Both picturesque and formidable, the 14 towers of San Gimignano loom over the city's small piazze and wandering walls. The towers date back to a period when prosperous families used the town square as their personal battlefield. During sieges, they were a handy vantage point from which to dump boiling oil on neighbors. Now, however, there's very little need for scalding fluids, as San Gimignano's impressive skyline and the region's dry, white Vernaccia wine draw nothing more dangerous to the town than tourists by the bus-load—30 bus-loads a day from Poggibonsi, to be precise.
Other than driving or biking a really long way, taking the shuttle bus from Poggibonsi is the sole option for getting to San Gimignano. Poggibonsi is an active train station, easily reached from Siena ...more
The bus from Poggibonsi will let you off right outside the city walls. When you enter the gate, you will be on Via San Giovanni—the main tourist drag. Follow that uphill to reach Piazza Duomo and the ...more
San Gimignano is small. It's beautiful, and it's a nice place to be after dark when all the daytrippers have gone home. There are a lot of daytrippers for a reason, however: you can easily see the town ...more
Bargains are rare in a town as highly touristed as this one. Likewise, since it seems no one makes San Gimignano his or her actual home, you'll be hard-pressed to find a real grocery store. In this respect ...more
There's not much to see in San Gimignano other than the beautiful city itself. This makes it a very doable daytrip. Palazzo Comunale and Torre Grossa, P. del Duomo (☎ 0577 99 03 12), This “common ...more
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For 52 years, we have published the world’s favorite budget travel guides, written entirely by students and updated every year. With pen and notebook in hand and a few changes of underwear stuffed in our backpacks, we spend months roaming the globe in search of travel bargains.
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