SAN GIMIGNANO, TOWN OF THE FAIR TOWERS

Perched on a hill with its towers thrown into sharp relief by the deep green mountains behind it, San Gimignano looks like a town plucked from a fairy tale and set into the Tuscan countryside.

Of course, it's not. Nor has it always been the sleepy little town it is today: in the late middle ages it was one of Central Tuscany's most important trading centers, strategically perched astride the intersection between the main highway from Rome to the Alpine passes, and the road connecting the Tuscan heartland to the maritime republic of Pisa and the coast.

Though the town is Etruscan in origin, its rise to prominence began towards the end of the 9th century, when the Bishop of Volterra gave it permission to hold a weekly market. In 949 San Gimignano was incorporated as a city, and by 998 the residents had built their first set of city walls.

The protection offered by the walls attracted both country folk and feudal nobility; and the town grew rapidly in importance notwithstanding the bitter power struggles that pitted the Bishop of Volterra, who represented the power of the Church to govern on earth, against the feudal nobility and later against the town Council (both of whom sided with the Holy Roman Emperor, who thought that the Church should confine itself to spiritual matters). The Bishop finally prevailed, and the town Council swore fealty to him in 1199. A second ring of walls was completed two years later, and the bishop revealed himself to be a shrewd administrator by offering substantial tax incentives to those who built within castrum nostrum [our walls].

Merchants hastened to take advantage of the opportunity, also because San Gimignano was the major Italian producer of saffron, which was grown on the flanks of the Val D'Elsa, the valley below the town; they exported it as far as Holland and got rich. Their wealth drew people in from the surrounding countryside, and the mendicant friars who came to care for the indigent began building the convent of San Francesco (it was completed in 1247). By 1227 San Gimignano boasted 7000 inhabitants, about the number it has today. Commerce flourished and the merchants gave generously to public works projects, building fountains, paving squares, and erecting churches.

They also built homes; space was at a premium within the city walls and they followed the common medieval practice of living above their shops. They were a proud lot; since the town Council had decreed that buildings were to be no more than 17 yards wide and 24 deep, they turned to architects to distinguish themselves from their neighbors. As a result, San Gimignano is a fascinating mix of styles, and medieval Sienese Gothic, with its elegant brickwork and pointed windows, mingles with more robust striped Pisan Romanesque and Florentine early Renaissance.

There's no getting around it, a three story Sienese Gothic building is still a three story building. A white stone tower thrusting up into the sky is much more impressive, and those who could afford to build one did. Since the same edicts that limited the size of the lots also forbade anyone's building a tower taller than La Rognosa, the 165-foot-high tower of the town hall, the really wealthy, like the Ardinghelli, bought adjacent lots and built twin towers (theirs are in Piazza della Cisterna -- not to be outdone, the Salvucci, San Gimignano's other major family, built their twin towers in Via San Matteo, just off Piazza del Duomo).

The thirteenth century wasn't peaceful, and San Gimignano changed hands repeatedly (in 1250 the Florentines tore down the walls to make the town less attractive to the Pisans -- the Sienese rebuilt them in 1261), though this doesn't seem to have done any harm to trade: in 1262 there were 9 hospitalores for visiting merchants who wished to be entertained in style (poorer travelers generally stayed in monasteries), while work on new towers proceeded at a feverish pace. Construction of a new town hall began in 1288, and about the same time the town Council passed a decree prohibiting the destruction of houses, "except to build better ones."

The completion of the tower of the new town hall in 1298 (it's the only tower in town taller than La Rognosa, and the view on a clear day is spectacular) represents, in many ways, San Gimignano's swan song. To be sure, several monasteries were completed in the early 1300s; but as the century progressed the rivalries between the town's noble families became bitterer, while the economy gradually soured. The great plague of 1348 killed close to 75% of San Gimignano's 13,000 inhabitants and the town collapsed; left without any other options the town Council begged to enter under Florence's wing.

The Florentines accepted the offer the following year and San Gimignano's long decline began. Several panels of the Old Testament fresco cycle painted in the cathedral in 1361 show Job stoically watching his house collapse on his sons while the Devil kills his flocks; they undoubtedly reflect the unhappiness of the people with their lot. Not much had changed by 1391, when Taddeo di Bartolo painted a Last Judgment in which the horrifying torments of the sinners in hell contrast oddly with a subdued, joyless vision of paradise. Except for the frescoing of the apse of St. Agostino by Benozzo Gozzoli in 1465 and the addition of St. Fina's chapel to the cathedral in the 1470's (Ghirlandaio's frescoes are gems), San Gimignano was essentially ignored (Cosimo I De'Medici did order fortifications to be built in 1553, destroying the Franciscan monastery in the process, but had them torn down again five years later, after Siena surrendered to Florence).

Towers collapsed unmourned, and the only resurgence of pride occurred in 1674, when the Podestà, or governor, ordered the owners of the remaining towers to restore them "for the grandeur of the Earth." Of the 72 standing when San Gimignano was at its apex, 14 remained.

By the time the economic renewal that has made Italy one of the world's major economic powers began, the roads had shifted down into the valleys, and San Gimignano watched from splendid isolation as towns and industries sprang up along the rail lines far below. Ironically, this has been its salvation: Faced with the choice of going to work in the dingy industrial towns along the valley floors or enjoying the sun and fresh air of their hill top, San Gimignano's residents have opted for the latter with a single minded dedication that would make their merchant forbearers proud.

Of course they do have their town, which the United Nations has designated one of 379 wonders of the world. But they have also done a fine job of developing the products of their land. Hundreds of years ago they grew crocuses and exported saffron throughout the known world; now their hills are dotted with vineyards and they produce Vernaccia. The first Italian wine to be have its origin certified with the State's DOC seal, in 1966, it's a dry white wine with an intriguing bouquet, and goes perfectly with the pecorino from the flocks of sheep that roam the hills of Southern Tuscany. It goes equally well with the salami, prosciutto, and cured meats (made mostly from pork and wild boar) produced by the farms around San Gimignano. While Pietrafitta was the first winery to make DOC Vernaccia, a shopkeeper on Via San Matteo with a stunning Vernaccia collection told me they have overextended their production. Now, the wines of many of the smaller producers, for example Azienda Agricola Casale or Fattoria di Cusona, are better (they are also more expensive, ten dollars or more as opposed to four for a bottle Pietrafitta).

San Gimignano's location has also come to its aid, just as it did when the town sat astride the main road to the Alps. It's just an hour from both Siena and Florence (or a two-hour bus ride), and the countryside, fields and forests draped over the hills, with towns, castles, and churches scattered here and there, looks lifted from a fourteenth century painting.

San Gimignano can easily be seen in a day. If you take the bus, it will let you off in Piazzale dei Martiri di Monte Maggio, where Niccoló Macchiavelli once drilled the town militia (the cannon in the War monument came from an Austrian submarine). Enter through Porta San Giovanni, built by the Sienese in 1261, and follow Via San Giovanni past the Pisan Romanesque black and white striped façade of San Francesco, the monastery Cosimo the First suppressed in 1553 (it's now a wine cellar with a spectacular view of the countryside), through the Arco dei Becci, one of the

gates of the original city walls, and into Piazza della Cisterna, the social heart of town, where markets, tourneys, and plays were held.

San Gimignano was governed from the neighboring Piazza del Duomo. You will most likely wish to begin with the cathedral, with its spectacular fresco cycles of the Old and new Testaments and its Last Judgment. Don't miss St. Fina's Chapel (to the right -- the admission charge will also get you into the other three municipal museums, and the custodian will give you a nice town map). The town's two art museums are both off Piazza del Duomo, one in the cloister of the cathedral, and the other in the Palazzo del Popolo, the new town hall that was completed in 1298.

The former, the Museo d'Arte Sacra, hosts the treasures of the Church and a variety of Etruscan pots and urns found in the surrounding countryside over the centuries (if you take a walk in the fields you will still find Etruscan pot shards today). The latter, which is the town art gallery, has two nice 12th century crucifixes, several Gothic altarpieces, including one showing scenes from the life of Saint Gimignano, the Madonna with Saints Gregory and Benedict by Pinturicchio, and some amusing frescoes of family life, with a couple taking a bath in a tub and going to bed. The Museo Comunale also has the Torre Grande, which takes some effort to climb but offers a stunning view.

Next you will probably want to see Sant'Agostino, the finest of the surviving monasteries (San Domenico looks more imposing from the outside, but has been transformed into a prison). Leave Piazza del Duomo along Via San Matteo, and turn right just before the gate, onto Via Cellolese.

Sant'Agostino was one of the last churches completed in San Gimignano, and is one of the few examples of Renaissance architecture in the town. You enter from a side door; to the left there is a nice marble altar dedicated to St. Bartolo, whose bones are in the urn, done by Benedetto da Maiano in 1494. There are also the frescoes of the life of Saint Augustine in the apse behind the main altar, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli in 1465, which give a good idea of what life was like for the wealthy in 15th century Italy. Benozzo had a keen eye for detail, and managed to include it in ways that suggest people were doing better than they had the century before (and that a modern viewer might find out of place), for example the two naked boys playing with a puppy in the background while Santa Monica lies on her deathbed.

At this point you will have seen everything that closes for lunch, except the Kriminal Museum, a grisly private collection of medieval torture instruments just off Piazza della Cisterna (admission 8,000 Lire), and the museum of the history of handicrafts, a sizable collection of tools and implements with everything from a 17th century doctor's office to a 1920's Fordson tractor (outside Porta San Giovanni; admission 5,000 Lire). For that matter, it will probably be close to lunch time; you can either eat at a restaurant (Le Vecchie Mura is good) or buy the fixings for a picnic lunch and a bottle of Vernaccia, and go up to the fortress (behind the cathedral -- follow the road that parallels the right wall), where there are benches overlooking the countryside.

The fortress itself is typical of the strongholds to which the population of a town could withdraw as a last resort, and the view from the bastions is quite pleasant. During the summer it also doubles as an open air theater. After eating, you can, if you like, wander down to the wool-washer's fountain outside the Porta dei Fonti, an impressive series of tubs under Romanesque and Gothic vaults, or explore San Gimignano's charming side streets. Or, if you have a car, you can visit Cellole, a pretty Romanesque church about two miles away (follow the signs), which offers a beautiful and completely unexpected view of the town.

Vernaccia di San Gimignano: A few words about the wine.
Getting There: The bus schedule