Friday, July 06, 2007

San Gimignano

Week total: 30.5k
Month total: 36.9k
Year total: 1,327.9k

Since being in San Gimignano I have run 4 times: a short 6.4km on Sunday; a flatter 8.5km run to Santa Lucia on Monday; a combination of both the aforementioned runs on Thursday (11km); and a run around the old walls surrounding the town, plus some streets through the town plus the Santa Lucia run again this morning (11km). The weather has been warm to hot with blue skies and sunshine for all of the runs (sorry for those of you freezing through a Canberra winter). We had one very wild and windy day - the day we went to Siena....Wednesday I think. The Palio (horse race) was held on Monday and the winners were parading down the streets, waving flags, drumming and blowing whistles.

We also had a look through Casa di Santa Caterina (I was named after her) - where she was born and lived with her parents and 24 siblings!!!!!!! Then it was on to Chiesa di San Domenico where Santa Caterina took her vows. Here we saw her head in the chapel of Santa Caterina, and also her thumb plus thew whip she used to use on herself, for the wellbeing of the souls of the faithful.

The cappuccini has been of a high standard here in San Gimignano, apart from the very first one we had here when we arrived last Saturday. That particular coffee tasted awful and we haven't been back to that cafe again!

Strewth and I went shopping in Florence on Tuesday and I managed to get a bargain with a leather coat. The San Lorenzo markets are a little overwhelming though - just stall after stall after stall of leathergoods, t-shirts, tacky souvenirs, more leathergoods. Also managed to see David (a copy in a piazza), the Ponte Vecchio, the outside of the Duomo (truly amazing) and the Uffizi Gallery. The only offputting thing is the number of tourists - there are so many!

We leave San Gimignano tomorrow, bound for Vernazza (Cinque Terre) - can't wait! Also looking forward to catching up with the Black Knight next week!

TA - we have seen Italians out running but they do tend to be male. Not so many females running though we did encounter a group of young Italian women running, while in Cortona. Lots of cyclists however.

Ciao!

6 comments:

Ewen said...

Buona mattina Caterina :)

Congeliamo e siete nel sole caldo!

How on earth are you going to get through the Bush Capital 60k on that sort of training?

Anonymous said...

oooh, get a Popener.

do they really have a head and thumbs? i heard that napoleon's startswithwandrhymeswithsilly was auctioned. severed by a priest shortly after death and passed down. i read it didn't look much like the younger living version. do thumbs?

if you don't mind, when you shuffle off this mortal coil, i'm doing to let them keep your thumbs attached.

have fun with the black knight. i hope he is not in a blood thirsty mood or you'll be thumbless after all.

Two Fruits said...

Ewen, CJ is thousands of kms away so just run back here. She still has a couple of weeks to get ready.

BTW, her daugther, TJ on BB was an angel compared to that stupid Michelle.

Tesso said...

Thanks for the update CJ. You get 10 out of 10 on the "make them jealous" scale.

Lulu said...

Ahh Vernazza! You'll find nothing but hills in the Cinque Terre unless you find you way to the top of the mountain and run along the track at the top.

TD said...

I'm with Ewen, CJ. Just wait until you two get back to Canberra and then you will have to count the cost of the wicked and decadent Roman lifestyle you have been leading of late. You know what happened to Caligula, Nero, Commodus and all that crowd :)