Tuscany - San Gimignano

The central square of San Gimignano, surrounded by towers.

I could have titled this post “the Manhattan of Tuscany,” because this little village, which used to be a stopover for pilgrims crossing between Florence and Rome, contains 14 towers that sprout incongruously from medieval homes.  They are tall unadorned towers used for no other purpose than to impress the neighbors.  At one point, there were over 70 of these towers, and any homeowner worth his money tried to build their tower taller than the last one.  It got so ridiculous that the town mayor put a height limit on the towers.  Now only 14 towers remain, and we got to see the interior of one when we toured the Torre e Casa Campatelli (Tower and House of Campatelli). 

Dining room, Casa Campatelli

This villa was donated to the town in 2005 by Lydia Campatelli.  Her family had owned the house for centuries, and it was furnished as if frozen in time in the 1940s.  I would label the decorating style as “Tuscan country.”  

View from Casa Campatelli

While at the Campatelli villa we watched a film about the long history of this walled town.  The interesting bit for me was that the town had been “modernized” with stucco facades at some point, but once it became clear that tourists wanted to see a medieval town, homeowners started ripping down the stucco right and left.  The town now survives on tourism, and we found it nicely packed with this creature, the tourist.  

Interior of public restroom in San Gimignano

We did some wandering and got happily lost in the mazes of alleys and narrow passageways on our way to find the public restroom.  Some restrooms in Italy require a fee of a Euro or two to use. So I paid my coin and walked into a converted medieval vault.  Well worth the Euro! I don’t as a habit take a picture of bathrooms, but couldn’t help myself.