San Gimignano was one of those places that several people had told me to go to so of course I had to add it to my map! After all the fun of driving down the amazing strade bianche roads, however, I arrived at San Gimignano at lunchtime. What a mistake! I couldn't find any parking at all! Not one to give up easily, I drove past all the main parking (all full), and around the village. I saw some signs for camper parking and followed them and ended up at a parking lot with maybe about 4 other campervans and no one else! Yes, to get to the town you had to walk up a hill, but as it was all hilly around there I don't think any of the other parking spots would have fared any better!
That sorted, it was definitely time for lunch. I was hungry! I decided on a restaurant called Il Ceppo Toscana because it didn't have pizza on the menu and was outside the main tourist area so I thought I was more likely to get something a bit more authentic. I ended up having a pasta with sausage meat sauce, a plate of grilled zucchini and a glass of wine.
Full and ready to go, I finally went to explore!
It looks rather quiet in these photos but I assure you, the place was heaving! I managed to find the quieter streets off the main drag, which I prefer exploring anyway! The next stop in town was the duomo, which is not a particularly nice-looking church from outside but which is covered with frescos inside. Unfortunately the lighting wasn't great inside so the colours aren't as bright as they were in real life, so you'll just have to imagine the highly saturated paintings... all of which were painted in the 14th century. Yep, they are that old!
I left the duomo and went exploring again. San Gimignano is know as the 'Manhattan of Tuscany' or 'Medieval Manhattan' and it's not hard to see why. Apparently there were once up to 72 different towers over the city, but most of these suffered from decay over time, especially when the town was decimated by plague in the 14th century. Now there are only 14, but they're still pretty impressive since they were built between the 11th and 13th centuries. That means they could be as old as 1000 years!
I was walking back to my campervan when I happened to start a conversation with this couple - I think it started when I said sorry (for getting in their way, or vice versa, in true English style) and they asked me if I happened to be the other camper with British plates parked in the parking lot down the hill. I said yes, then we got to talking! Apparently they were planning on staying in that parking area overnight, and invited me to come to their camper for a barbeque that night. I asked them what they did about the toilet situation, as their Transporter was about the same size as my van, to which they replied that they "wild wee-d". So I said ok that I would join them and we parted ways.
I bought a couple of bottles of wine from the deli on the way down, so as not to be a bad guest, and got back to the camper. It was then that I realised that wild weeing wasn't really an option - it was like an industrial office area, with buildings all around. After writing them a note explaining why I was leaving, I packed up the camper and drove to a campsite I saw nearby.
I didn't stay in that campsite, however, because it turned out that it was seriously expensive and you had to stay for two nights. Argh! Out of options, I consulted my map and decided to just go towards a site near to Siena. As I was driving away though, I noticed the view and immediately looked for a safe place to stop! I had to walk back quite a way but this is what I saw...
I ended up in a very nice but quite basic campsite surrounded by trees and cicadas on the outskirts of Siena. It wasn't overly easy to find but I drove past the most glorious fields of sunflowers, with beautiful old churches in the foreground. Unfortunately there was nowhere to stop - I checked both going there and leaving the next day - so the lovely scene exists in my memories only. But the campsite was exactly what I wanted, some peace and quiet in nature. It was so much better than wild-weeing, AND I had a couple of bottles of wine now too... winning!
Campsite: Campeggio la Montagnola di Roberto Corsini
Rating: 8/10. Nice pitches, friendly, good facilities, surrounded by trees. If it was in France, it would have been much cheaper, but it wasn't too bad for high season.