From our base in San Gimignano we made two fantastic day trips south. The first (on Tuesday) was to the Abbey of San Galgano, about an hour's drive. The journey itself turned out to be a big part of the attraction - incredibly beautiful Tuscan scenery, nice winding roads, and little traffic. One part of the drive was quite strange - amid all this lovely nature, we came upon a valley with an industrial factory, several big cooling towers, and a big silver pipe snaking up the hillside! I bet the people who live in that valley were thrilled when that was built!
The abbey was a nice change from all our city sightseeing - wonderfully peaceful and accessible. We parked along the tree-lined access road for free and wandered around slowly for a couple hours. It was mostly cloudy when we arrived but we took our time, hoping it might get better. And indeed we did have some nice sunbreaks, especially near sunset.
This scenic location first became a religious site in 1180, when Galgano Guidotti renounced his worldly life as a knight by plunging his sword into a rock and living as a hermit. He died a year later and was soon revered as a saint. An interesting round church was built over the site (the Eremo di San Galgano), where the "sword in the stone" can still be seen today. Especially impressive is the dome, which is quite large and made of alternating brick and stone.
View of the Eremo di San Galgano on its hill.
Closer look at the Eremo
Eremo interior, with sword in the stone under a plastic bubble in the center.
Sword in the stone
Stripy dome
In old churches, you just never know when you're going to run into a corpse or piece of one.... According to legend, these arms belonged to someone who tried to pull the sword out of the stone in 1181 while Galgano was away. He was then eaten by a wolf, a friend of the saint. Carbon dating was done on the arms in 2001, and they do date from the 12th century.
In the valley below the Eremo, the Abbey of San Galgano was built by the austere Cistercian order in 1224-88. It was the first fully Gothic church in Tuscany and was used as the model for Siena Cathedral. Today it is a pretty, roofless ruin. None of our interior photos came out very well, but we lucked out with some nice evening sun on the outside.
Abbazia di San Galgano
West facade of abbey church
Side view of abbey church
Remains of monastic buildings adjoined to the church
By the time we left it was getting late, so we picked up a snack from the bar/gift shop next to the abbey and headed back to our apartment for yet another delicious homemade pasta dinner. We are really missing that tradition already and are determined to incorporate more apartments in our traveling future!
Siena
Siena panorama
The following day (Wednesday) we drove to Siena, which is only about 45 minutes from San Gimignano. Siena is a very popular city and we were quite overwhelmed by the crowds of tourists after our relaxed visits to San Gimignano and San Galgano Abbey! We didn't fall in love with it like we did Assisi or Spoleto, but it is a lovely town with atmospheric, hilly streets and an abundance of art. There are several parking lots outside the walls, the most convenient of which are Duomo and Il Campo. We ended up heading for Il Campo, which turned out to be the wrong choice (at least coming from the north), as the access road goes ridiculously far in the wrong direction before backtracking! But once we got there, the parking garage was good, convenient, and not too overpriced.
We hiked uphill towards the Duomo, which is very pretty and unique. The facade is too fancy for my taste, but the marble is gleaming white and the tower is pleasingly stripy. It is suffering from a severe bout of renovation at the moment, however, so we couldn't see the dome at all.
There was a long queue for tickets out front, but after joining it for a few minutes I remembered a great tip from my web friend Adrian of Paradoxplace - go around back to the baptistery first! For admission purposes, Siena Cathedral is divided up into several parts - the cathedral itself, the crypt, the baptistery, and the museum - and you can buy a combo ticket to all of them for 10 euros. There was no line at all at the baptistery, and once we had our combo ticket we could walk right past the queue at the cathedral!
But we toured the baptistery first, which is a smallish rectangular building covered in nice frescoes. In the center is a fancy baptismal font with 15th-century bronze reliefs (one by Donatello). Happily, photos are allowed inside as long as you don't use flash or a tripod.
Halfway up the marble stairs on the south side of the cathedral is the entrance to the crypt, where the frescoes were much older and more interesting. Photos aren't allowed and the rule was enforced by a roving official, but we managed a few anyway (of course without flash).
And then we smugly marched past the lines at the cathedral to have a look at the interior. It is very impressive, and pleasingly stripy like the tower. Photos with no flash are allowed. The main art highlights are the sculpture-covered pulpit by Nicolas Pisano, the marble pavement with elaborate symbolic scenes, and the library with very nice frescoes on the wall and ceiling.
From the Duomo it is only a short walk downhill to Il Campo, the main "square" of Siena. Unusually, it's not a square - it is scallop- or fan-shaped and very beautiful. This is where they hold the twice-annual Palio, a bareback horse race between the medieval neighborhood associations of Siena, accompanied by traditional costumes and much pageantry. That must be an incredible sight! The rest of the year, it is ringed with cafes and pizzerias and filled with tourists. We had overpriced (of course) but quite delicious pizzas in one of these cafes, with a wonderful view. It is definitely one of the best squares we've seen in Europe.
After lunch we wandered some side streets and pressed on to a few more churches listed on my website. First was Santa Maria dei Servi, a nice brick church with interesting frescoes inside. There was a good view back to Siena from its steps and the road leading up to it was lined with the colorful flags of the local neighborhood/Palio team.
Across town is San Domenico, a huge brick edifice that is impressive from the outside but quite boring inside - except for the preserved head and finger of St. Catherine of Siena, both of which are on display and much venerated by pilgrims. Photos were not allowed in this church, sternly enforced by the man sweeping the floor. But we managed a couple discreet snaps.
We didn't have much better luck outside photographically speaking, as the sunlight was on the wrong side and we couldn't find a way into the cloisters for a view of the sunny side.
Down a steep hill from San Domenico is the Shrine of St. Catherine of Siena, consisting of a couple chapels built into her house. The light was difficult here too, and photos were not allowed.
A hike through some very nice old streets brought us back up towards the Duomo. Along the way, we came upon a nice viewpoint towards San Domenico:
By now the sun had swung around to the west so we took some better photos of the cathedral's facade, then visited the last sight on our combo ticket, the cathedral museum. It was a very good museum over several floors, with an abundance of original sculptures, paintings and stained glass from the cathedral. Photos aren't allowed, but this wasn't enforced.
Admission to the museum includes a panoramic view from this arch, which was part of an unfinished plan to expand the cathedral:
David opted out since he had his camera bag along and was ready for a rest anyway. It didn't take me long to climb the very narrow but short spiral stairway up to the viewpoint, despite some stopping and squeezing past people climbing down. The view was lovely and on all sides. You can go up even further to the top of the structure, but I didn't bother since the view was unlikely to be that much better and I'm no great fan of heights anyway!
We were plenty tired by the time we headed back to the car around 5:30, but we decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit another abbey! And not just any abbey, but one that sounds and looks from pictures to be very beautiful - the Abbey of Sant'Antimo. So we raced the setting sun as we drove almost another hour further south, hoping to get there in time and hoping it would be worth it... and we did, and it was!
Abbey of Sant'Antimo
The Abbazia di Sant'Antimo was built in 1117. Unlike San Galgano, it is still intact and still in use by white-robed monks. It was absolutely magical, both in its setting and its beautiful Romanesque architecture. The road to the abbey approaches from above, so the first view of it is spectacular - nestled alone in a valley against the backdrop of a thick-forested mountain.
View from south
Down at the abbey, where again we had free and easy parking, we had a fine view of the west facade just before the sun sank below the hill.
Ideally you would spend all day here, especially if you're into photography - in the morning for the beautiful east apse with its interesting carvings, midday for the view from above (south), evening for the west front, and at night when it is floodlit. I hope we will do so on a future trip.
The interior is just as magical as the exterior, which is rare. Our photos don't do the beauty and atmosphere of it justice. We stayed long enough to join part of an evening service, led by the Gregorian chanting of the monks. It was magnificent.
The drive to and from the abbey was also incredibly beautiful. It's not nearly as famous, but we think the countryside around San Gimignano and south of Siena is even more beautiful than Chianti. There are more meadows, which are made of dense, shimmering, soft-looking green grass (couldn't figure out what that crop might be), punctuated by pointy Tuscan trees and smoother roads.
We got home after dark and it was quite late when we enjoyed our last homecooked pasta meal. We had overshopped a bit and had several pastas and sauces left in the fridge, so we sampled them all! - large green tortelloni filled with spinach and ricotta and topped with olive oil and parmesan; tiny chewy tortellini filled with prosciutto and topped with fresh ragu sauce; and thin spaghetti with fresh pesto. Delicious! Then we tempted our digestive fate, but happily without consequence, by going to sleep almost immediately after.