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If you are looking for San Gimignano between the wide valleys of Val d'Elsa and the rolling hills around Siena, you don't need a map or a navigator.
Because the skyline of the town with its characteristic 14 towers is unmistakable.
The "Manhattan of the Middle Ages" is framed by natural stone houses under brown tile roofs and a meter-thick protective wall from the 11th century.
When towers began to be built in Tuscany in the early Middle Ages, the local patricians were concerned on the one hand with their protection, but more on their prestige. Because with the height of a family's tower, which was often gradually increased over generations, so did the prestige of the respective noble family - which is why the skyward-reaching buildings are also called gender towers. Often they were attached to palazzi that served as a residence in peacetime.
Over 70 up to 54 meters high towers stood in San Gimignano in the 13th and 14th centuries.
The place, a good 50 kilometers south of Florence, was a flourishing market town and a stopover for pilgrims who wanted to come to Rome from Northern Europe.
Because the Via Francigena, the Frankenstrasse, ran right through the city center.
This is how hostels, inns and hospitals sprang up all along the way.
San Gimignano became impoverished, the towers fell into disrepair
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The town's heyday lasted from the 12th to the middle of the 14th century, when the town had to subordinate itself to Florence after a wave of plague and subsequent famines.
San Gimignano became impoverished, many towers fell into disrepair or were capped, the place gradually sank into insignificance.
Until the architectural peculiarity of the picturesque town was rediscovered at the end of the 19th century and it began to be advertised as part of the Grand Tour - as the obligatory trip to Italy for the sons of European nobility and upper middle class was called at the time.
Surrounded by vineyards, San Gimignano is halfway between Florence and Siena
Source: Getty Images
However, San Gimignano owes its real comeback to Unesco, which declared the old town a World Heritage Site in 1990 and invested a lot of money in the restoration work.
In order to preserve the atmosphere of the time as authentically as possible, there are hardly any architectural concessions to modernity.
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Only the former accommodations and taverns along the old trade routes have been converted into souvenir shops and snack bars;
There are no bars and bright neon signs in San Gimignano, because a kind of Tuscan Las Vegas shouldn't even begin to emerge here.
Because of Corona almost only holidaymakers from Italy
Today, of the 8,000 people who once lived within the medieval city walls, only 1,500 are still in the town center;
Most of them work in tourism, which brought three million guests to the city annually in pre-Corona times.
But since the first wave of pandemics in 2020, the flow of visitors has halved.
“Almost all of us are Italians and hardly any foreigners,” says Massimo Delli, owner of “D! Vineria”, a cozy little wine bar.
“Canadians, Americans and Australians?
Unfortunately not.
The virus hit us later and much less aggressively than elsewhere.
Also, most restaurants have their tables and chairs outside.
We now very much hope that tourism will normalize again with the corona vaccinations. "
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Another source of income for the city, besides tourism, is the cultivation of olives, saffron - and vernaccia.
The famous white wine was the first Italian grape variety to receive the status of "Denominazione di origine controllata" in 1966, a title for controlled wines from precisely defined growing areas.
Today, the “Vernaccia di San Gimignano” is strictly limited to a few thousand bottles per year.
The fountain in Piazza della Cisterna is popular
The steep, cobblestone path from the south gate, the main city entrance, leads through a massive archway straight to the Piazza della Cisterna.
The place got its name because of the underground cisterns that were dug in the 13th century.
On the large well made of light-colored travertine, deep grooves on the edge testify to the ropes that were used to pull water buckets up from the depths;
with its eight corners and ornaments, the fountain is the most popular photo motif in all of San Gimignano.
The fountain in the Piazza della Cisterna once supplied the people with water from the underground cisterns
Source: picture alliance / Uwe Gerig
Nearby is the Piazza del Duomo - the cathedral square is the focal point of the town with the Palazzo del Podestà, the art gallery and the town hall.
The wide staircase to the cathedral is popular with visitors who take a short break after the constant ups and downs and enjoy an ice cream from the city-wide known "Gelateria Dondoli" just around the corner.
Every year in mid-June, the
Ferie delle Messi
takes
place on the square
, a three-day festival with locals in medieval costumes that tells the story of the town.
View from the Torre Grossa to the Tuscan hills
The 54-meter-high Torre Grossa, the tallest tower in San Gimignano, is also located in the Piazza del Duomo.
Construction began on August 21, 1300, four months after Dante Alighieri ("Divine Comedy") visited the city.
The Torre Grossa with its two meter thick walls was both a watch tower and a bell tower;
it is the only tower that can be climbed up to the viewing platform.
The 218 steep steps are rewarded with a magnificent view over the surrounding vineyards and the Tuscan hilly landscape.
The Piazza del Duomo invites you to take a break, during which you can make yourself comfortable on the stairs in front of the cathedral
Source: Getty Images
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And you get an idea of how life in the narrow, dark maze of alleys with its countless niches, courtyards and archways may once have felt.
What can also be tested, because in one of the Torri dei Salvucci, the famous twin towers, there has been a stylish Bed & Breakfast since 2019, where overnight guests have the entire eleven floors of the tower to themselves.
You can hardly get lost in San Gimignano;
At some point you end up in the center of the village - or at the city wall, which is a pleasure to walk around.
Not least because you come across shops, exhibitions and cafes.
It's best to do it like the locals and sit down in the glow of the setting sun with a glass of Vernaccia.
When the birds circling around the defiant towers, you think you are transported back in time for a moment.
Source: WORLD infographic
Tips and information
Arrival:
For example with Lufthansa to Florence, 65 kilometers from San Gimignano. Continue from Firenze Autostazione by bus via the Poggibonsi transfer to Porta San Giovanni. Or with Ryanair to Pisa Airport, from there preferably by rental car to San Gimignano. There are guarded parking spaces in front of the city gates, car traffic is not allowed inside the city wall. At the moment, entry to Italy is only possible to a limited extent due to the Corona virus.
Accommodation:
“Hotel Leon Bianco”, residence with an antique touch with beamed ceilings and tasteful furniture, double room with breakfast from 95 euros, leonbianco.com; “Hotel La Cisterna”, terrace with a view of the Tuscan landscape, double rooms from 92 euros, hotelcisterna.it; "Torri Dei Salvucci", B&B, eleven floors, 143 steps, with a panoramic terrace, is rented to a maximum of three people for a minimum of two nights, a basket with mineral water, wine, bread, coffee, fruit and spaghetti is included in the overnight price, from 250 euros , torresalvucci.it
Restaurants:
"Ristorante Le Vecchie Mura" is the most renowned restaurant on site, with medieval vaults and a spacious garden restaurant, vecchiemura.it; "D! Vineria Enoteca "on the Piazza delle Erbe, the owner of the cozy wine bar advertises with the display" no pasta, no pizza, no soft drinks, but excellent wines "; There are ham and cheese platters for those who are hungry, everything that is culinary is consistently Tuscan.
Museums in towers:
In the "Torre Casa Campatelli" in Via San Giovanni an exhibition traces the history of the city.
In the “Museo delle Torture”, the torture museum, visitors learn a lot about the way of life in the Middle Ages - in quiet times the mostly windowless towers were seldom used because they were too uncomfortable and the individual floors could only be reached via rope ladders, torturemuseum.it.
Information:
sangimignano.com;
enit.de;
visittuscany.com/de/
In these EU regions you can soon go on holiday again
Many holiday regions in the EU are already preparing for a new start in the tourism industry.
The conditions under which tourists are allowed to come, however, are not uniformly regulated.
Source: WORLD / Matthias Heinrich