Ed and Annette's Excellent European Adventure: San Gimignano and Volterra (in the sunshine)

Hooray for another warm sunny day! We headed out this morning for a quick drive to San Gimignano, another hill top town in Tuscany. Known for its prominence on the hill and the 14 towers standing tall we figured it would be worth the day to see. The town is beautiful and has great architecture but has been transformed to not much more than a really nice place for a whole bunch of tourist shops, although Annette didn't seem to mind that. We did enjoy our day there and did see some great sites along with the shopping. The views from the city wall were beautiful rolling Tuscan hills.

It actually go hot today!!! We returned back to our hotel in Volterra and put on shorts and flip-flops. We sat out by the pool (piscina) for a few minutes before going out and walking the town. Volterra is a great example of a little less touristy commercialized place; you see many more residents and there seems to be more housing in the old buildings. Lots of laundry hanging outside the windows. That seems to be one of Annette's favorite picture taking moments.

We sat for a while in the main square and decided that the majority of the residents in this town tend to gather more locally (their street) rather than in the central area; as opposed to Cortona where the residents clustered in the main piazza. We decided to go by a little wine shop we had seen and try a taste of their product. It was unique because the large metal vats were right there in the store and they poured us the sample right from the vat. Deciding that one of the wines was quite good, we asked about buying a couple glasses to take back to our hotel across the street. She explained that she couldn't sell us a glass but we could buy a bottle for 1.80 euro She pulled out an empty unlabeled bottle, went to the vat, filled it corked it and handed it to us. We laughed and walked back to the hotel with an amazing experience and a nice bottle of wine. ($2 buck Chuck) We sipped wine, had a few bisquits and chocolate on our patio.

We researched where to go for dinner and headed out. Once we got to the place we picked we didn't like the offerings. Walking just a little way we found another place not on the local restaurant map but it looked nice. The gorgonzola gnocchi I had rivals Palermo's in Elk Grove. Annette liked her spaghetti with olive oil and garlic. What we have noticed is that the bread in all the Italian restaurants tastes exactly the same - terrible. It's like they forgot to use the salted butter or something. We have noticed they don't have that good of baked goods either. Most are dry with little flavor. The Germans have beat all the countries with their baked treats. They even were able to come up with a coffee or two that we liked.

As much as we love Italy, we have really missed a cup of coffee in a MUG not a Demi tasse cup. We like the experience of sipping our coffee and having two or three cups as we talk, read the paper, etc. In the coffee shops it is expected that you walk in and stand at the counter take your three sips of espresso and part ways. There is no Starbucks in sight. An occasional McCafe every few days will have to hold me over until we get home next week.