San Gimignano

Another of Tuscany’s charming, medieval hill-top towns.

San Gimignano: "the town of beautiful towers" is in Tuscany, 56 km south of Florence. It served as an important relay point for pilgrims travelling to or from Rome on the Via Francigena. The patrician families who controlled the town built around 72 tower-houses (some as high as 50 m) as symbols of their wealth and power. Although only 14 have survived, San Gimignano has retained its feudal atmosphere and appearance. The town also has several masterpieces of 14th- and 15th-century Italian art. San Gimignano has been inserted from the Unesco in the list of the world-heritage patrimony of the Humanity.

THINGS TO SEE

Duomo it was consecrated in 1148 and is adorned with valuable Sienese school frescoes (Bartolo di Fredi, Barna da Siena, Taddeo di Bartolo), works of art by the Florentine school (Ghirlandaio, Benozzo Gozzoli), wooden statues (Jacopo della Quercia) and sculptures (Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano).

The Old Palazzo del Podesta, Palazzo della Propositura, La Piazza della Cisterna, Santa Fina’s House, La Rocca di Montestaffoli, Piazza Sant’Agostino, The Archaeological Museum, The Vernaccia Wine Museum, A Walk around the Walls, The Mediaeval Fountains