San Gimignano

Bad news!  

I woke up in the night with toothache.  

Not good.  

Should we find a dentist here? 

Or hope that the Ibuprofen keeps doing its stuff?  

Dunno.  

Headed off to San Gimignano, and after 45 minutes were driving up towards the town. 
Absolutely wonderful place!

San Gimignana

Parking however in these tourist traps is a nightmare, so we decided to not bother looking round until we were installed on our campsite for the night, Camping Boschetto di Piemma, San Gimignano.

We arrived at midday, and checked in.  
A Swiss campervan pulled in at the pitch next to us.  I was outside our van, and heard the bang as he reversed his van into the electricity supply that I had just plugged into!  The cycle rack on the back of his van caught it smartly halfway up the electricity supply box!
Then we did some washing, and got that done while we had lunch.  Then we had the washing out on the line, and were standing at the bus stop into town, just as the bus arrived.  Bang on time,

“The women on the bus go chatter, chatter, chatter” here all right!  What a racket, as we weaved our way along the roads to town.  They all knew Pedro the driver.  He was a cheery chappie.  

Once in town, we were once again delighted with the place.  Picturesque, peaceful, pretty, and many more adjectives.

Not a big place, but just very enjoyable.

We sat outside in an open air cafe enjoying a cup of tea, and watching the world go by.

Ruth loves helping people, and today was no exception.  

A busker was set up.  He was playing

 two pan-shaped things that looked like flying saucers, and sounded like steel drums,  He did  more talking than busking.  But that's his choice, I suppose.

Busking on a couple of flying saucers

A rather elderly nun needed a bit of a hand.  Ruth insisted on taking her up the steps to the basilica (even though the nun didn’t want to go!).

A healthy enough nun

Ruth takes her up a steep slope!

Right to the top of the incline!

Ruth went to get some cash out of the cash machine only to find that it wasn’t an ATM at all!! 

Funny ATM

Mind you, I have to say that I thought it was strange chewing gum.

This is what an ATM looks like darling!

An ATM

So confusing.

A couple of hours wandering round revealed some beautiful parts.  We found one such place with olive groves, wisteria growing, and an abundance of panoramic views across the Tuscany hills.

We caught our bus back to our campsite.  Pedro was still driving and the women were still going “chatter, chatter, chatter”.  Or is it “natter, natter, natter”?

The women on the bus go.....

As soon as it began to get dark, we noticed that the LED street lamp thing at Pitch No 35 (where we were), was flashing like a disco strobe light.  It was enough to start anyone off with a fit.

I went to the reception and asked if anything could be done about it.  She shrugged her shoulders and muttered something about the technician being unavailable.  I could see I was getting nowhere with her.

Lamp post on L, Swiss man's van on R

Back at the van, I dug around for my handy tool kit.  Please note that I wasn’t allowed to bring a cordless drill with me.  Most other useful items are essential kit for me!

I found the correct sized allen key, my torch, and my faithful Swiss Army Wife. I set about seeing if I could disable the light.  In no time at all, I had got the cover off the lamppost, and was working my way to the isolator, and wiring inside the lamppost.  To my dismay, there was no isolator, and I didn’t have my test lamp.  Otherwise, I would have disconnected the wiring up to the top of the pole.

Ruth was relieved when I came back in, unscathed, uninjured, and unsuccessful.

I felt the opposite!
It reminded me of my BT days, - ... working in the dark!!!!

We went to bed with extra coverings to the curtains to ensure no flickering came through and a black bin bag over the roof vent.  

We were fairly successful, and had a good night’s sleep.