Eating gelato in San Gimignano

We spent Saturday and Sunday night at a quiet Aree di Sosta just under the hilltop town of San Gimignano. We had been feeling a little blergh recently, and not enjoying Italy as much as our previous countries, so decided to just stop for two days and do not much at all in order to recharge our batteries. Thankfully for you, dear reader, that makes for a very short post.

On Saturday we left Florence in the afternoon and took the day to do some chores- washing, cleaning the camper van, shopping and stocking up on toilet chemicals. The not so fancy and normal aspects of a trip like ours. San Gimignano was only half an hour away so it was an easy drive, although a terribly bumpy road.

On Sunday we took advantage of the free shuttle bus that runs directly from the campsite up the hill to the town. This is quite a cool concept when you remember that Aree di Sosta's are council run.

San Gimignano is quite a striking town. Perched on top of a hill, it once had 71 towers rising high into the sky but these days only 14 remain. I can imagine it would have looked much like an ancient version of New York. These days it is heavily focused on tourism (Lonely Planet says it's the best Tuscsn town to visit) with a constant stream of busloads of people tramping up and down the tiny streets. The locals have risen to the occassion and the streets are lined with galleries, souvenir shops, restaurants and specialty stores and the squares full of markets. We spent a few good hours wandering around the town, buying some Tuscan pottery, eating gelato (at the shop of the 2006/7 and 2008/9 World Gelato Champions), and being hassled by a 12 year old talking to us about Oxfam in his best attempt at English.

The rain from two days earlier had brought with it a cool change and it has been remarkably colder ever since the downpour. Our time in San Gimignano was our coldest yet. We've even had to resort to turning on our gas heating system for the first time (which we didn't even do in the Alps) and busting out the thermals to keep us toasty warm at night.

That evening back at our campsite we watched as a van pulled in next to us. It too was a McRent Campervan and the exact same make and model as ours, only a different colour. I looked at the numberplate and saw that it too was from Friedberg, the town where we had picked up ours. We watched as a young red head got out of the passenger seat (I kid you not) and helped the driver reverse into the spot - "you're crooked", she said in an unmistakable accent. "They're Australian!" Matt and I exclaimed in unison.

We popped out to say hello and learnt that our new neighbours, Kirrilly and Steven, were from the Northern Beaches of Sydney, had picked up their van from Friedberg a few days after us and were travelling for 3 months. We stood around chatting about the motorhome lifestyle, where we'd been and where we going and exchanged stories about our adventures. They have had a few issues with their van (flat tyre but no tool to get the spare down, a water tank that leaks into the cab and an accident that tore off the wing mirror) which makes me think how blessed we've been that we've had no problems.

Three hours of standing outside talking later, we realised it was now alomost 9pm, dark, cold and that nobody had eaten. We retreated to our respective vans for dinner and, at their invitation, popped over to 'their place' for some UNO and more chatting. Being in thier van was a very twilight zone experience. It was EXACTLY like ours, much like being in identical apartments, just with different shoes under the table and a different bed spread. These are the first people we have properly talked to in person since the UK, other than each other of course, and it was great! We didn't leave til after midnight (how's that for an early night Paul!).

The next day we lazed around the campsite, said goodbye to our new friends, and hit the road. Destination: Venice. See, told you it would be short.