San Gimignano
Stoppen: 60 minutes
San Gimignano rises on a hill in the Val d ’Elsa, in a gentle landscape of vines and olive trees. Surrounded by walls dating back to the 12th /13th century with a circumference of 2 thousand meters in which five doors open, it has preserved its aspect of a medieval town, built mainly of bricks, dominated by fourteen towers of stone.
The origins of the city are still uncertain. San Gimignano rises on a place certainly inhabited by the Etruscans, at least from the 3rd century b.c.
The hill was chosen for strategic reasons, being dominant (324 m s.l.m.) in the upper Valley d'Elsa.
On the slopes of Poggio del Comune (624 m asl), there are the ruins of Castelvecchio, a village of the Lombard period.
The first mention of St. Gimignano dates back to 929.
According to tradition, the name derives from the holy bishop of Modena, Gemignano of the 4th c. who would defend the village from the occupation of Attila.