Our trip to San Gimignano

It was our the last morning in Greve in Chianti, and we fondly said goodbye to our lovely home of the past 3 days and headed off to another road-trip! I was sad to leave this beautiful place though. It has been tranquil and relaxing and soothing to the heart and mind.

I cannot get over how pretty the sights are, with the abundance of wild spring flowers on the rolling hills.

Eventually, we reached a medieval town called San Gimignano (and this is how to pronounce it).

This place is unique for its medieval architecture, as well as its tower houses, making San Gimignano part of a UNESCO world heritage site. Another UNESCO site that I’ve visited is in Villa Adriana, 45 minutes drive away from Rome.

When we reached there, there were hardly any parking to be found, which was quite interesting considering that it was

1.  A Monday, and thus a working day
2. You had to pay 2 euro per hour for parking, which is quite pricey.

Here is the entry to the town!

Even though it was around lunch time, there were quite a number of people roaming around in the Gothic like buildings.

Walking through the path, it was easy to visualise how life was back in the medieval period. I went to a medieval fair back in 2010 and if you are in Italy and have the chance to visit one, do go! I think it’s an interesting thing to experience.

We walked past a number of shops, and here is the entry of one of the Torture Museum there.

Hema and I were just talking about visiting one when we researched about places to visit and thought that it would be interesting to go to one. But when we finally reached there, I could not find the strength to even see the displays near the entrance, especially reading the explanations next to it. It was just too much for me.

For example, there was a metal device with spikes that is chained to your neck and you can’t turn your neck or even talk properly or you risk having your throat punctured. It just made me very very sad 🙁

So no. Not for me.

So we continued walking. And this shop – selling salami and wine and the likes caught my eye.

Look at the boars welcoming customers to the shop.

And here is where I realised something. Tuscany … sounds a lot like TUSK-any. As in Tusks from a boar.

I see a lot of wild boar logos in the souvenir shops – on cups, on t-shirts and the likes. And they were so cute.  I couldn’t resist getting myself a pair of t-shirt with this wild boar riding a scooter. Cute isn’t it?

We then went past this interesting shop selling aprons and caps and whatnots where you could embroider your name on it.

We continued walking, and at length we reached the Piazza Della Cisterna. This area was interesting as it was sloping up rather than being flat.

There were towers at every corner of the square, and they used to be houses rather than for being outposts.

We rested here a while, while Hema made a quick trip to the ladies room.

I saw a well in the middle of the square and thought that it would be empty, with concrete capped on top of it. Jokingly I told Cart, I’m going to throw a coin in there and make a wish!

Who knew that it wasn’t completely blocked. In fact, there were already other people who had the same idea and threw in their coins!

So much coins, it’s uncountable!

Most of the coins I saw were in euro, but I also spotted out coins from other parts of the world.

We then continued to Piazza Duomo – the heart of the town where the Collegiate Church of San Gimignano is.

This is the Palazzo comunale – which is sort of like a town hall.

I really liked looking at the buildings. It looks so majestic and just standing there, you feel like you are standing in a part of history.

We walked in the courtyard nearby.

And we saw this lady playing the harp. It was so relaxing to listen to.

We decided to go to the church to see the fresco and artwork inside. If you are there, I’d advice you to take the double pass to the church and the museum, rather than paying for it separately.

I find the artwork interesting to see, with the use of colours and the ‘flat’ style which was unique during that period.

Unfortunately, you cannot take any pictures inside the church – there were old fresco dating from the 14th century depicting scenes from the testament. I liked looking at the artwork, so it’s a shame about the no photo policy, but I guess that you could check out wikipedia if you’d like to see some of these fresco.

We then headed to the museum next to it.

There’s a crystal staff in there. Cart joked that a high level magician used these powerful robe and staff set and you could cast lightning bolts with them.

We had a bit more time, so Cart and I contemplated on climbing one of the towers (Hema was exhausted at this point of time) but as soon as we were done climbing the first storey, we just couldn’t make it any-more. It wasn’t like a regular apartment steps, as climbing up one floor was like walking up a a two storey apartment and there were at least 5 stories for this particular tower.

There were also other places of interests like the archaeological museum, the modern and contemporary art museum, the bird museum as well as the wine museum. But we were all already quite tired at that point.

So the three of us slowly walked back to the car and stopped by to take some pictures. There were some points where you could admire scenes like these :

This was such a beautiful view. The people who live here are so lucky to be able to wake up to this pristine view every day.

And here I am with my dear friend

And that was our trip to San Gimignano!