Tuscany Villa Rental
San Gimignano Guide
Souvenir shops notwithstanding, this pedestrionized hilltop town is the most evocative of the Middle Ages of any in Tuscany. Its full name is San Gimignano delle Belle Torri, or San Gimignano of the Beauriful Towers. More than 70 of these towers once attested to this medieval Manhattan's wealth; 14 still spike its skyline today. The town boosts, for its size, an amazing wealth of 14th- and 15th-century art. Modern art, too, is tucked into unexpected corners, and there is an excellent local white wine.
Top Sight
Piazza della Cistema
This triangular piazza, ringed with 13th and 14th-century towers and centred on a 1237 stone well, will be familiar as a setting far such films as Where Angels Fear to Tread and Tea with Mussolini
Museo Archeologico
The small collection of Etruscan artifacts housed here includes a curious funerary urn topped by a reclining effigy of the deceased, his cup holding a coin to pay for entry into the afterlife.
Rocca
The 14th-century fortress has long since crumbled to a romantic ruin, and is now planted with olives and figs Scramble up its ramparts for a picture-perfect view of the town's towers
Façade of San Francesco
The Romanesque façade of a long-vanished church remains wedged between later medieval buildings. Behind it is a local vineyard's cantina, offering wine tasting, and beyond, a pretty, shaded terrace with fine country views
Collegiata
The plain exterior belies an interior swathed in frescoes. Lippo Memmi executed those on the right wail (1333-41), Bartolo di Fredi the left wall (1367), Taddeo di Bartolo the gory Last Judgement in the nave (1410), and Benozzo Gozzoli the entrance wall's St Sebastian (1464). The town's pride are the Domenico Ghirlandaio frescoes (1475) in the Chapel of Santa Fiora
Museo Civico
San Gimlgnano's best museum is situated on the first floor of the Palazzo del Popolo, beneath the lofty Torre Grossa. The collection includes works by Pinturicchio (whose Madonna with Saints Gregory and Benedict, 1511) Filippino Lippi and Benozzo Gozzoli, and Maestà by Lippo Memmi. The frescoes (by Memmo di Filuppucci) of a couple's surrounding tower sand marriage and wedding night are unusually erotic for the14th century.
Torre Grossa
You can climb all 54 m (175 ft) of the tallest tower for one of Italy’s most stupendous views, across the surrounding tower and terracotta roofs to rolling hills all around
Sant'Agostino
Most tourists miss this little church with its Piero di Pollaiuolo altarpiece (1483) and Benozzo Gozzoli's quirky, colourful apse frescoes on the life of St Augustine (1465). Benedetto da Maiano carved the tomb of San Bartolo (1488) against the west wall.
Museo d'Arte Sacra
This modest museum of liturgical art (below) stands on a pretty piazza off the Collegiata's left flank. Highlights of the collection are a Madonna and Child by Bartolo di Fredi and 14th-century illuminated choir books.
Museo della Tortura
A grisly array of torture instruments occupies the Torre della Diavola (She-devil’s Tower), The explanatory placards make for grim reading. Pointing out which of the devices are still used around the world today.
