Highlights of Tuscany–San Gimignano

Its Saturday and today we have two excursion by coach, we started off going to yet another hill town, San Gimignano for the day. Access to the town by coach is tightly controlled  and needs a pass to even get to the carpark and drop off point, from here you have to walk up to the old town gates or take a taxi.

Like most of the old towns it is surrounded by high walls with a few small gates taking you to the outside world. You can just see one of the gates in the middle of the second picture just by the end of the row of cars.

     Some gates are only big enough for pedestrians to pass through the wall like this one. The town is famous for two things, its towers, these were a sign of power and wealth so anyone who was anyone wanted a taller tower than the rest.

The other claim to fame is the Gelato and this small shop in the town square is reputed to be the best, we never saw the queue get any shorter whenever we passed. The photo on the right is the second best, that was a constant queue as well. 

     In one of the squares in a covered area this man was playing a pair or Handpan drums which look like up turned woks with dimples hammered into them. I found the sound it produced quite pleasant and we bought his CD. 

There are some spectacular views from the town looking out over the valleys to the surrounding mountains.

The town itself not only has narrow streets but long flights of steps, OK for walking or with a donkey but not so good if you want to get a cart up there, then its a case of taking the long route.

At 4pm. it was time for us to leave and we walked down, back to the coach stop to wait for our coach to return from the rather remote coach park about a mile away. We were now off for what was described as wine tasting with a meal at
Castello di Verrazzano.