The beautiful hill town of San Gimignano with its 14 towers
Tuscany is every picture of Italy, save the Roma (Rome) Coliseum, that you have seen, characterized by rising hills and verdant valleys, with narrow roads bounded by either tall sycamore with peeling bark or pencil thin cypress trees. Small villages with pastel or warm beige houses greet you around the turn, and then in the distance you see an ancient stone town on a hill with a castle and/or church in the center towering over the other buildings. Sometimes, the hill town has a medieval wall or stone towers. You think the scene is unique, and then soon again it is repeated a few kilometers down the narrow road. The hill town calls up to you to come and see; yet, you realize it would take many vacations to explore them all.
Along the way, the road turns upward toward a hill and switchbacks bring you higher and higher and then stretched out below are vineyards and sunflower fields and olive groves as far as the eye can see, a patchwork of beauty. Further in the distance, more hills rise up in undulating waves. And so the scene plays out over and over again. As we travel closer to vineyards, we see huge purple grape clusters hanging from the vines. Grape harvest and fresh wine production are soon to come.
We have chosen San Gimignano as our destination. An ancient hill town surrounded by a stone wall and beautiful church, it is noted for the 14 stone towers that dot the hill–emblems of wealthy medieval families who used them to showcase their wealth and remove them from the air below in the hope of keeping disease away, especially the plague. Narrow cobblestoned streets are lined with stone buildings, today housing businesses, especially colorful Italian pottery, and various eateries. Several piazzas beckon. It is a relaxing place, except in early afternoon when the tour buses arrive (they are gone by five). We are staying in a six-room agriturismo on an active farm/vineyard just outside the city walls, held by the family since the 1500s. An organic establishment, we have vegetarian breakfasts and the chatty owner regales us in story after story. An anthropologist who has come back home from work amongst unheard of tribes and research for National Geographic, she needed to rescue the family heritage after her grandfather’s stroke. She speaks five languages! We are thankful for this amazing experience. WEG – September 4 & 5, 2015
The Tuscan countryside with a view of San Gimignano
While lodging in San Gimignano, we took a side trip to the nearby hilltown of Sienna, entering by foot through one of its imposing gates
Sienna’s famous Piazza del Campo
Another view of Sienna’s breathtaking Duomo
Inside Sienna’s Duomo
Inside Sienna’s Duomo
Insidee the library of Sienna’s Duomo
kgraumann
wgraumann
gofarther.me 
The pictures are breathtaking and
your writings are superb. Very descriptive, full of wonderful adjectives. I think you could be a writer for a travel magazine. I look forward to reading
and seeing each day,
What a wonderful experience for all of you……Danny’s sister…..(Beverly)
Thank you Beverly. You encouragement is wonderful.
I’m enjoying your posts of your (ad)ventures in Italy. It sounds as though you all are having a great time. Renee
Renate Hardaway Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene 11734 Barker Cypress Road #116 Cypress, Texas 77433 Office: 832-334-0001 Cell: 713-805-9644 Your real estate referrals are most appreciated!
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We are having a blast Renee. Glad you can follow along.
it absolutely amazes me when you see all this beautiful architecture, how they were built back so many years ago, by hand and so painstakingly designed, down to the tiniest detail. It just boggles the mind, how many people and man hours it took just to design and build, then the artistry of the paintings on top of that. My thought looking at these masterpieces is “What if” a world war or apocolypse of some sort comes, and we will loose all these literature, artist and architectural masterpieces. But that is me, I tend to think about things like that, have to trust Gods plans I know. See what your pictures do to me, ha. Love them and you.
Thanks Sandi for the comments. It boggles my mind also.