The little hilltop town of San Gimignano was one of the most fantastically lovely places in a land of lovely that we spent time in.
While it was stunning to gaze at from the backyard of our little agritourismo, it was fun to explore a pied as well. Although, coming into the tiny city, it reminded me a bit of Carscassone, that lovely village in the south of France that is packed with junk vendors of all things medieval. It wasn't quite so bad, there was a lot of fun exploring to do.
So, what the story is that it was here that the local Hatfields and McCoys of the town started a medieval pissing contest and started building towers to keep an eye on each other. Not just happy with two or three a piece, there was at one point SEVENTY TWO of these towers crowding on the hilltop, creating what must have looked like a mini-Manhattan before there was even a Manhattan. Seriously. Today, 14 of the towers survive within the city walls. It's just...unique.
Plus, we found a great little wine bar where you could sit upon the city wall and drink the delicious local white Vernaccia di San Gimignano and watch the sun sink, and the magic tuscan glow hit the earth.
There's a fantastic main plaza with really good gelato, and that's really all I can ask for out of life.
While there were quite a lot of tourist in the main square, once the sun went down, it was empty.
Staying outside the city walls was the move as it was something really nice to gaze out upon.
No comments:
Post a Comment