San Jimmy Django

It was a slow morning, let's be honest. We were full of Dario's beef and his waiters' Chianti - both of which were served in quantities exceeding our expectations. It was phenomenal of course - and what a thrill to see the world's greatest butcher carving up meat in person - but both of us needed a bit of a lie-in the next morning. We were due to move on - not too far thank God, but far enough away where we wouldn't feel the need to buy more Chianti. We were headed for San Gimignano! I had never been here before, possibly because I find the name difficult to pronounce (it is San Jimmy-nyano). Because of my disability, we referred to it as San Jimmy Django which somehow rolled off the tongue a whole lot more easily.

Terrace view of the towers

Happy times

It was only an hour or so drive away from Panzano, but we would have preferred lying by the pool amongst the vineyards at this point. But we made it, parked the car and headed inside the walled city of San Gimignano hoping for an early check-in. Much to our disappointment, this place was actually a late check-in place - at 3pm. Gah! So with 2.5 hours to kill we hit the main drag and sat down for a refreshing Coke and pasta. We could already tell this was going to be a place we were going to love though. It was just like a smaller and cuter version of Siena - so beautiful! And when we checked into our B&B we were even more in love! We had a great view out of our room, and there was a small roof terrace with 360 degree views! Simply stunning!  So we went up and watched the sun slowly set - why had I not been here before?! I was very happy with the decision to spend 3 nights here. So we just sat up there and soaked up the amazing view, all on our own.

Terrace panorama view

That evening we happened upon the #1 restaurant on Trip Advisor, Cum Quibus, and were lucky enough to get the last table without a reservation. We were seated in the cute little courtyard and it was simply superb. We each had a pasta primi - I had the tagliatelle with smoked goose breast, pistachio and fresh truffle and followed this up with beef carpaccio and fresh truffle. I have never seen so much truffle in my life - and then halfway through they come and grate more fresh truffle onto it. There was literally truffle flying everywhere. It was a truffley dream come true! Such good value too. So we of course immediately booked a table for the following night.

Tagliatelle with smoked goose breast, pistachio and truffle

Beef carpaccio with fresh truffle

 The next morning after the hotel breakfast, we got back in the car and hit the windy roads for nearby Volterra, which is like a smaller version of San Gimignano - these Tuscan towns are like Russian dolls. Very picturesque though. We parked the car down the bottom, as you tend to do with these walled towns, and hiked up a long stone staircase to near the top, greeted by glorious vistas of the Tuscan countryside.

Vista from atop Volterra

 Volterra is believe to have been continuously inhabited since 8 BC, and so has some amazingly old buildings and a Roman theatre which was only found in the 1950s. Ryan was looking forward to seeing the Medicean Fortress, which we saw, but surprisingly it is currently a state prison which also houses a pretty good restaurant. I can't imagine what the prison is like - the fortress was built in the 15th century and I can't imagine they put it through massive renovations in order to house the prisoners (who require high-security as these crims are all in there for at least 7 years). The restaurant was opened in 2006 as some kind of rehabilitation program for the inmates, who are the waiters and cooks and chefs and actually take the job quite seriously, while under heavy scrutiny by the guards of course. Anyway, you have to book weeks in advance apparently, because not only is it now very popular, but you have to pass a background check before coming, not to mention being searched at several checkpoints once there, and yes, only plastic cutlery is allowed. If we had known earlier we would have done it, purely for blog update hilarity.

Volterra

 We wandered around town admiring the little alleyways and vistas over the rest of the countryside until it was time to have a sit-down. We weren't overly hungry so just shared a pizza. They are always so cheap but so big - how people eat one to themselves I do not know. After lunch, we wandered round a bit more, past a few cathedrals and around the Etruscan walls and we had pretty much covered Volterra. So back down the hill we went and headed back to San Gimignano, just as some dark clouds were coming in. Before they did though, we had a quick sit up on the terrace again, soaking up those wonderful views.

Roman Theatre (1 BC), excavated in 1950s

After some photo uploading and blogging, it was soon time to go back to Cum Quibus for dinner again! This time we were seated inside, and it was completely booked out so lucky we had reserved a table. They welcomed us back, and the chef gave us a little welcome glass of prosecco and dish or wild boar to try. Then I had fried egg with fresh truffle for primi, and beef tartare with fresh truffle for secondi. Yes I love my truffle!! Ryan had an amazing pig liver dish for secondi - I had never tried it but it was pretty amazing. Ryan got a dessert too, and they must have felt sorry for me as they brought me out a little tirimasu! It was delish. And as we left they brought out a gift of biscotti for us to take home. They were so sweet, the service amazing and the food superb. One of my most favourite dining experiences!

Beef tartare with asparagus, pecorino and fresh truffle