san.gimignano

san gimignaon stands 334m above sea level, the town takes its name from the cannonized bishop of modena.  this town is famouse for its towers, originally 72 medieval towers but today only 14 remain.

 you enter from porta san giovanni and along mia san giovanni you see only touristic shops...

 the first impression is, this city exists for tourism, it may not be so from the past but it's certainly now...

 with the arrays of souvenirs, regional products and delicacies.  you couldn't pin point if that's bad as you did enjoy your leisure stroll and browsing, though deep in your heart, you yearned for a little for real san gimignano.

 at the end of mia san giovanni, you're in this main square, it's quite touristic but more towards european and domestic

 you try to count the tower and if you recalled correctly, you didn't even counted till 14 (remaining towers).... but who's care, that's not the purpose of your visit here...

 it was a very warm and hot day, you're seeking refuge under the shade just opposite the wine musuem

 both local and regional wines on display and available for wine tasting. you didn't do that since it's a hot day and you just cannot afford to get tipsy with the excursion, so better be safe than sorry!

the outlook from one of the viewing platform is quite spectacular from here!  you hang around, trying to settle your lunch here but couldn't reach agreement among yourselves...

so you decided to have a gelato as lunch. a sweet ending from san gimignano, a gelato from gelateria dondoli. a gelato world champion for many years even though, you just had two basic flavors, they're really good, burst with natural sweetness and fruit flavors (grape and mango).