ITINERARIES

Tuscany is certainly among the most beautiful of the italian regions. Thanks to the unforgettable landscapes, cultural treasures, superb wine and its excellent local cuisine, this region is visited each year by millions of people from throughout the world. With all these things to see and do we will be happy to offer you advice and suggestions as to places to visit, themed tours, country walks, and the like… many ideas to best help you organize you vacation in Toscana.

With its forest of towers spiking the horizon, San Gimignano is one of the most recognisable and iconic destinations in all of Tuscany. In every part of the world there is someone dreaming about this ancient hilltown in the Val d'Elsa, for to be there is to dive into an image of medieval times. A World Heritage Site since 1990, San Gimignano (known also as the "Medieval Manhattan") owes its name to the incredible number of towers that loom up over the town rooftops: 65 of them, no less, when the city was at its height. Thirteen of these magnificent towers survive today, and they still shape a skyline that is without a doubt unique. What to see in San Gimignano: a visit to San Gimignano doesn't end by just looking upwards. The cathedral, completed in 1148, is also a must-see, considered one of Tuscany's most precious. Also of interest is the Palazzo Comunale, which today is home to the town museum and art gallery, where you can admire the works of artists like Pinturicchio, Benozzo Gozzoli, Filippino Lippi, Domenico di Michelino and Pier Francesco Fiorentino. You can also visit the palazzo's sala di Dante (Dante's room), which contains a Maestà by Lippo Memmi, and climb the Torre del Podestà (or Torre Grossa, meaning 'fat tower'), whose 54 metres have made it San Gimignano's tallest tower ever since it was built in 1311. But there's much more besides. At the Torture Museum you will find an unusual collection of instruments dating back to the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

This picturesque town has retained to the present day its rectangular shape, a standard characteristic of ancient medieval fortifications, as well as the remains of its towers which once had a very important function: the protection of the city from the frequent invasions carried out during the period of conflict between Florence and Siena.
The main fortification, the Rocca, with its imposing tower dating to the 14th century, offers a spectacular view of the city and the surrounding countryside. A fascinating underground tunnel, known as the “Via delle Volte,” runs below the length of the ancient walls and is home to stores, artisans’ workshops, and restaurants. This was once a normal open street, but was literally built over when the decision was made to expand the city, thus creating this very unique tunnel.
The main street of Castellina is the Via Ferruccio, where one finds other stores, artists’ studios and workshops, bars, and important buildings such as the Palazzi Banciardi e Squarcialupi. The Church of San Salvatore definitely is worth a visit. Rebuilt after having been destroyed during the second world war, the Church is still home to an important fresco of Lorenzo Bicci representing the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus, as well as a wood statue dating to the renaissance.

An imposing “crowning wall” towers above the area near Poggibonsi. This is the external perimeter of the Medici fortress constructed according to the orders of Lorenzo di Magnifico at the beginning of 1500. The project was never completed and thus the urban nucleus meant for the interior was never realized. Instead only the pentagonal Cassero, the highest story of the fortress, was finished, which today, refurbished, commands the surrounding area.
The entire project on the hill of Poggio Imperiale however offers an insightful view into the remarkable process of formative insertion in central Toscana.
The Comune (city hall) of Poggibonsi and the University of Siena worked together to create, on the hill, “Il Parco Archeologico e Tecnologico di Poggio Imperiale” which allows tourists to view the various phases of insertion brought to light, and, during periods of excavation,to observe the work of the archeologists. The main feature of the park is, in fact, an ongoing, evolving, archeological dig.

San Donato is a small medieval hill town located only a few minutes from our hamlet. The road one takes from Castellina in Chianti to reach San Donato is one of the most beautiful and fascinating of the tuscan wine region, with its neverending rows of grapes seemingly stretching to infinity, ultimately uniting with green olive groves, dense woodland, and agritourist farms and wineries.
The town is small but retains its original charm and its medieval roots. The heart of the town is still protected by the original imposing defensive wall built in the 12th century, from which proudly rises, at the western end, an ancient watchtower. One enters through the Porta Fiorentina, and attraverses the town by way of the Via del Giglio, the main street since the 12th century. Besides the beautiful buildings, magnificently restructured in stone and brick, before arriving at the main piazza, one passes in front of the remains of the ancient house towers.
In the piazza, the imposing Palazzo Malaspina dominates one of the corners, with right next door the gothic Church of Santa Maria della Neve. In the center of the piazza an octagonal fountain holds special symbolic and historical value as this was the only source of water for the town during times of siege. On the other side, the Palazzo Pretorio. Leaving town by way of the eastern doorway, “Porta Senese,” one comes immediately across the main church of San Donato, the Pieve di San Donato.

Among the most fascinating of the Val d’Elsa and Toscana, this medieval hill town has retained a magical atmosphere of times gone by. Certaldo is famous as the birthplace of Giovanni Boccaccio. This walled town has three entrances : Porta al Sole, Porta Alberti, and Porta del Rivellino. The historic center of Certaldo allows pedestrian traffic only but can be conveniently reached by auto, by way of an old medieval road, or by way of a short cable railway.
The house of Boccaccio, where he was born in 1313 and where he lived until his death, has been turned into a museum, the Casa Museo di Boccaccio. Other than the antique home furnishings one can explore here also a library containing various editions of the Decameron.
In the historic center there is also the Chiesa dei S.S. Filippo e Iacopo which hold the writer’s mortal remains. Worth visiting as well: the Palazzo Pretorio, symbol of the medieval city, home to several relief works such as the Madonna col Bambino of Pier Francesco Fiorentino, a Crucifixion from 1478, and a Pieta’. Finally also not to be overlooked, the Museo del Chiodo, gathering utensils and nails from different time periods, and the Museo di Arte Sacra.

The castle and the old town (today Colle Alta) make up themost interesting nucleus of the town. Here, in the middle of an environment which has preserved its medieval roots, one finds the Duomo built at the beginning of the 17th century on the site of a previous romanic pieve, the Museo Archeologico located within the Palazzo Pretorio of Colle, and the music complex of San Pietro. At the end of the via Gracco del Secco, a short way from the music complex, one arrives at the majestic Porta Nuova. Built in 1479 according to a design attributed to Giuliano da San Gallo, the porta is part of the imposing network of fortifications which protected the castle of Colle. Gazing upon it from the outside, the Porta Nuova aka Porta Volterrana, seems to be the entrance to a fortress rather than that of a city.
Evocative, rich in history,locus of art and artisans, with also a special corner of culinary pleasures, the town of Colle Alta seems to have everything needed to be a major tourist attraction. For whatever reason though, according to several studies, the town is generally ignored by the large flux of tourists that flows daily through Toscana. For this reason Colle has earned a spot in the “Top Ten Dream Locations unjustly given the Snob Treatment by Socials.”

The city is characterized by its elongated melted form, through the center of which the main street crosses, connecting the two major points of entry. Entering at the Porta Senese one happens onto via Francesco da Barberino and immediately encounters interesting edifices made of wooden doorways and clear stone walls, which, according to local lore, come from the ruins of the nearby destroyed town of Semifonte. To the left of the entrance rises the Palazzo del Cardinale, where the coat of arms of the Barberini family and that of Pope Urban VIII are displayed. Following the street, more or less at the halfway point, one come to Palazzo Pretorio, rising in front of the small piazza, the front of which is adorned with the emblems of the 35 important noble families of the area.
Barberino’s position on the crossroads near the Francigen way has always made this a place of hospitality and rest for travellers and conversely made the locals into a people giving care to pilgrims; thus near the entrance one finds also the Ospedale dei Pellegrini. Then one reaches also the Church of San Bartolomeo, rebuilt in neo-gothic style in 1910. Here there is an important fragment of a fresco from the 14th century as well as a panel representing the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus giving a rosary to Santa Caterina of Siena and San Domenico, painted by Maestro di Barberino, also from the 14th century. The terrace in front of the church is a lovely place from which to admire the rolling hills of the area and the harmonious mosaico of olive groves, vinyards, and dense woodland.