At around 11:00AM, I got on CIS. Although I booked a seat in the first class, seats got full soon. There was a middle-aged couple with their daughter from Germany sitting left next to me, and right in front of me were young Italian school girls were chatting cheerfully, and Americans across the aisle. All looked so excited, heading for various parts of Italy on a beautiful sunny May Day. The train started to move quietly and slowly for Florence. A German family got off at Bologna, and so did some passengers. But seats got filled up soon again.
After a three-hour travel from Milan, I reached Florence. It was warmer than Milan. I soon started to look for the bus terminal but could not find the place. And as I got there, all ticket windows were closed and there was no bus found there. I asked one of those local people who were sitting back and chatting there about any availability of bus services to San Gimignano. He just said to me, "No bus today." I had checked an alternate way to get to San Gimignano instead of using a bus and known there would be a local train going to Poggibonsi to get to San Gimignano, so I returned to the train station, Santa Maria Novella. But the train to Poggibonsi was not frequent. Thus, I ended up spending time there about three hours in Florence to get a train to Poggibonsi.
Walked around Florence. To me, it was just one of those European cities and not very impressed. Just too many people all over the place. Had a pizza and a drink at Pizzeria. And as I started walking again, I found people waiting in line for a store named, "GROM." As I got closer to the store, it was a gelato shop. I was not sure if it was a famous one but joined the line and ordered a cup of vanilla. It wasn't bad.
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Back to the train station, Santa Maria Novella before 5:00PM. The local train I was about to get on was Regionale and it was an old train. The train departed at 5:10PM for Poggibonsi as scheduled.
It tool about an hour to get to Poggibonsi. As I got off at Poggibonsi and went outside the station, I was a bit surprized to find this station much smaller and quieter than I'd expected. Poggibonsi was supposed to be sort of the crossroad of in this region and I had thought it would be larger and more developed area with lots of buses and taxis at least around the station, but what I saw instead was just several local people drinking at a bar right by the station. I saw no bus, no taxi, no tourist in sight.
I soon got worried if I would be able to get to a hotel in San Gimignano. Asked a bartender there if there is any bus to San Gimignano in English but he did not understand me, so I asked another local person sitting and drinking. He said there was not bus because of the holiday and also because of the strike! I just got so bewildered and started walking around to find a taxi. Kept asking several local people but very few people could speak English. It was getting darker which made me feel so uneasy. I knew I had come close to San Gimignano but I also knew it would be too far to walk from Poggibonsi. Then I found cellphone numbers beneath the sign of Car Parking. I though they were numbers for taxis, and tried to make a call at each number. It got through, but all drivers spoke only Italian and did not understand what I said in English. They were trying to explain to me and sounded so rushed. And all hung up on me. I was very anxious about any one of them would come over pick me up and take me to San Gimignano. I stil started calling each number again because that was the only way at that point I could do to get to San Gimignano.
Soon, there was a guy coming toward me and he asked me in English, “Are you looking for a taxi?” He was a New Zealander whose rental car got broken into in Siena. He looked so desperate, trying to get to San Gimignano somehow, but was at a loss like me. We both started asking anyone we saw near the station if there is anyway, any taxi, or maybe give us a ride to San Gimignano... Then there was this local Italian in his early 20's who came over to us and kindly said he could call these cellphone numbers beneath the sign of Car Parking and speak to them for us! We were so relieved. I gave my cellphone to him and he spoke to each taxi driver in Italian. He told us that since there was no bus running, all taxi drivers were too busy picking up and taking tourists around, and we would have to wait at least 30 minutes for any taxi to pick us up. It was getting even darker and we both were so anxious. This New Zealander resume to ask anyone to help take us to San Gimignano, but there was no one who could give us a ride to San Gimignano. And finally we found an old local Italian (he looked like one of those guys in the film, "The Godfather.") who could help us to take us to San Gimignano! Relieved! I really respected his perseverance in the meantime. We got on this car and headed for San Gimignano. In about 10 minutes, we saw the towers on the top of the hill in the distance. San Gimignano! It was so beautiful at twilight. We gave 10 euros each and got off at the entrance of the town of San Gimignano. I thanked both guys and became alone again. It was 8:00PM already. The view of Tuscany from up there was so stunning, feeling I have come this far! This is Tuscany! But from here, there was another hardship waiting ahead of me.
I had often heard that the real beauty of this town could be most appreciated from a distance. So I had reserved a hotel that is located a bit outside of the historical center of San Gimignano. I had searched how to access this hotel and assumed that I could get there on foot. But I was wrong... With a Google map I had printed out in my hand, I started walking down the hill and looing for my hotel, believing I was going the correct direction. My Little Pilgrimage to Tuscany has just started!
By the time I started walking down, it was dark and I saw absolutely no one walking. I kept trudging wearily up and down the slopes, giving a look at rows of grape vines and olive trees. Although I was extremely exhausted, yet I was happy to be walking through the vast rolling hills of Tuscany.
There were several times on the way I wondered if I could possibly manage to get to my hotel. But I believed in myself with a map in my hand. After walking for an hour, the sign of my hotel showed up. After ten more minutes of walking, I finally reached my hotel. It was around 9:00PM already. I glanced over the lit-up skyline of the center of San Gimignano.
The hotel staff welcomed me warmly but got surprized to know that I had walked all the way from the center of San Gimignano! I was expecting to have a dinner at his hotel, but they did not have any restaurant on the hotel premises. There was one restaurant I had passed by on my way; that was 1km away from this hotel. I was too tired to walk back to that restaurant. Instead the hotel staff kindly prepared the cold meal, lots of cheese and quite a bit of ham and brought up to my room. I ate them up and went to bed soon.
It was so tough, long day with a series of hardships. I had never thought I would go through all this from Milan to the hotel in San Gimignano I had reserved by myself. It was just unfortunate that there was no bus running from Florence on the public holiday of May 1. And I really should have rented a car. I checked in the Tuscan bus services while I was planning this travel back in Japan, they were supposed to run on holidays, too... To be continued for Day 2 |
