San Gimignano - that unpronounceable tower town

We arrived in this famous hill town on a rainy Monday morning and immediately found that we had to switch into urban battle mode - fighting to enter a parking lot, fighting to keep my parking ticket and fighting for a parking spot!  Are we really in Tuscany?

Although we had been warned about parking in San Gimignano by Rick Steves, we thought we had left things like faulty parking entrance gates and raging drivers behind in the city.  But no, cars were trying to enter the small parking lot from three directions through two small gates, one of which was not working very well.  An obviously stressed out female tried to grab the parking ticket from the driver in front of me because she had entered without taking a ticket from the intermittently malfunctioning ticket machine.  When that was unsuccessful, she tried to grab mine.  While I was able to defend myself it still left a slightly sour taste in my mouth.  What a beginning to what was supposed to be a peaceful Tuscan visit!

However, all went well after we entered the city gates  - no cars allowed.  We just had to battle the rain which was intermittent.  It was a bit of a downer but  it made the sunny part more precious.  It was a particularly gratifying moment when the sun suddenly came out at the end of our climb up the 218 steps of the Bell Tower.  Lo and behold - 360 degrees of Tuscan countryside spread out below us bathed in warm sunshine.  What a view!  It made us forget all the slippery cobblestones we had to wade through in the rain.

Panoramic view of the surrounding countryside from the Bell Tower. 

You can see from this angle the long narrow shape of the town

Beautiful gallery atop the courtyard

The Palazzo del Popolo and its Bell Tower

This 3 ton bell was the main bell in the tower since it was cast in the 14th century by a Florentine.  It was shattered into three pieces during the Second World War but wasn't taken down until 1952.  It was finally restored and placed under the loggia in 2010.

High-rises in the medieval town!  Apparently there are only 17 surviving towers from the original 72 towers, which were constructed as symbols of wealth and power -
surprise, surprise!

The Piazza della Cisterna with its beautiful stone well

We ate lunch in this small restaurant near the gates - good homestyle cooking

Yummy looking cookies

The Gelateria Dondoli claimed to be "GelatoWorld Champion" - recommended by Giuseppina (of the cooking school) - the mango and chocolate I tried was definitely superior to what I had in Florence.  Worth the lineup.

This looked like a good deal!

Che un paesaggio perfetto!

Croatia: Split

My reaction to Split was a bit ambiguous.  When I saw Diocletian's castle wrapped around the base with street stalls, I sighed - yet another historical landmark turned into commercial crap - and this is supposed to be the jewel in the crown!  One couldn't see the castle walls because of the shops around it - I was so mad I forgot to take a picture of the ugly mess!  The entire arcade above the old stone foundations were filled with shops selling everything from fridge magnets to diamonds.

What you see in the photos below are the vaulted basement halls of Diocletian's Palace, reputedly the best preserved and most complete palace from Roman times.  The underground halls were identical in layout to the emperor's residence above and walking through them gave us an idea of what it would have been like "upstairs".  What impressed me most was the "dressed" stone blocks - perfectly cut and aligned.

This domed ceiling made the chamber a great place for oratory - acoustics are amazing.

These perfectly cut , mortarless, stones and door jams reminded me of very similar structures created by Inca stonecutters that we saw in Peru last year.  The Incas lived at least a thousand years after the Romans.  Take a look at the similarity between the two and the clearly superior workmanship of the Incas.

Diocletian's Palace basement (Roman)

Cusco's Temple of the Sun (Incan) 

Note the rough-cut stones above the mortarless stone blocks and the residential houses built on top of this historic structure

The innards of the castle were impressive but when one came out to the restored courtyard, it felt like a film set.  For a moment, it almost seemed surreal.  One could almost see Romans lounging around the courtyard and I wasn't seeing things when a couple of Roman soldiers actually came out in full dress complete with spears and armour.

Peristyle - the monumental court with its own Roman soldiers and 3500 year old Egyptian sphynx

Dramatic domed entrance to the emperor's quarters with great acoustics for the Dalmatian klapa - a cappella singers of soulful Dalmatian songs 

Beside the courtyard is the Cathedral of St. Domnius.  This was originally Diocletian's mausoleum, which explains its odd ugly structure - it is a one-room cathedral!   But what irony - Diocletian was notorious for the persecution of Christians and now his memorial commemorates Christians!  More attractive beside it is the awesome bell tower with its 183 steep steps - the view at the top was definitely worth the sore knees.   You get to see this gorgeous seaside town with its red roofs against the clear blue sky and the sparkling waters of the Adriatic - far from the madding crowd.  All the commercialism was 200 feet down - somehow it didn't seem so bad.  And what's wrong with shops anyway - I found a hat for myself in one of the alley shops.  Ignore the fact that it was made in Thailand - it looked good on me!

All the way to the top of the bell tower

Worth the climb! 

What's not to love about it?!

Looking down onto the courtyard from the tower

Split looked great away from the street market

Stumbling upon the lovely cloisters of the Franciscan monastery 

Roasting corn at the street corner

Believe it or not, this is a shopping street!

The historic town hall is now an Art Museum

Quaint clock and bell towers everywhere

The well-preserved east gate

And amazing seafood (for the story please visit Foodsparks)

I may be back!