I rode the metro line three stops southeast to San Giovanni. This was actually one of my better accommodation deals, considering the very high prices of hotels in Rome. October seems to be a high season here, as well — the place is largely filled with German college students, who apparently don't begin school in the autumn until the middle of October. The temperatures at this time of year are also extremely pleasant, very much unlike the usual travel peak in August. I rented a studio at San Giovanni (€80, available through Cross Pollinate), which I definitely recommend. The studio is built onto the roof of a tall apartment building, with an adjacent kitchen and bathroom, and is very convenient to the metro. The room is small, but it is surrounded by a nice large balcony made up of the rest of the roof. The view over to San Giovanni, the main cathedral of Rome, is stunning, with the massive figures of the apostles staring down at you. It's a great escape from the relative chaos of the streets below.

Tonight I followed Rick Steves' "Night Walk" across Rome, but I pretty much had to do the whole thing again in the daytime anyway in order to take pictures of the stunning sights along the way. I started at the Spanish Steps, which didn't live up to my mistaken expectation of a broad, open expanse of stairs looking out onto ancient classical ruins. In fact they are high and relatively narrow, looking out over buildings which are merely a few centuries old, and tonight they seem to be filled with groups of young Italian guys trying to impress equally young German women — speaking in English. Next, the Trevi fountain is as amazing as anything you could imagine. After this are various piazzas containing columns and obelisks, and nearby is the Pantheon. Piazza Navona has another astonishing Bernini fountain, and this square is filled with people in the evening. I had a decent dinner just south of here off Campo dei Fiori at Ristorante Grotte del Teatro di Pompeo, run by a characterful and rather busy woman. Still more sights on the way back to the hotel — first the impressive Vittorio Emanuele monument perched on top of a hill above the busy streets. In the middle of the square here, I glanced at a car which was oddly pulled over, with the occupants conspicuously watching porn on a computer visible through the window — so much for the influence of the Vatican around here! Further to the east, I walked past some ancient ruins and the grand Colosseum, before stopping for a drink at Coming Out. It's a much busier place than I'd expected — especially on a Sunday night — with a beautiful Roman crowd spilling far out onto the sidewalk and across the street.

Jonathan's Travel Blog :: Europe

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