La Alhambra de Granada Spain
La Alhambra Palace has a fascinating history and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Spain.
San Gimignano
San Gimignano Italy
published 5 November 2018
"San Gimignano is famous in Italy for being an idyllic Italian Tuscany town."
If you prefer to see for yourself then go ahead and watch my San Gimignano video now.
San Gimignano is known in for it's well-preserved merchant towers. The history of San Gimignano is fascinating and the well preserved merchant towers have lead to a second renaissance in the form of tourism for the hill town or village of San Gimignano.
Why should you visit San Gimignano?
This little town of San Gimignano (pronounced San Gimiginano, at leat that's how I say it) is famous in Italy for being an idyllic Italian Tuscany town.
San Gimignano has an amazing location built on a hill, it was a medieval walled fortress town and still has some very well-preserved towers in the middle. In most of the towns in Italy the towers have been destroyed by wars and urban renewal, but not so here in San Gimignano.
San Gimignano is a wonderful town to walk around. It's not very big and it's very user friendly, although a word of warning it is quite touristy making it very busy for such a small town, especially in the summer months, but there's still a nice atmosphere there so take a wander through the streets absorb the atmosphere sit on one of the many piazzas and enjoy the views of the towers imagine the history that has gone through here.
If you visit Tuscany in the height of summer there are lots of activities such as orchestras, choirs and dancing inthe Piazzas of San Gimignano.
History of San Gimignano
The towers were once merchant towers and the height of the towers signified how wealthy you were. At one point during it's peak there were seventy two of these tall towers in San Gimignano, fourteen have been preserved and the skyline of San Gimignano is now famous for these fantastic tall towers that dominate the centre of the town.
San Gimignano was once almost like an independent town, a bit like nearby Siena at one point, but when the Black Death swept Europe half of the population of the town died and it came under the rule of Florence, like most of Tuscany did.
You can see influences in the architecture from the Romanesque era right through to the Florentine times, but after the Black Death it didn't really grow that much and faded out of history with it's merchant towers crumbling anf falling into ruin.
Today the Tuscany town of San Gimignano is having a second Renaissance as a tourist destination.
Should You Visit San Gimignano Today?
Although it can get a bit crowded and it's a little bit expensive I think it is still a nice place to vist if you are in Tuscany, so go, enjoy, and absorb the history of this beautiful medieval town in Italy.
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