San Gimignano

After the winery tour and lunch, we boarded the charter bus, which took us to San Gimignano.  We were dropped at the edge of the city and walked to the center of the city. I had to giggle as I stepped from the path to allow a group of silver-haired retirees pass as I took Advil to get ahead of the pain in my knee. 

We wandered around a bit taking pictures of the narrow, curving streets.  Dave also took some cool pictures of doors and door knockers.  I'll do a separate post with some of those photos. 

San G once boasted 72 towers in the town.  Families built them as a sign of their wealth.  The plague of 1348 and a diversion of a trade route led to the decline of the town.  Of the 72 towers, only 14 remain today.

Part of Piazza del Duomo is seen below.  As narrow as the streets are, they are not closed to automobile traffic.  As we were inside a shop just outside this picture (to the bottom left corner, add one building), buying a belt (Dave wishes he had bought a second the quality is so good), a car drove by a bit too close to the outside cafe tables pictured below under the tents and scraped the metal rails of the outdoor dining area. 

We climbed to the top of Torre Grosso for these views of the city and the surrounding country side.

I'm not really sure why this statue is posed to jump from this tower.

Dave dangled over the edge just a bit to get this shot of the flowers growing in the wall of the tower.

I was grateful that the climb up the Torre Grosso was made easier by such wide stairs.

Torre Grosso from the Piazza below.

I just think this sign denoting a hiking trail is funny.  I love that the lady is wearing a scarf around her hair.  I know that's what I do when I go hiking.  There were a few other signs that I found funny; again, I should have taken a picture.  And some of the funny signs were not so humorous once the meaning dawned on me.  For instance, near the elevators, there was always a sign pointing to the stairs.  The figure is clearly running; I kept thinking, "Oh, the Italians think you have to run up the stairs."  Then I realized it was pointing to the stairs as an emergency exit.  Duh. I do find it interesting that running can be conveyed so easily with just one image.  Maybe that's a testimony to the simplicity of my artistic talents.