by Keith and Heather Nicol
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| Heather exploring San Gimignano |
From Lucca our next stop was San Gimignano
where we spent 3 nights at a comfortable airbnb called the “Central apartment
in San Gimignano”. It was within 500
meters of the gates of the walled city of San Gimignano which is ideal since
parking can be a problem in this popular hill town. Elizabeth our host had a
ton of information about San Gimignano and the surrounding communities and she
also told us where to get some good pictures of the tall towers that the
village is known for. We spent our first
day exploring San Gimignano and the views from the top of the tower were
splendid. We also enjoyed going through the museum of anthropology and visiting
the Rocca di Montestaffoli which had its own very pleasant enclosure. A harpist
playing under an olive tree made the whole setting magical.
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| The view from the tower was superb |
The second day was spent touring some
nearby communities and we checked out the glass museum
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| San Gimignano is known for its numerous towers |
in Colle di Val D’elsa
which it turned out had been a big glass producer in this area. We then set our
sites for Siena which was busy with tourists but well worth the visit. We
especially liked the elaborate cathedral and duomo as well as the huge Piazza
del Campo where the famous Palio (a horse race) occurs twice each summer. We
had hoped to visit some of the other hilltowns that our airbnb host Elizabeth
had suggested but once again we were out of time. Unfortunately the next day we
were scheduled to head to Florence to wind up our Tuscany adventure and return
to Canada. So sad to leave.
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| The Piazza del Campo is where the Palio occurs each summer in Siena |
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