We arrived in San Gimignano yesterday (10-5). It was my first experience driving since we were last in Italy (2009) and I got rear-ended by a teenager on a motorcycle. No problems this time! Getting around was easy, for the most part. I have to say though, that having my Garmin with the European chip in it has been a big help!
We took the bus to Pisa and picked up our rental car from Hertz. Hertz gave me a deal on an upgrade to a larger car and automatic shift. I drive a stick, but the offer was too good to pass up. I’m glad we took it, because there was no way the four of us could fit inside a Fiat X500 (the car I was assigned) with our 4 suitcases and backpacks – at least, not comfortably.
I had entered the GPS coordinates for our San Gimignano B&B into my Garmin, plus we got directions from Hertz to the town (just in case). Shortly after starting the trip the route Hertz told us to take was closed due to reconstruction. If we hadn’t had the Garmin, it would have been a mess to figure out. But the Garmin lady talked us through it and we arrived less than 2 hours after we left Pisa.
Il Vicario, our B&B, is very nice! The reviews we read of the place appear to be true. We visited the town immediately and ended up buying a number of great local products (cheese, sausage, balsamic vinegar). It’s nice that some of the merchants offer free shrink-wrapping for stinky foodstufs!
The town of San Gimignano is as beautiful as we remembered it! We took lots of photos and I hope to get to share some of them here with you before I leave to go to Venice.
Cautionary Tale: I have either lost or misplaced the SD card I have been using in camera. All my trip photos are on it! Fortunately, I back up my photos to my laptop every night! Whew!
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