The Town of Towers

May 22, 2013 10:00

After our brief layover in Poggibonsi, we made it to our final destination: San Gimignano. San Gimignano is in nearly every list of towns to visit in Tuscany because of its fourteen tower houses that are still standing today. The small town is also surrounded by medieval walls giving it quite a unique feel.

Like most small towns that I have visited in Tuscany, the landscape outside of San Gimignano's medieval walls is truly beautiful. Honestly though, rolling hills covered with small vineyards. I mean, you can't get much better than that.

Speaking of vineyards, San Gimignano is actually known for its white wine. Ben and I managed to do an informal wine tasting in one of the shops along the main street. I'm certainly no wine expert, but it was pretty good.

San Gimignano is also known for gelato. And not just gelato; the world's best gelato. I had the privilege of eating at Gelateria di Piazza, an ice cream parlor in the Piazza della Cisterna that advertises its World Champion status that it achieved in 2006/2007 and 2008/2009. After further research, I discovered that the owner, Sergio, was in fact a member of the Italian Team that won the Gelato Campione del Mondo several years ago. So, take that as you wish. Either way, I haven't had enough gelato to truly distinguish between world-class and acceptable-for-Italian-standards.

Aside from the world's best gelato, food in general is actually pretty cheap in San Gimignano. We ended up getting a decent piece of pizza for only two or three euro.

Food aside, I stumbled across the end of a street flutist's performance in one of the main piazzas. He was really good. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any photos of him performing because he was taking a break. In fact, he was having a grand old time just sitting down and talking to some tourists (I don't think he knew them). At any rate, I managed to snap a photo of his CD in hopes of looking him up after the fact. It turns out he is Klaus-Peter Diehl, a professional flute player from Germany that performs on the streets all over Europe. What a life. Riccardo Mottola actually took a much better picture of him back in 2009.

From what I remember, we were supposed to catch our bus back to Poggibonsi around noon, but it turns out it did not come until after 1pm. Luckily, we made it back to Poggibonsi just in time to catch our connecting bus back to Florence. We made it back to Florence by 2:15pm just in time for our 2:30pm class.

All-in-all, San Gimignano was another one of those small towns in Tuscany that I will never forget.