San Gimignano and its towers

Medieval village in the province of Siena, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We arrive almost unexpectedly in front of the Hotel San Michele (booked on Booking.com at 80 euro a night with breakfast included), run by two very friendly sisters, excellent breakfast. We take possession of the room, leave the car parked and off we go, on foot towards the little town with its many towers. Having passed through the gate we wander far and wide around the village, enclosed within its fourteenth-century walls, glimpsing here and there the 14 towers that remain of the original 72. There are as many as two museums dedicated to torture, quite a macabre thing. We climb the Torre Grossa, and the view sweeps over the roofs of this towered village and over the two main streets that intersect in the centre of the town, from one entrance gate to the other.

We visit the Duomo and enjoy a gelato in the gelateria of the near world champion of artisanal gelato, truly excellent. We have dinner in a pizzeria in the centre to enjoy the colours that darkness gives to these ancient walls.