Yesterday was Rutgers excursion #2 and they took us to San Gimignano and Siena for what was one of my favorite trips yet. We started out the day at 8:30 for a little over an hour busride to San Gimignano. The town is famous for it's medieval architecture, many towers, filming of quite a few movies (Tea With Mussoulini, Where Angels Fear to Tread...) oh, and white wine. Out of all of the towns I've been to so far, this one was definitely one of my top favorites, it had a different feel than any of the others, it was gorgeous, relaxed, antique yet modern and had so many panoramic sights overlooking Tuscany. Photo warning #1: i took way too many pictures off the cliffs.
Our tour began at the bottom of a hill, where we had to walk up a very steep incline to get to the entrance of the town. The entrance was reminiscent of a fort entrance which we found out is in fact what it was, during the medieval ages in feudal Italy it served as protection. The street we entered on, which was the main street of the town, was Via Francigena. This street crosses through Italy, France, Switzerland, and England connecting Canterbury and Rome for Catholic pilgrimages to the Vatican. Needless to say, it's a very long street. Duh Jes. Anyway, the main drag housed tons of little, adorable, home-y shoppes that we enjoyed looking in. Our first stop was the town's oldest church. Today the facade is still there but it has been turned into....dum dum dum...a little, adorable, home-y shoppe that sold wine.
As we were walking along we saw a few towers, there are only 14 left after about 60 of them had been destroyed or taken down due to war or urban renewal (tehe, thats public health). We stopped in the famous Piazza del Cisterna which houses the "world champion gelato" I couldnt quite get it at 1045am before even having coffee yet. So Jill and Morgan tried it and loved it while Jen and I enjoyed it's neighbor cafe's cappuccino.
Next we saw San Gimignano's duomo (main church) which was nothing to write home about. The cool thing about it was that it is one of the only duomos to not have a main one front door. This is because once the Via Francigena came through they decided to turn the church around so it's front was on the main street. There is something about destroying the back wall where the altar once was in a church, so they saved that wall calling it holy and put doors to the left and right of it. This also served as the separate women's and men's entrances during the period when men and women had to sit on separate sides of churches.
After that we walked up another huge hill which lead to yet another panoramic view of Tuscany. So. beautiful. Jen and I literally sat there for 40 minutes (we were given free time) just looking out, occasionally formulating thoughts. A bunch of the guys took off their shirts and were "sun bathing." Needless to say we all enjoyed FINALLY seeing the sun and feeling it's warmth. I could barely stand to take off my coat, but I did to feel the sun on my frigid Florentine bones.
Next was lunch, they took us out to this great restaurant, thanks Rutgers! I mean, mom and dad! They gave us pasta bolognese (without the redsauce, much better) then chicken and home made french fries (I bet they knew we were American). For dessert we had a tart with fruity jam, needless to stay we were stuffed. They gave us their famous San Gimignano white wine which was my favorite white wine I've ever tasted.
After that we hopped back on the bus for Siena. On the way we stopped at this really cool little commune that looked like a fort. The town is called Monteriggioni and it literally has a fortress of a brick wall (built in 1212) around the city of 42 inhabitants. The main street (and basically only street) running through here was Via Francigena, the one that runs from Canterbury, so this was a stop on many pilgrimages. It was tiny but very cool and I think the reason we stopped there is because Dante mentions it in his "Inferno." So of course there was a Via Dante Alighieri (street). Also, there was this big well and one myth says it's the well Dante enters Hell from.
We arrived in Siena around 4 and were given a short tour of the very hilly city. First stop was San Domenico Basilica, built in honor of St. Catherine who convinced the Pope to move the papacy back to Italy when it momentarily moved to Avignon. The fact that a woman is credited with this was huge. So now, the biggest thing I learned on this trip: do you know why some churches are just churches and some are basilicas? I didn't... Well, to be a basilica the church has to house a relic. Yes, a relic. So, inside the Basilica of St. Catherine is...her head and her thumb. Cool?
After the Basilica we had a long and very hilly walk up to Siena's duomo. It was absolutely gorgeous and my favorite duomo yet. Again, this one was originally intended to be the largest duomo in the world, but construction was never finished when the plague hit and killed literally half of Siena's population. For that reason half of the duomo is outside.
Our last stop on the tour was the main piazza of Siena, Piazza del Camp which is huge and houses the Paolo (famous horse race) twice a year in June and August. We saw pictures of the day of the race and it gets absolutely packed. After being told a little about the history and the architecture we were given free time to roam. By then we were freezing so we found a cute little cafe to get some caffe and warm up. After we ventured into some stores, met up with everyone and got back up on the bus to come home.
It was a great day and I would definitely go back to San Gimignano. It had the perfect mix of a quaint Tuscany feel with gorgeous sights, and a modern, hilly San Franciscian feel. I hope we have more beautiful days like this and I can't wait to be able to explore more outside sights.
Pictures!
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| 2009-02-06 San Gimignano Siena |
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