August 30

August 30th (sunny and warm)
Left Florence using the smaller roads instead of the highway. The going was much slower, but very picturesque driving through vineyards and olive groves towards the town of San Gimignano which is situated high on a hill which at one time had seventy-five towers of which only fifteen are left standing. These towers were the defensive positions for the feuding families of the area. Lot of anger here at one time.
The climb was tough on the van and walking through the hilly streets was tough on my knee. Seems Georg is stuck with two `gimpy’ women. Susi ran well considering the heat of the day and the distance we covered. After visiting San Gimignano, we drove through Volterra, which was the plateau of this highway. After that, we were driving downhill the rest of the time which was good for the van.
We decided to bypass Pisa as everything was extremely smoggy and we have seen the Tower. Heading north on the highway we passed through the area where Carrarra marble is quarried. You could mistake the hills to have snow on them – this is how white the marble is.
We broke off the highway to get to our campsite in Lavanto. The drive was quite spectacular from the highway down to the fifteen kilometer drive into town. We have never had so many switchbacks and elevation drops – quite spectacular. Lavanto is situated in a bay, which when we arrived had sea mist surrounding the hills making it quite an eerie sight. The temperature and the air are quite different – Mediterranean air and cool mist and no bugs.
After setting up and having a delicious spaghetti dinner, we went for a long walk through the town. The enjoyment that we had during our walk again reinforced our belief that small towns are much more pleasing than larger cities. We walked through the back lanes at dusk listening to Italian families carry on conversations and took in the fragrances of the Italian kitchens.
Tomorrow we are planning to take the train through the five towns that make up Cinque Terre and because the weather is so fantastic and the Mediterranean so warm, we will probably stay longer than our normal two days at a site.