Sunday - Day of rest???

I wrote up Sundays post last night but still have it on my laptop back at the agriturismo. I will post it when I get to rome and take my laptop to a net cafe.



Highlights

Italy roads are fun to drive on when its dry

Italy roads are not fun to drive on when its pouring down with texas type thunderstorms

Montepulciano is a bit of a drive from San Gimignano but its worth it. very cool town.

Of all the people, ran in to my seatmate from the flight and some friends when I was in Montepulciano

GPS battery was dying so I hobbled my way along with only turning it on when I thought i needed it. worked pretty well.

lots of rain in the afternoons here.

lots of good food and wine


Sunday, so much for a day of rest
Today was a busy day. The morning started off around 8AM with the goal of getting up and getting out for a head start on my drive to San Gimignano. All went well, and breakfast was very tasty, but it took a lot longer to get to the car rental location than I had planned. I've decided I'm not a fan of Florence street layouts and lack of signs. Makes it a wee bit hard to get where you are going. And, even if you do know where to go, its no fun with a regular rolling back and a 2nd bag. The sidewalks are just a bit too narrow for this to be comfortable for me or the other pedestrians. I did finally make it though.
My wonderful rental car is a Fiat Punto. Yes, for those thinking of spanish words, this does have an N in it so its not what you think. Its a kinda cool little car. It even sounds like its kinda fast. It does struggle on hills though so I have to downshift if I want to accelerate or pass. Pretty fun little car though. The drive to San Gimignano was uneventful and only took about 45 minutes. When I arrived at the Agrituruismo though there was no one there. This was around 11 and they had a note that they would be back at 11:30. Instead of waiting I drove back to town, parked, and went in to walk around a bit. I walked in to the main square area are the cistern and snapped some pictures. Sat down in an outdoor restaurant and had caprese salad followed by some panini. Very tasty. (as I type this I just looked out the window at the Agriturismo and its a beautiful sight. There is a light fog/haze over the hills in the distance and just one light I can see from what I think is a farmhouse. This is how I pictured the Italian countryside. Anyways, back to my day...) I then walked around the city a bit more to work off lunch and get some more pictures.
After that excursion I headed back to the agriturismo. I met Cristiano and chatted with him a bit. Seems like its not terribly busy right now as its only me and one other person (couple? family? can't recall what cristiano said) staying tonight. A family of four arrives tomorrow but in a different area. Cristiano is a very nice guy and speaks good english. I asked for wine tasting recommendations and think I may have offended him b/c I then learned that they make a wide range of wines themselves. They had them locked up today but he will give me a tasting tomorrow. We talked a bit more and then he showed me to the room. After I got everything set I decided to go ahead and drive down to Montepulciano.
Both Frommers and Rick Steves call out Montepulciano as a good wine area, though a bit expensive on some of their wines. It is a 1.5hr drive from San Gimignano but I figured it wasn't like i had a whole lot of other things to do and I might as well go hit some of the more well known wine areas. The drive was slow but became entertaining towards the end when my GPS battery started to get low. I figured I was about 30 minutes away still and the thought did cross my mind to just turn around and try again tomorrow. But I decided to keep on going and just use the GPS when I wasn't sure where to go bugt to leave it off otherwise. I made it to town fine with very little GPS usage.
I then walked in to town and followed around the more circuitous and scenic route. I was trying to get to Contucci Cantini since it was recommended by Rick Steve's guide. I found where I thought it was supposed to be but only found a litle B&B instead. There was another wine room next door though so I decided to go in there. I tried some of their wines and was very surprises. There were two I liked there. One was primarily a cab and the other was primarily a sangiovese. Both good in their own ways though and both worth a bottle purchase. Then, as I walked out I was able to fine the Contucci Cantina. It's almost hidden back behind some other things but it was there. The two guys in there were very friendly and nice, though neither spoke much english. I tired three wines there that ranged in price for EUR7 to EUR30. I purchased two of the EUR7 wines and 2 ~18EUR wines. Very good and easily worth it. After that I figured it was time to head back. I was very surprised on my way back down to the parking area to run into Dana (seatmate on the plane over) and her friend. She introduced us and then her friend went off to look at shops, leaving Dana and I to chat for a few minutes. We chatted about how each other's trip had gone so far and then I went off with my wine and she went back to shopping for leather goods. Then it was my chance to see if I could make it home without the GPS.
Luckily, the GPS had enough battery life to help me hobble home. Its a good thing too b/c some of the signs and turns didn't make any logical sense to me and I would have gotten lost. And, to make things more fun, there was some serious rain that started down. The speed limit was 110KMH but most people were doing less than 90 due to the standing water and risk of hydroplaning. Not quite a fun drive. There was even one point where a lane was closed due to a "landslide". I say "landslide" b/c it was more like just a bit of mud on the road. They could have used a medium broom to brush it off but instead there was a police car and two other cars with people standing there looking at it. It didn't slow traffic too much and was just more of an entertaining thing than an annoyance. Other than that, the heavy rains, hydroplaning, and having to use the GPS only when I was unsure of where to turn, the trip was pretty easy :)
I came back to the agriturismo and first plugged in the GPS so it'll be all set tomorrow. I thought I brought a car charger for it but I can't find it. I may just buy one tomorrow but may not since I only have one more day in the car. I then cleaned up and went back in to town for dinner. I had three restaurant ideas from the guidebook. The first one was full :(. The second one was closed :( and the third one was the one where I ate lunch. So, what to do? Well, I picked the only one I saw that was showing F1 racing on TV. How else would one decide where to eat?