The Towers of San Gimignano, Italy

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Everyone will tell you San Gimignano in Italy is famous for its towers. They're not lying.
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THE TOWN

San Gimignano is a medieval town between Florence and Siena and is perched on a 324m high hill. This gives it a magnificent view of the surroundings. It's a living town, ie there are still locals living here. Plus of course there are many accommodation for tourists should you want to experience a bit of the medieval Tuscany lifestyle.
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I came here in November 2011 (yes digging deep into my photo archives). November isn't typically the peak season, and I had a great time walking around with not too many other tourists. Nothing worse than sharing a historic town with thousands of other visitors! However, there are downsides to this, and I'll tell you in a minute.
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Piazza della Cisterna is the main square at San Gimignano. You can see I managed to take a photo without anyone else in it, that's how pleasant my visit was. The Piazza is named after the cistern, that's the sturcture on the right. This was built in 1287, and the octagonal travertine pedastal was addded 60 years later.
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This rather boring looking building on the left is the collegiate church, the Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta. It dates back to the 10th century, and I subsequently found out that it's frescoes are described as works of outstanding beauty by UNESCO. I wished I knoew at the time, and I would have definitely gone inside to view, even though I wouldn't be able to appreciate their beauty. Oh well! At least I had meal here ... see below
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THE TOWERS

In it's heydays at around the 12th century, there were 72 towers in San Gimignano. These were all built by wealthy families to show off symbolise their power and wealth. So of course, you build your tower as tall as possible, and preferably taller than your feuding neighbour. The tallest tower back then was 70 meters. To put things in perspective, the Pisa Tower is 56 meters tall, the Statue of Liberty in New York is nearly 93 meters, but don't forget, the Statue of Liberty was built in the late 19th century, some 700 years after these towers. In the end, they authorities put a stop to all this rivalry, and said no towers were allowed to be taller than Palazzo Comunale, below.
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Today, only 14 of these towers remain and they area has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. I would have loved to see all 72 towers, I imagine it would be so impressive, especially since tall buildings weren't as common as they are nowadays.
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LOCAL DELICACIES

There are a few things I love about Italy, Food is definitely one of them, specifically gelato and prosciutto. I was told there is an award winning gelateria in San Gimignano, that was definitely on my to go list. Travelling in off peak season is great, you don't have the crowds, but the downside is that some places may be closed. This award winning gelateria was one of them. What a bummer!!!! Just look at all the media interviews on their front door. Luckily some of the other gelaterias were still open, and I ended up having not one, but two gelato. I can't comment on how they compared with the award winning one, but by my standards, they were good!! Or, I wonder, is it because food always taste so much better when you're travelling?

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One thing, I knew for sure, the prosciutto was definitely really good and a lot cheaper than in UK. They're so affordable, that I bought quite a bit and pigged out by the Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta. I didn't get to go inside to admire the frescoes, but I can say I had a meal on its doorstep.
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THE SURROUNDING VIEWS

Being on a hill, San Gimignano offers fantastic views all around. I think you can climb up one of the towers to see for yourself. I didn't do that, can't remember why, maybe I got a bit tired of climbing so many towers during my trip already. It was very relaxing just wandering around the medival town, along the ancient city walls, watching people picking olives, something that we don't have in the UK.

I'm going to leave you with a few more photos of this historical town. Perhaps you feel you've travelled here as well now.

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36 comments
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Bella Italia. Una Ciudad encantadora, hermosas imágenes.

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I have such great memories of this place, thanks for reminding me! Prosciutto! 🤤

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Yum prosciutto.

Seems like memories is the only thing we have now, until we can go out again.

Hope you're well Rosa

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Yay thanks for that tour with history and gelato. Too bad the world famous one was closed. You were in Italy eating gelato!!!!

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Thanks Sara. Probably the best place to eat gelato.

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One thing I do miss about Italy is the gelato. It's everywhere and it great! Ok, and maybe the truffle too. Oh, alright!! And the focaccia bread--geez.

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I got a truffle post in Italy coming up. Just need to get round to write that

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I'm all eyes! 👀 I miss that truffle, looking forward to your interpretation.. I can almost taste that truffle already.

I'm glad we 'met' @livinguktaiwan. ❤️ See you soon!

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Nice town! I recognize some it from the film "Tea with Mussolini".

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I haven't seen that before, but just checked it out, got a good cast, maybe now is a good time to catch up on quality films

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Somehow I always love to see and travel the place where he’s having snow and cold in the mountain deep with the pretty praise and souls!

Anyhow great writing I really like

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Wow!! I'm always very pleased when someone talks about my country :) beautiful post!! :) have a nice day

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Thanks for dropping by.

I have to say, you live in a beautiful country, apart from my own country, Italy is one where I would love to live 😀

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Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1033.

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OooOOo I've been there! It was amazing and beautiful - really crazy hot though! I was cooking up there.

Glad you had a fantastic experience there aswell, Italy in general is beautiful!

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I can imagine it being beautiful and busy in the summer, it's so nice there.

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(Edited)

Italy is so beautiful and romantic i have travel a little of Italy myself i couldn't get enough of this beautiful country the people were great the wines , pizzas and all the foods just amazing i need to get back there some day soon 😊

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Italy's one of my favourite countries, and the one I've been the most times other than my home countries. I really enjoy going to different cities every time

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Italy really does have a lot to offer and see in order of history and romantic cites it is one country i love to see more of when all this covid is in order you are so lucky your so much closer to this beautiful country then me been in the land down under 😊

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