From Tuscany to Rome

Another day. It was our last day in Tuscany. We decided to go see a couple of other hill towns before heading south to Rome. We spent part of the morning taking pictures around the hotel, and then left for San Gimignano, a hill town famous for having the most remaining tower homes still standing.I guess it's one of the more popular hill towns. I'm only saying that because there were no spaces left either in any of the lots or on any of the streets surrounding the town (like most of these towns, you can't drive inside the towns themselves. The streets are too narrow for cars and a quick scoot up the main street would probably slaughter several hundred tourists on any given day). And there were hundreds of cars circulating looking for the nonexistent spots, so we abandoned ship and headed for another town.

The next place we hit, Monteriggioni (yes, all the towns sound like obscure sorts of pasta. I can't help that), is best know for having its entire defensive wall still standing. There's a short section where you can climb up along the wall of a platform and look over the countryside. Really beautiful.

Waited on line at the one non-restaurant food shop and got a platter of meats and cheeses for lunch, which we ate in a small park (everything in this town was kind of in miniature- it's incredibly cute). We went out the back gate to take some pictures in the olive trees and grape vines on the hillside, then a quick espresso and off to Rome.

The drive to Rome from Tuscany is pretty long but pretty, with occasional hill towns perched off to the left or right of the expressway. The car we have is very very small and has room only for the luggage and us. Just.

We fought some traffic on the way into Rome. It was the end of a holiday weekend and lots of people had been out in the countryside, I guess. We had some difficulty getting to the hotel as Google Maps, our only reliable source, kept freezing. And then it kept trying to direct us to across the street from the hotel. There's no place to pull over anywhere in this street, though there's a curb cut for a few meet just in front. We finally got in front, then parked the car a few blocks away so we could get set. Then we had to go to the airport to drop off the car, because yesterday was big holiday in town and the city office was closed by the time we arrived.

The airport is far and a pain in the butt, and I couldn't drop the car off myself, because I was not a registered driver, only Ronnie was. And the car had sustained some slight damage. The last thing I needed at that point was to have them confront me on the damage and then find I was not the proper driver. So Ronnie dealt with them, but they didn't notice at the moment. Once we left it can be done by email. We then took a cab back to the hotel and we were finally done with that chapter. Whew!

We rested for a little while and then headed out for dinner. We decided to eat near the Trevi fountain,

since that seemed a nice place to visit on out first night. We had a nice dinner on a small street near the fountain, which is a truly insane piece of business. I'm not sure what kind of crazy person dreamed that thing up.

Really, that's the best you could come up with?

Anyway, it was mobbed at 10:30 on a Monday night and came complete with street hawkers and people wanting to take your picture. But ultimately we made out way down near the fountain and threw our coins in.

Then some gelato and it was a nice way to end a long day. Tomorrow is a big tour day- Roman Forum, Palatine hill, Colosseum, and Pantheon. Looking forward to it.