Gambassi Terme to San Gimignano

13 Miles; 6.5 Hours on the trail.                                      (Cumulative: 58.8 Miles hiked; 29.1 Hours on the trail)

Today’s terrain was up & down; but, mostly up. However, we hiked through  the world famous Chianti vineyards to reach San Gimignano with its medieval towers which made the effort worthwhile.

Scenes from leaving Gambassi Terme

We started walking shortly after the Tuscan sunrise.

Shortly outside Gambassi Terme, we stopped at a winery continuously owned by the Casanova family since 1506.

Not too long down the trail we saw another winery

We continued walking through vineyards & saw several wineries offering free wine testing samples.

We saw these Winter Daffodil or Yellow Autumn Crocus along the trail.

We also walked through many olive trees & could see them ripening before harvesting in late November & early December.

San Gimignano is the epitome of a Tuscan medieval hill town whose towers can be seen for miles in every direction.

Located about 25 miles from both Florence & Siena, it’s the region’s glamour girl as it is visually striking & perfectly preserved.

Here are various views as we approached the town

San Gimignano is named after St. Geminianus.                 However, its roots are traced back to the 3rd Century BC.                                        Records first mention it in the 1st Century BC when a Roman nobleman named Silvio fled Rome & built a castle here.  

The town bore his name until 450 AD  when its name was changed to San Gimignano to honor Bishop Geminianus who intervened to spare the town from destruction by Attila the Hun’s armies.

In the Middle Ages, the town became an important stopping point along the Via Francigena & is listed by Archbishop Sigeric in his travel diary.    

The town flourished until 1348, when the black plague killed half its population which led to its decline in economic & political importance.

During the height of its power, competing families built tower houses of increasingly greater heights.       

Towards the end of the Medieval period, there were 72 tower houses with some up to 70 meters tall.

Today, only 14 magnificent towers remain standing creating the unmistakable skyline that defines San Gimignano.

Although a unique sight today, pointy skylines were the norm in Tuscany in the Middle Ages when feuding noble families like the Capulets & the Montagues from “Romeo & Juliet” fame ran the hill towns.

Each family had its own private army that would periodically battle things out under the protection from its respective family towers.

While some towers were built as a refuge against attackers, others were empty, chimney-like structures built only to boost noble egos.

In the 14th Century, like other hill towns, San Gimignano fell under Florence’s control.

The Florentines usually asserted their power over the local nobles by ordering them to lop off their towers.

But, for some unknown reason, some of San Gimignano’s original skyline was allowed to remain intact.

Torre Grossa is the highest tower in the city at 177 feet tall.

The Devil’s Tower has a curious legend: the owner who  returned from a trip noticed with great surprise that the tower was taller than he had left it which was an occurrence immediately attributed to the Devil’s intervention.

The Torre Rognosa, the Town Hall tower, is the oldest tower & was for centuries the tallest tower in town.

Nearby the Town Hall tower is a pair of towers that have stood side by side for more than 700 years.

These twins are empty shells built by the Salvucci family simply to show off.

At the time they were built, no one was allowed to build a vanity tower higher than the old City Hall Tower which was  170 feet tall.

So, the Salvuccis built two 130 feet high towers totaling 260 feet of stony ego trip

Here we are with our new trail friend Stefan from Hannover, Germany, celebrating having a nice day on the trail.