A Round Trip on the Tuscan Hills around San Gimignao

Sangiminiano - Landscape of

Tuscan Towers

Taking a bike tour from Colle Val D'Elsa towards the Chianti and Sangiminiano had always been something I wanted to do. I fell in love with that road the first time I went to Tuscany with my family. But the car just did not seem to make justice to the wonderful landscape. I then decided to come back last year to tour the whole trip (and many more, but I will talk about this later in this blog) all over again, and with the bike it all seemed just right. We departed from this little town called Colle Val d'Elsa at 10 in the morning.

On our side, we did very much enjoy a refreshing glass of Vernaccia di Sangimignano.

I have to say, the Vagnoni winemakers have a unique vernaccia I always recommend to anyone going to Sangimignano, and no one has ever come back unhappy about that advice.
We stopped to eat at Ristaurante Il Pino, and here we tried an excellent truffle first course, and an extra tender and not "gamy" boar (a specialty of Tuscany and a traditional dish during all seasons). It seems like the dish was born here in San Gimignano (the owner swears, and I gladly accepted it as truth. I did not want a little thing as such to spoil the wonderful atmosphere of the restaurant and the kind hospitality of the owner).

After lunch we decided to keep on going and visited the Museum of Medieval Torture. I was a little hesitant at first, because of the kids, but many instruments are so hard to understand that if you do not explain them they will never get it. I had to read the pamphlet myself to understand. It was avery educational experience, and the museum is very well kept. The address is:
Medieval Criminal and Torture Museum Via del Castello 1, San Gimignano 53073, Italy.



After an hour in there we decided some lighter task might be good, so we decided to go shopping, and I found the most wonderful terracotta painted table for our house. Now our garden seems like the garden of Restaurante Pino in San Gimignano, and each time we eat there we feel like we are in Tuscany. We also discovered few noteworty silversmiths. Their tecniques and results were really astonishingly new. The materials used ranged from rare wood to diamonds. One of the artists was very friendly and told us this is the new wave of Tuscan silversmiths coming from the accademia.