We went to San Gimignano on Wednesday. It's a much smaller town than Siena or Florence but (of course) has a long history of its own. It's at the top of the highest hill in the area, so the view was excellent. (A particularly good view from the fortress is one of the things that we missed when the battery died.)
Of course, it has a lovely old section of town.
There's the Museum of the Medieval Criminal. (We didn't go in, but I do love a suit of armor.)
There's a central piazza around the cistern.
Oh, and there's the thing the town is most famous for - the towers. Apparently, the city's medieval families would show off by building them. There were over 70 at one point, but now there are only 13 left.
We went to the local church, which has interior walls that are completely painted with scenes from the Bible. Very nice, but as with all the other cool stuff we weren't allowed to take pictures.
After some walking, we made our way to a punto panoramico and took one last picture before running out of juice.
By far, the best thing about the town was the gelato. The gelaterie that we went to was award winning and has the approval of many famous people (like Tony Blair). The gelato was absolutely the best we've had on our trip and will probably not be equalled in Rome. Even if the town weren't pretty, I would go to San Gimignano just for the gelato. I had a version made with Vin Santo, which is the locally made dessert wine. Just wonderful.
2 comments:
We went to a Museum of Torture in San Gimignano back in 2003... I wonder if they replaced it with the museum you're standing in front of? That would be a shame. Everyone needs to know what an ass pear looks like.
No, I think the Museum of Torture is still there, too. Surprisingly, Debbie wasn't into that.
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