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San Gimignano
For those interested in the history of the Middle Ages, San
Gimignano is the town to visit. It
is an almost perfectly preserved
medieval city, and you will
experience this the minute you
pass through the Porta San
Giovanni gate inside the walls of *
San Gimignano. Take a walk
along the narrow flagstone and you
will realize that Via San Giovanni
is thoroughly medieval. There are
a lot of modern renovations and
implements, and the small
Romanesque church frontage a small
way up the street, now hides a
modern wine shop. But, if you can
ignore
the racks of postcards and
other modern paraphernalia, you
are immediately transported to the
days of the crusades, of looming
castles and vicious conspiracies.
The centre of
the town is right at the top of
the Via SanGiovanni and it is
formed by two Piazze – the Piazza
della Cisterna, built around a
1237 well, and Piazza del Duomo,
which is in between the city's
main church and civic palace. Tall
medieval towers rise up from these
squares, and these towers earned
for San Gimignano the title
"city of the beautiful
towers”. No one can agree how
many stone skyscrapers remain in
this Medieval skyscraper town,
many have been shortened by
destruction and it is difficult to
say whether they're still
officially towers or simply tall
skinny ruins. But the official
number of towers as per the
tourist office is 14. This is the
number that remains from the
original that was between 70 and
76 of the stately steeples that
rose above this little village.
The spires were built in the
1200s, partly to defend the city
from outside invaders, but more
often as command centers for San
Gimignano's warring families. The
scourge of plague swept repeatedly
through the town and region in
1348, 1464, and 1631, and this
destroyed the economy of the town
that was mainly based on textiles
and playing host to passing
pilgrims. San Gimignano became a
provincial backwater. One
unexpected advantage of this
disaster was that because there
was no compulsion to build again,
by the time tourism began picking
up in the 19th century, visitors
found a preserved medieval village
of crumbling towers.
San Gimignano is a very popular Tuscan hill town, a holiday
destination for hosts of tourists
who come in buses from Siena and
Florence. The best time to visit
the town is in the evening, after
the majority of the tourists have
left, particularly in the
off-season and on spring nights.
The alleyways are empty, and you
can wander around in the yellow
light of street lamps.
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