San Gimignano a Stair Lovers Dream

San Gimignano is located near Florence Italy in the Tuscan region and is one of three medieval towns in the area the other two towns are Lucca and Volterra. The town of San Gimignano was first mentioned in writing in 929, however, there is a legend that says in 63 B.C. two brothers built two castles that later formed San Gimignano. The town has been built upon itself for hundreds of years and between the 11^th and 13^th century wealthy Italians built magnificent towers to live and work in. The kitchen was often built above the last bedroom because of fire reasons and the first floor was usually a workshop or a store. The more money a family had the higher they built the towers. There were 72 towers built in the medieval times and even though the town is built on top of a hill most of the towers were destroyed because of wars. Only 13 towers are left standing. There remains beautiful artwork still in the town it comes in the form of Fresco’s on the ceilings of the cathedral. They depict religious significance interpreted from the scripture and took over fifty years to complete. Every major town in Italy has a central piazza and San Gimignano is no exception, however instead of having only one they have two piazzas. The largest piazza has a public well in the center of it and the second is in front of the Duomo. San Gimignano suffered a population decrease over time due to plagues and famine and the smallest known census of inhabitants was just three.

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"Historic Centre of San Gimignano." UNESCO World Heritage ..., 1990, http:// whc.unesco.org/en/list/550/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2019.

“Top 25 Medieval Cities In Europe: Best Preserved Towns To Visit.” BigBoyTravel.com, https://www.bigboytravel.com/europe/topmedievalcities/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2019.