San Gimignano Travel Forum

OK sorry for the spelling for some of the hilltowns.

Here's our plan. We're leaving Siena for Lucca by car. Along the way we thought of stopping the abovementioned towns. I'm wondering amongst the 3 which should we spend more time at? San G sounds like a tourist place which surprises me since it seemed so small and tucked away. How about the other two? they are sorta on the way as well.

thanks!

Monteriggione (I'm assumimg that's the one you mean) is nothing more than the walls of a small medieval castle with some houses and a small square inside. It was a Sienese border fortification during the long wars between Siena and Florence. The only reason to visit Monteriggione is to eat at the fabulous restaurant Il Pozzo which is tucked inside the walls. They do wonderful Tuscan cooking using fresh local game and produce, and wild boar is a house specialty. My mouth still waters when I think of the walnut tart I ate there in 1987. Expensive, and reservations couldn't hurt.

As for San Gimignano, as any unusually beautiful Tuscan town it's a tourist spot---Tuscany must be the most tourist trampled part of Italy and the distances aren't so great that anything is really very much out of the way.
BTW, Arezzo is a very nice little town and less touristed than many.

I notice that you will be going by Poggibonsi - a town so untouristed that there is not a single VT page on it!!!

I haven't been there either, but the profs at UD always talked about it (of course, I don't remember why - oh, I think one of them wrote a murder mystery sited there...hmmmn).

You could look at http://www.comune.poggibonsi.si.it/indexhold.htm - look in the upper right hand corner for "I Monumenti" for photos of stuff in town, and there's also a fortress there (see Cassero Fortezza Medicea next to the link for I Monumenti). Sorry, the whole site is in Italian...

I also noticed that you will be going by Montecatini Terme. This is a really different place, in that it is a series of hotels and other stuff from the 1800s and 1900s for the hot springs. We had to stay there once when the hotels in Florence were overflowing (Florence is a short train ride away). On Saturday evening, the entire town was down in the main square at the bottom of the hill (all the hotels go up a long slope towards the springs), walking arm in arm, seeing and being seen. You just don't see this Mediterranean ritual much anymore...

Bill

Bill you talked me into Poggibonsi, I love it when I write a page that no one has written on vt before. I thought San Gimignano was very touristy but I still enjoyed it, it was not crowded in November anyway. Montulpuciano is a good wine stop if thats what you are interested in, (I know I would be) and haven't been to Sienna, chose Arezzo instead and I loved it.

Ellen, I had the same feeling when I built my Castel Gandolfo page - and, look, now there are three!!!

Gee, another 3 more and 5 of us can get the top 5 rating! Yippee!!!!

Hmmmn, maybe I'll build a Frattocchie page - (haha, that's a wide spot in the road on the Via Appia hahaha)...

Bill