Walled Towns of Tuscany

San Gimignano, the Town of Fine Towers, is a walled medieval hill town located in Tuscany halfway between Siena and Florence only an hours drive from Empoli. We loved visiting this beautiful place back in 2003 and were keen to return.

At the height of its glory, San Gimignano had 73 tower houses. Built in medieval times, the towers were a symbol of prestige and power as the building process was neither simple or cheap. Towers generally contained narrow 1 x 2m rooms; had very few openings and the walls were about 2m thick which retained the warmth during winter and coolness in summer. The house occupied a small portion of the tower - the ground floor consisted of workshops, the first floor of bedrooms and the higher level the kitchen. In this order, if a fire broke out in the kitchen, escape was easy. Today only 13 towers remain creating the wonderful skyline of this hilltop village.

From the car we wandered up through porta san Giovanni and onto the street of the same name. It was market day in the main square - Piazza della Cisterna and large vans of clothes and bags filled it. Not quite the quaint local markets we were hoping for.

We did though purchase lunch from one of these vans including locally specialities of fried polenta and pizza dough! Cipo then lead us to the terrace near the Rocca di Montestaffoli offering panoramic views of the Tuscany countryside in the sunshine - a perfect place for a picnic!

Continuing on to explore this old fortress, we climbed another set of stairs up to enjoy more views including looking back at the towers of San Gimignano. Then it was back to the main square for gelato from Gelato Donoli the Gelato World Champions!

 

By this time the markets stalls had left both squares and we could enjoy the real medieval feel of San Gimignano.

With still a few hours left in the afternoon, we drove to Volterra, another walled hilltop town. known for its substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman and Medieval periods. Approaching Volterra, which is perched on the top of a 555m high hill, the first thing we notice is its profile crowned by an imposing fortress.

We park the car and walk a few hundred meters to enter the town through Porta a Selci and beneath the towering walls of the Fortezza Medica which today is a maximum security prison!! In the narrow streets we discovered many shop displaying carved stone items. We learnt that this stone was in fact alabaster a calcareous substance mined in the surrounding areas. The Etruscan craftsmen carved it to obtain urns to keep the ashes of their dead and now this warm and luminous stone is carved into almost anything! Eventually we arrive at Piazza dei Priori, the main square. Here the Volterra Cathedral was closed with restoration works in progress but we popped our heads into the Volterra Baptistry.

 

Cipo then guided us to the Porta all'Acro, one of the gateways to Volterra which was built using different stone and techniques a sign of modifications over the centuries. Cipo was still keen for us to visit the Roman Theatre, however all three kids were beginning to lag so we called it a day and made a slow return back to the cars. It was a pleasant drive through the rolling tuscan countryside arriving back in Empoli at dusk.