Medieval towers nearly 700 years old pierce the sky of the Tuscan village of San Gimignano.
From the moment you walk inside through a gateway in the old wall you feel magically
transported into another time and place.
Sometimes called a medieval Manhattan because of its ancient skyscrapers.
The highest tower reaches 170 feet, and you can climb to the top of several of these towers.
From there of course you get a splendid view of the old town and the beautiful countryside
around it.
We'll take you on a walk through the main lanes and little side alleys.
It doesn't take very long – the village is so small it's just 700 meters from north
to south, and about 350 meters from east to west, so you could walk it from top to bottom
in 20 minutes, and yet there are many wonderful things to see.
This proud resident of town likes to come out and walk her dog, show off this pretty
little terrier, and draws a crowd because this dog has got some charisma.
So often when you're traveling and visiting these historic sites it's the little surprises,
the local touches that mean just as much or more than the history – always fun to run
into these little unexpected bonuses.
The tall gateway is the Arch of Becci that was formerly an entrance to the old medieval
town, but then the town grew little bigger, they expanded the walls, and this arch became
a passageway from the main lane into the central square of the Piazza della Cisterna.
The name comes from the cistern, or well that's in the middle of the piazza.
There is a small three-star Hotel Leon Bianco right on the piazza and highly rated, 4 1/2
stars out of five on Trip Advisor.
That would be a very central place to stay.
For a thousand years and still today the piazza has been the main gathering place of town
and all around it are small lanes and alleys, there are some shops and restaurants so it's
very convenient.
Like most visitors you're probably not going to spend the night here, although if you did
it would be quite peaceful.
You can easily see the town in several hours.
The two main squares are right in the center of town, Cisterna and Duomo, with little pedestrian
lanes all around them.
Piazza Duomo is connected to Cisterna by a little passage adjacent to an open loggia.
The vast round archway of the Palazzo Del Podesta on the east side of the piazza is
a major landmark that still serves as a gathering place for locals.
A beautiful wide flight of 25 stone steps flows up to the graceful façade of the Duomo,
which looks peacefully down on a square that has seen thousand years of incredible history.
Next to the Duomo you can enter the Palazzo Communale and climb the steps of the great
tower, the Torre Grosso, which is 54 meters high.
Built in the 14th century, it's the tallest tower in town.
Midway up the steps you can look through the window for a preview of the big view you're
about to get.
The tower climb is a long and really challenging one up this series of stairs suspended within
the lofty shell by beams running from wall-to-wall, but at the top the view is superb.
There are still 13 towers preserved in San Gimignano, which is really its main claim
to fame.
Originally there were as as many as 70 towers back in the Middle Ages.
Below lies the little town, shrunk within its medieval walls to the single main street
running north and south, and a couple of lanes branching off from it to the east and west,
and at this height you look down on some of the flat tops of other towers.
You can see that agriculture is another very important activity here with the vineyards
all around for many miles specializing in the production of excellent wines especially
the Vernaccia.
Up top there is a massive bell which is wrung on festive occasions.
At least the climb down is much easier than the climb up, and you can stop again along
the way and peer out the window.
These towers were originally constructed for defensive purposes back in the Middle Ages,
but then after a while they became status symbols, each family trying to build higher
than the next.
Later on in the middle of the 14th century the city was conquered by Florence and they
required most of the towers be pulled down, in a way to control the local population.
The art museum at the base has some important paintings including this immense fresco by
Lipo Memmi who painted a similar more famous fresco in Siena in the Palazzo Publico there
The Madonna in Glory painted by Pinturicchio in 1512 is one of the great treasures of the
city, and an Annunciation by Filippino Lippi.
The other important art treasure is a series of frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli in the church
of San Agostino.
The museum and tower are all part of the Palazzo Publico, which was the old City Hall of San
Gimignano built at the end of the 13th century.
The courtyard takes the form of a small loggia with some original frescoes still in place
on the walls.
Your admission ticket includes climbing the tower and the museum, so be sure to catch
both.
Entrance to the museum and tower is right on Piazza Duomo so it's very easy to find
it, and the Tourist Information Office is right in front.
It is a most interesting piazza modest in size and yet second-largest in town, showing
more than a dozen books or 100 photographs could tell of the extraordinary life of this
medieval Italian city.
Behind Palazzo Publico a path leads up to the Rocca di Montestaffoli which is the remains
of a fortress the Florentines built after 1353 to maintain their hold upon the town.
It was dismantled 200 years later by Cosimo de Medici.
The main street, via San Giovanni, is a fairly wide pedestrian thoroughfare, well-paved with
large blocks of pietra serana that are left over from the days when San Gimignano was
a town of 30,000 people instead of the couple thousand who live within the ancient walls
today.
Total population of the village area now is about 7000 people.
The main lane extends on the north side of town as well were it's called via San Matteo,
lined with more of those essential items for the tourist – souvenir shops, cafés and
restaurants.
This picturesque double arch is the Arco Della Cancellaria.
It's in the middle of town today but in earlier times the town was much smaller and this was
actually a gate in the wall that went around the outside of the town Of course we always
like to get into the little side alleys; that's where you get some more characteristic local
life, and you can see some residents, and maybe restaurants that are a little bit less
expensive and more delicious.
Situated at this remote height, out of the way of modern industry and life, it has never
lost its medieval buildings, so that it is famous today for its accurate appearance of
the late Middle Ages, especially characteristic of the conditions of life in the 14th and
15th centuries.
There are few refuges in all Tuscany more secure from the rampant modernization of our
time then San Gimignano, this strangely towered city.
Within the walls the well-preserved buildings include examples of Romanesque and Gothic
architecture with outstanding examples of secular buildings as well as churches.
No other town or castle in Tuscany retains more of the Middle Ages and was less changed
by the centuries that followed.
If you want to know what a Tuscan hilltown was like in the 14th century you must go,
but you will probably find you have plenty of company.
It can get crowded.
This video was shot mostly in November, which is a great time to go – not many people
around and they are mostly local.
San Gimignano did not know mass tourism until the end of the 1970s.
Then in 1990, because of its high state of preservation, it was declared a UNESCO World
Heritage Site, which brought many more visitors.
Nowadays it's estimated that more than 2 1/2 million people visit San Gimignano per year
which ranks it the fourth most-visited place in Tuscany behind number one Florence, then
Siena and Pisa.
As always it's better to come in the off-season from late October through early May so that
you can enjoy it without the mass of modern crowds.
If you're coming here on a day-trip by public transit, which is a typical way tourists arrive,
it's a little complicated.
By now you've seen how attractive this city is and so it will be well worth your time
to come and visit.
There is no train station here so you have to arrive by public bus, and if you're coming
from Florence there is no direct bus, and if you're coming from Siena, there is no direct
bus.
So you take the bus from Florence to Poggibonsi, a nearby city, and there you change to another
bus, the local bus that'll bring you into San Gimignano.
If you're staying in Florence you could actually visit both San Gimignano and Siena in one
day.
It would be a long day, but it's possible by taking the bus, transferring at Poggibonsi,
visit San Gimignano for a couple of hours, then get on the bus, back to Poggibonsi, down
to Siena, stay there for the afternoon.
You would find that Siena is one of the great cities of the world to explore.
In this program we've shown you how interesting San Gimignano is, and it's definitely worthwhile,
but Siena is about 10 times more interesting -- it's bigger and it is definitely an important
place for you to visit.
Maybe have dinner outdoors on the Campo at twilight, and then you can take a bus from
Siena directly back to Florence.
An easier alternative is buy a day-trip in Florence from a tour company and they'll bring
you there, show you around, and take you back.
However you would not have as much time in Siena for dinner in the evening as if you
went on your own by public bus -- you can do it!
We do take you to Siena in some of our other programs.
We have got several hundred movies about Italy on our YouTube channel and our website -- take
a look