Hair Cut

With my sister here to provide moral support, I finally got up the nerve to walk into a hair place and ask them to cut my hair. Between sign language, my rudimentary Italian, and one of the hair stylist’s rudimentary English, I got what I consider a successful haircut. I told the woman who spoke a little English what I want and she would translate to the woman who cut my hair. It was quite comical, actually, and provided them quite a show. My fear was that I would end up with the puffy hair favored by the elderly Italian women. That, thankfully, didn't happen.

We had a wonderful day together. The four of us drove into Certaldo and had our morning pastry and coffee. We then took the funiculore (pictured here) up to Certaldo Alto, which is the old part of the town that is up on the top of the hill. The view from Certaldo Alto is wonderful.

Bill and I had noticed that Certaldo was proud of the fact that it was the home of someone named Giovanni Boccacio, and his home was in Certaldo Alto. I mentioned that fact to my sister, who is a high school English teacher (or was until she recently became vice principal of faculty at the school in which she has taught for many years). Well. It turns out he was a very important writer of the Renaissance period. So my sister was very excited to visit all things Boccacio, and I was happy to learn something new today.

At about 11 o’clock, we decided to stop and have a glass of beer or wine. We chose a little restaurant that overlooked the valley below, with endless fields of – you guessed it, grapevines and olive trees. The restaurant had a lovely garden area that had a hedge of rosemary and beautiful flowers. We enjoyed our wine and beer coupled with our conversation, until such time that we noticed we were hungry. We then ordered lunch. We shared spaghetti pomodoro, spaghetti carbonara, and a plate of Tuscan meats.

After that, we went down the hill. As we were walking to the car, Bill spotted the hair place, and you know the rest of the story.

Bec and TR took a nap, and then drove back into San Gimignano to visit some of the shops that were closed yesterday when we finished eating. Bill and I decided to lay low. We fixed some prosciutto and melon when it cooled down. The other two had dinner in san Gimignano, and came home with some nice kitchen items they bought as souvenirs. We sat out on our patio, and Bill and TR entertained us with stories of college pranks.