Tuscany from Rome- Siena and San Gimignano Private Day Tour

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Piazza del Campo

• Piazza Il Campo is the central nucleus of Siena since the roman times which had its forum there.
• The square was repaved during the Government of the Nine, a semi-democratic group in power between 1287 and 1355, with a division into nine sections in memory of the Government and symbolizes the cloak of the Madonna that protects the city. Piazza Il Campo hosts, twice a year, on July 2nd and August 16th, the famous Palio di Siena, horse race, the most awaited event by all the Sienese people.
• In the square, you can admire the Fonte Gaia, the largest city fountain decorated, in its original version, with sculptures by Jacopo Della Quercia. The Source we see today is a copy, made of Carrara marble, much more resistant than the original Montagnola Senese Marble used by Della Quercia (the ancient restored Source is visible in the Museum Complex of Santa Maria della Scala).

Duomo di Siena

The main church called Duomo is located in the homonym square located above Piazza Il Campo. It is a beautiful Gothic-style complex that houses a large number of treasures signed by Donatello, Pisano, and Michelangelo but also frescoes by the famous Pinturicchio. The Cathedral is of impressive beauty so much so that you just have to admire its exterior to be deeply impressed. Built between 1214 and 1263, it has a Latin cross structure, a not very protruding dome with a bell tower next to it. Both the exterior and the interior are decorated in white marble blocks alternated with thinner greenish-black stripes, these are the representative colors of Siena.

Torre del Mangia

The Torre del Mangia is located in Piazza Il Campo in Siena; it is the civic tower of the Town Hall. It is among the tallest ancient Italian towers (the fourteenth), reaching 88 meters at the height of the last battlements. According to what was written by Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, the Torre del Mangia, although starting from a lower ground level, reaches the same height as the bell tower of the Cathedral of Siena, this symbolizes the achieved balance between heavenly and earthly power, without neither of the two exceeds and imposes itself on the other.

San Gimignano

• 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.

Piazza Della Cisterna

So-called by the thirteenth-century cistern that stands in the center. On the south side, the Silvestrini house (occupied by a hotel) dates back to the 13th century. Immediately afterward, at the entrance to Via del Castello is the Palazzo Tortoli, with two orders of Gothic double windows (14th century). Almost opposite stands the Devil's Tower. The northwestern corner of the square, which leads to Piazza del Duomo, is dominated by the twin towers of the Ardinghelli, the city's most powerful Guelph family.

Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta - Duomo di San Gimignano

• It is framed by the austere façade of the Collegiata, ancient buildings, and seven imposing towers.
• Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta, or Duomo, is a romanesque building of the 12th century, enlarged in the '400 by Giuliano da Maiano, which restored the presbytery. The facade was considerably redone in the 19th century. The interior is entirely frescoed.