A Day in San Gimignano, Italy! 🇮🇹 San Gimignano Travel Guide and Walking Tour!
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- Опубликовано: 30 июн 2024
- Today San Gimignano really blows us away…no, but like actually though…😂🤣 The Tuscan Town of Towers is home to the world-famous Gelateria Dondoli - otherwise known as the best gelato in the world! 🍦 And we can’t help but embark on a very messy endeavor to try as many flavors as possible - Like the one-of-a-kind - confusing - red wine gelato (don't try this at home kids) 🍷🍇 and their signature flavor named after Michelle Obama’s refined sweetness 🤗 We accidentally stumble across a castle courtyard, where we try Vernaccia di San Gimignano, a famous white wine that seems to transport us back in time nearly 700 years to meet Dante himself! 😅 We laugh, we eat, we drink coffee with sambuca, and we climb the town's tallest tower, where its sweeping views give us the chance to see why everybody believes San Gimignano is the most beautiful town in Tuscany! 😍🇮🇹
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▬ Video Chapters - Recorded 27 October 2023 ▬
0:00 Intro to San Gimignano
1:19 Bus from Poggibonsi to San Gimignano
2:33 Arriving in San Gimignano and Walking through Town
8:19 Cafe Breakfast at il Criollo
15:36 La Rocca Winery and Castle with a Special Guest
22:54 San Gimignano Cathedral (Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta)
25:58 Streets of San Gimignano
26:58 Buying Wine and Food (Vernaccia di San Gimignano Wine & Vinaio di San Gimignano Panini)
28:48 Food and Wine with a View
34:51 Tower Climb and Museum
45:54 Gelato at the World Famous Gelateria Dondoli
53:48 Subscribe & Watch More Here :)
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When we were in our early 20s, chasing our own dreams of living in Europe, we met one night at a pub in Florence...11 months later, we were married! Having been together for 6 years now, we have lived & worked on 3 different continents & even on a cruise ship!
We moved back to Italy to live out one of our biggest dreams - to pull off the Ultimate Italian Road Trip, travelling to all 20 regions of Italy! We will be showcasing the impressive diversity all 20 regions have to offer - from the history, architecture, art, culture, food, traditions and so much more! 🇮🇹
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You're just teaching us how to live and enjoy Italy properly.
Congrats guys!
The bit where you come up the stairs from the car park and get the views you see when Michelle and Matteo were opening the wine got a lot of ‘ahhhhhhhj’ and ‘oohhhhh’ from the Coach Trip I went on.
Looking out over the Tuscan countryside from here I thought: ‘The Garden of Eden’ 😎
Nice vlog dears, thanks. Right now I'm travelling these places through both of you. I am feeling it. Italy is a beauty and has great cultural heritage like our India. Be happy and joyful always. Keep it up. Love ❤️ ❤️ from India. 🇮🇳👍🏻🙏🏻
Superb video! Thank you.
I love you guys. So funny!! Thank you for showing us this beautiful town. I must try to go there, someday.
Missing Tuscany ❤️ San Gimignano is really beautiful. Ate gelato from that same store when I visited the place.
I loved this so much, thank you very much, your sence of humor keeps me smiling the entire video!!
I love the sights you shiw and the information as always is awesome!! I also really like seeing inside the shops and the merchandise they have!!! ❤❤❤ thank you until next time 😊
Finally it's out, been waiting to watch before sleep hihii ❤❤
Both of you are so cute. That with the corkscrew and the place for the sandwich lunch...I love it. I am going to do it after two weeks.
You made 'such a great video. Thank you!
It looks very windy. Happy to see this video. You are my favorite guides.
I was in San Gimignano last April, thank you for bringing me back ❤
Loved the video and now we have officially added San Gimignano to the list! Thanks for sharing!
Thomas from Poland speaks for me too in that your videos on how to take the trains helped me in Rome, Naples and Sorrento! Grazie mille!
I would ❤❤❤ a red scarf likes yours! We will bring traveling to France on our own due to your videos! No tour group, you have made it so easy to plan our own trip that will meet our own unique needs! Thank you, keep the great content coming!
Wow so much to explore. When we were there it was on a multi city tour and we barely had time to walk to the top of the town, get gelato and then leave. Can’t wait to go back to see all these sites!
Another fantastic episode guys! San Geminiano is one of those Tuscan gems you know is kind of a tourist trap but so beautiful you just cannot not go.
So happy. And one of the places on my bucket list. Hi there Michelle and Matteo. ❤️❤️
Inspite of the chaotic winds 🌬, it was a very serene and lovely vlog. Love how you guys find ways to enjoy every moment! Even joking about allergies and Allegra in the beginning.
Awesome episode! This town was made for the Global Expats. Matteo has his own street and Michelle has her own gelato flavor! Perfect!!!
Hi guys, Alex is here and can ear you through the wind... it's incrediiiible!
Good choice in the cake, lemon is always yummy
One of my favorite places 🥰🥰🥰
So fun😂
I visited Sam Gimignano in the fall of 2021. We were staying outside of Volterra. The rainy day and the time of year plus just coming out of Covid, made the town almost deserted. I just walked into the church and didn't have to pay. As you said, it was surprisingly dark. I enjoyed visiting with you on this brighter somewhat warmer day.
Thank you for bringing back some fond memories from our last trip! We’ll be going back to this wonderful place when we return in the fall… can’t wait!! ❤ And we’d love to see more of Poggibonsi, our home-away-from-home (our favorite, sleepy little town!). If you happen to stop by Ape d’Oro (in Poggibonsi), please say hi to Antonio and Eleonora! 😊
Nice experience guys! San Gimignano was a hoot for us some years ago. We need to "Get Back"
Thank you for the videos ❤
I just got back from Italy, and I’m already making a list for the next trip. I’m trying to visit places that aren’t Rome, and Florence. They are beautiful too, but I want a smaller town experience next time ❤
That is some great gelato.
worth the trip just to go to dondoli...dolceamaro is incredible...i had to go back for seconds lol
We went here on our first European cruise in 2006 for our retirement. Loved it. Too bad it was so windy for you. Love your facial expressions when you taste something. Those desserts looked so good! Those sandwiches were huge. So much fun climbing the tower. How did you decide which Gelato flavor? There were so many to choose from Didn’t see any kitties? When are you going back to film? TFS.
Have you guys ever been to Siena? the torre del mangia is twice as tall as the torre grossa, you'll enjoy climbing it!
Lovely episode.. And I hope you're going to Val d'Orchia coz I'm planning to go there but confused on how to get there, coz I heard that there's no public transport but I can't drive
subscribed lol
Just an FYI the other shop at the bottom of the piazza also won a world championship.
The Duomo❤
what time of year was this filmed? can’t believe how windy it is! 😂
Cafe corretto actually a morning thing traditionally I recall seeing business men knocking one back at Rome train station or local cafes on way to office in the 1990’s
Also kept my great grandfather alive, pre-antibiotics, during cade of pneumonia 😂
When was this captured? Just to know when to go there.
Did I just hear 'joh' in an American/Canadian accent 😂 well done
Dante was next level. He even looks like him! Great find, fun video, very cool town.
the dark is due to the candle's fumes
Putting Sambuca in coffee is a classic in italy . Once in a lifetime must be tried.
Personally it disgusts me :P
Instead I don't disdain a little grappa in coffee.
Is it always that windy?
Great video as usual! Thanks.. Watching vlogs like this, seeing Ukrainian flags on these Italian buildings in Tuscany, and having no opportunity to leave Ukraine is painful. The biggest dream is to visit Tuscany once again.
Such awful luck with the wind! But a wonderful video nonetheless!
I can hear you in the wind!
thank you guys
If you think that church was dark, check out Vernazza’s church!
Ooh, I loved San Gimignano. I actually stayed for four nights there and loved every moment. Believe it or not, I was never bored. I stayed in a lovely little Airbnb 5 minutes walk outside of the city walls. The best part was being able to enjoy the city before and after the tour buses had left. I would totally recommend staying 1-2 nights there. The gelato at Gelato Dondoli is truly amazing!
Hi , is it possible to let me know the name of the Airbnb . Many thanks
This is last summer videos right??
🇮🇹The Origins between History and Legend
The foundation of San Gimignano dates back to ancient times. According to legend, in 63 B.C. two brothers, Muzio and Silvio, two young patricians escaping from Rome after their implication in the conspiracy of Catiline, sheltered in Valdelsa and built two castles: the Castle of Mucchio and the Castle of Silvia, which would develop in the future San Gimignano.
The first historical document mentioning the name of the town is dated 30th August 929, when Ugo di Provenza donated to the Bishop of Volterra the so-called Mount of the Tower "prope Sancto Geminiano adiacente" (next to San Gimignano). The name of San Gimignano probably comes from the bishop of Modena. According to legend, during the barbaric invasions the saint appeared miraculously on the city walls, and saved the town from Totila's threat.
The first settlements
The fascinating legends on the town are not more interesting than the long and complex history of San Gimignano.
The area of San Gimignano had his first inhabitants in prehistory, but the first relevant settlements date back to the archaic Etruscan period. At that time the area of Pugiano e.g. was already known as an important sacred site in the unspoilt valley of the torrent Riguardi.
Traces of settlements are more and more numerous during the Hellenistic period, when the hill of San Gimignano was probably inhabited, as some tombs discovered inside the historical centre would demonstrate. If during the Etruscan period inhabited areas were mainly limited to the top of the hills, with the Roman colonization the valley bottom was preferred, especially the areas next to streams, whose waters were often used as communication routes. To be noted as an example the Roman villa of Chiusi, in the vicinity of the torrent
Between High and Late Middle Ages
The constellation of small-sized rural villages of the Etruscan and Roman period that developed in the more important area of Volterra, by the end of High Middle Ages (tenth century) developed into the most ancient core of the current historical centre. In 998 San Gimignano was still a village along the Via Francigena. From a political point of view it belonged to the bishop of Volterra, who resided in a castle at Poggio della Torre.
San Gimignano mainly developed in the first three centuries of the Millennium, thanks to its favourable geographical position. In High Middle Ages the Via Francigena, first traced by the Lombards, became the route of pilgrims who travelled to Rome, mainly from France. The detour to the port of Pisa grafted in San Gimignano, and the town, settled around the hillside variation of the Via Francigena, became one of the most important transit and stopping sites for all travellers.
From Free Commune to the submission to Florence
In 1199 the town, that had increased considerably, declared itself a Free Commune. At first the government was in the hands of Consuls, then of a Podestà, who was periodically changed. For impartiality reasons the governor was always a "foreigner" and he remained in charge for six months.
Despite the bitter political dispute between the Guelfs, who supported the Pope, and the Ghibellines, sided with the emperor, the Commune developed and prospered in agricultural activities in particular thanks to the production of saffron, Greek wine, and Vernaccia, to the commerce of wool, and to money lending to wear. Around the first half of the fourteenth century the town consisted of 13.000 inhabitants and the historical centre was enclosed in the second circle of the city walls. The plague of 1348 decimated two thirds of the population and, since then, San Gimignano knew a long period of decline in the shadow of the dominant Florence.
From decline after the second half of the fourteenth century to nowadays
The economic, architectonic, and cultural boost of San Gimignano stopped around the first half of the fourteenth century, when the Commune submitted to Florence.
After 1348 San Gimignano would never attain again the economical and demographical previous levels. Drastic depopulation and economical decline, together with the loss of political autonomy, produced a clear breakdown: towers fell down, or they were cut off, the palaces got damaged, and due to the general decay no trendy events took place in San Gimignano for centuries. This is why the historical centre of the town remained unchanged and escaped the influences of the different styles that would follow till the end of the nineteenth century, when the "gothic renovation" took place. From the fifteenth century onward there were few urban additions: the Rocca di Montestaffoli, a fortress built by the Florentines with defensive purposes against Siena, a few buildings, some small churches, unimportant maintenance works.
Despite the decay, during the Quattrocento San Gimignano knew the prestigious intervention of important artists of the time such as Domenico Ghirlandaio, Benozzo Gozzoli, and Benedetto da Maiano, who renovated and enriched the cultural heritage of the previous centuries which already consisted of precious works of art by Coppo di Marcovaldo, Memmo di Filippuccio, Simone Martini, Lippo Memmi, Bartolo di Fredi, Taddeo di Bartolo, and Jacopo della Quercia. Later on, the seventeenth century would be the all-time low in the history of the town. After the plague of 1631, San Gimignano became one of the poorest centres in the Grand Dukedom of Tuscany, with a population reduced to 3.000 inhabitants.
The reforms of the eighteenth century brought some advantage to San Gimignano as well. Agriculture, with the typical Tuscan mixed cultivation system, started to increase again and population raised up to 10.000 inhabitants, as registered in 1948. The historical centre knew an incredible revival: first with the rediscovering of Middle Ages around the first half of the nineteenth century, when several buildings were repaired and renovated, then, one hundred years later, with the exponential growth of cultural tourism, which still brings million of visitors a year to the town of the towers.
Today the Commune of San Gimignano numbers 8.000 inhabitants and lives on agriculture, thanks to a prestigious production of D.O.C.G. Vernaccia wine, and a flourishing activity of agritourism, besides small local factories in the framework of the Valdelsa industrial area. Every year the historical centre, registered in UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage, attract millions of tourists from all over the world, who comes to admire the intact medieval atmosphere preserved by centuries and decay and protected today by national law and strict local rules.
The Tower as a Symbol of Power
San Gimignano rises on top of a hill 334m above sea level, clearly visible in the distance with its many towers. Today 13 towers remain of the 72 towers of the fourteenth century, when every well off family built a tower to show its economical power (many of them are still visible in the buildings, even if they were cut off).
The first towers rose wide apart in a rarefied urban fabric looking very different from the nowadays compact centre. Towers were used in a different way. Rooms were very narrow, generally 1x2m; there were a few openings, and the walls, about 2m thick, assured cool temperature in summer and hot in winter. Almost all the towers were built next to other buildings in perishable materials such as wood and earth. In medieval times the tower was the higher symbol of power, mainly because the building process was not simple or cheap at all. Materials needed to be dug and transferred to town, and the building site arranged. Only the richest families of merchants and moneylenders could afford the works of construction.
The house occupied just part of the tower. The ground floor consisted of workshops, the first floor of bedrooms, and the higher level of the kitchen. The destination of each room followed the simplest security rules. The kitchen, where a fire was usually lighted, was located on the highest live-in room, to escape in case of accidental fire.
Towers change
During the twelfth century the changes in the buildings were mainly directed to improve the daily life. The need of larger inside spaces and of wider openings brought to new building models, which mainly involved the towers.
The reference model for the towers built between the first half of the twelfth century and the first half of the thirteenth century is the so-called Pisa model, exported from the famous Tuscan maritime town. According to this style, buildings had one or more high and narrow openings on lower levels, which cross the tower from side to side. The openings that stretched for several levels were shared inside by wooden floors, which corresponded to outside full-wide wooden balconies. With these balconies inner spaces were expanded outside the walls of the buildings.
From towers to palaces
From the end of the twelfth century, the towers built according the same model were sided by other buildings of lower height that may be already defined palazzi. From the second half of the twelfth century, bricks appeared, and they were used in total or in part to erect buildings.
Since the first half of the thirteenth century towers were not built anymore, whilst palaces were built according to the most up-to-date and fashionable trends of that time. Since the first half of Duecento, the major Tuscan art towns such as Florence, Pisa, Lucca, and Siena developed some peculiar architectonical features, different for each town. This is not the case for San Gimignano, where architecture developed according to eclectic features, merging different styles and influences from different towns the Commune had come in touch with. The outcome is a very original and peculiar architecture.
I can hear you through the wind
Ice-cream? In Italy? No no…..
Aiuto!!!! Mamma mia... mi vene il mal di panci davanti a cotanta......
does the bus to San Gimigano have contactless payment via foriegn credit card?
Big Mike Obama. I am never getting that one.