Italian walled cities
We arrived at the camper parking at Monteriggioni in time to walk up to the castle walls and watch the pretty sunset. Monteriggioni is a small town surrounded by an intact circle of walls that sits quite high up so that there are good views from the wall gates. We had a quick walk through the town and looked in at the expensive delicatessen's and restaurants before heading back to Vincent for home made pizza.
In the morning, before breakfast, we had a lovely walk which started on the Via Francigena (Pilgrims Way from Rome to Canterbury) and progressed through the fields, woods and olive trees near the town. The dogs enjoyed watching the deer run past us - luckily they were on the leads.
We left Moneriggioni after breakfast and headed to San Gimignano, a UNESCO world heritage site. San Gimignano is well known for its medieval towers, 14 of the original 72 still remain. We parked Vincent next to a very posh, new Laika, and headed into town without the dogs. San Gimignano is a lovely pretty town of small narrow streets and amazing views. We wandered the streets then walked up the 218 steps of the Torre Grosso, the tallest tower, to marvel at the amazing panoramic views. Luckily, as it is out of season, most of the time we were up the top by ourselves.
We then went into the cathedral, Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta, which is famous for its frescoes based on the new and old testement stories. We managed to name the new testament stories just! After buying an ice cream from a shop claiming to sell the best gelato in the world, we headed back to Vincent for lunch.
After lunch we drove onto Volterra, another impressive walled town. We had a quick walk through the town with the dogs and managed to navigate from the cathedral to the Porta all'Arco, the town gate dating from the 3rd or 2nd century BC without getting lost. Luckily we got back to Vincent before the rain but realised that we had no wifi or phone signal. Initially we thought it due to the weather and the fact that we were in a dip behind the town. Mike got slightly panicky that we would not be able to unimmobilise Vincent without a phone signal and I wanted to warn the kids we had no signal so we decided that we would walk up into town, again, to try and get a signal. So we put on our waterproof trousers and coats and headed out. After walking round Volterra for at least half an hour in the dark, getting absolutley soaked, but luckily not lost we gave up. Luckily the wifi seemed to work occasionally so we managed to communicate with home? Mike also managed to work out how to un-immobilise without wifi. In the morning we headed into town and bought some bread and a new bowl for Luna (Mike had driven over the dogs bowls in Colico (because Bridget left them outside unde the wheels)!) from a very weird pet shop that sold jelly fish and had a glass topped gerbil counter. We then returned to town again after breakfast to finish out sightseeing and shopping before heading off to Pisa.
On the way to Pisa we decided to drop by Marina di Pisa as it was a beautiful sunny day and we fancied seeing the mediterannean sea. The motorhome parking was unimpressive but we parked and walked to the marina. The marina is on the edge of the town and full of amazing boats. Some were huge and obviously very expensive. We walked along by the sea and marvelled at the strange fishermans huts with huge nets out on the rocks. We returned to Vincent and Mike investigated our lack of signal with Three whilst I went for a great run along the coast. After lunch we then went to the beach part of the town and watched the huge waves crashing against the rocks. There seemed to be a cat 'hotel' which the dogs thought fascinating.
We then drove on to Pisa, and parked before heading to the supermarket for provisions and settling in for the night.