Sunday, 11 June 2017

We loved San Gimignano, Italy



by Keith and Heather Nicol
Heather exploring San Gimignano
    From Lucca our next stop was San Gimignano where we spent 3 nights at a comfortable airbnb called the “Central apartment in San Gimignano”.  It was within 500 meters of the gates of the walled city of San Gimignano which is ideal since parking can be a problem in this popular hill town. Elizabeth our host had a ton of information about San Gimignano and the surrounding communities and she also told us where to get some good pictures of the tall towers that the village is known for.  We spent our first day exploring San Gimignano and the views from the top of the tower were splendid. We also enjoyed going through the museum of anthropology and visiting the Rocca di Montestaffoli which had its own very pleasant enclosure. A harpist playing under an olive tree made the whole setting magical.

The view from the tower was superb

The second day was spent touring some nearby communities and we checked out the glass museum
San Gimignano is known for its numerous towers
in Colle di Val D’elsa which it turned out had been a big glass producer in this area. We then set our sites for Siena which was busy with tourists but well worth the visit. We especially liked the elaborate cathedral and duomo as well as the huge Piazza del Campo where the famous Palio (a horse race) occurs twice each summer. We had hoped to visit some of the other hilltowns that our airbnb host Elizabeth had suggested but once again we were out of time. Unfortunately the next day we were scheduled to head to Florence to wind up our Tuscany adventure and return to Canada. So sad to leave.


The Piazza del Campo is where the Palio occurs each summer in Siena







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