Italy Blog #40: San Gimignano a Quaint Medieval Town

One of the towers

We're back to our Italy Blogs and in #40 where we will take you to San Gimignano a Quaint Medieval Town!  Allessandro was our driver for the day, and he brought us to one side of this town and dropped us off. The town is actually built entirely on a hill, and has 1 main road, so you walk from one side of the town to the other, entirely up and down hill! 

NICKNAME- The town is known as the "Tuscan Manhattan" - because it's in Tuscany, and because there are several towers that stand in the city that were built in the middle ages that can be seen from a distance (looking like skyscrapers of Manhattan. There are actually about 12 to 14 of these towers left.

San Gimignano towers-  city on a hill

WHAT IS SAN GIMIGNANO? - San Gimignano is an Italian hill town in Tuscany, southwest of Florence. Encircled by 13th-century walls, its old town centers on Piazza della Cisterna, a triangular square lined with medieval houses. Other medieval features include fountains and towers, such as the stone Torre Grossa. The Duomo di San Gimignano is a 12th-century church with frescoes by Ghirlandaio in its Santa Fina Chapel.


CITY HISTORY  - This is a beautiful ancient city. It started as a village 2,000 years ago by Estruscan people. It was founded as an actual town about 1,000 years ago. 

Porta Romana

An alleyway

PORTO ROMANA - This is the name of a 7th century passageway that leads from San Gimignao to Rome. It had wooden doors that were about 60 feet tall!  

WHAT IS THE CITY FAMOUS FOR? White Wine! Dry, bitter wine.  

Rob in the main square

WHATS IN THE CITY? All of the ancient medieval buildings were inhabited by shops and amazing bakeries. - where I had a sugary orange cookie and and amazing chocolate cookie, and Tom had a salty bread. 

a wine shop

 

COBBLESTONE STREETS- were the only streets throughout the entire town.
Here is a collection of pictures to give you an idea of what it's like to walk through the town >>> 

 NEXT: On to the town of Siena!

 

the busy main street

 

BELOW- A  SHORT VIDEO WE TOOK OF THE TOWN - we stopped at the top of the town and took a quick look around in a short video (30 seconds) to give you an idea of what the town looked like.

 

View of the town from a distance

A view from the town looking over the valley

An impressive alley way

Another view looking out from the top of the town