Hi Everyone,
I'm considering booking a wine tasting in Chianti while I am in Siena in June. There are 2 of them to choose from and the only difference is that one of them also visits San Gimignano and the other Monteriggioni.
I wouldn't mind some insights into which town would be better to see. Are they both busy with tourists? I'm also looking for the most scenic of the two.
Thanks
I would say San Gimignano is more interesting. Monteriggione is smaller, so you notice crowds more.
You can walk more in San Gimignano to get away from the crowds; in Monteriggione, once you are off the main streets, you are pretty much out of the town.
I was there back in 2009, so it's possible things have changed since then, but you couldn't pick two more different towns in Tuscany than Monteriggioni and San Gimignano.
Monteriggioni is tiny and charming. Because it's so small, its charms are limited, but so are the crowds. When I was there (an early weekday morning in May, just as the town was coming to life), I was one of maybe a dozen tourists. I pretty much had the place to myself. I don't know if it gets more crowded as the day goes on. The views from Monteriggioni are quite beautiful if you climb up on the walls.
San Gimignano is big and wonderful, with grand towers (at least grand by medieval standards). It attracts big crowds and tour buses. It is possibly the most impressive of the hill towns in Tuscany to see from a distance, but it was one of my least favorite to visit, partly because of the crowds, and also because it felt to me as if it had sold its soul to the tourist dollar to a greater extent than any other town I visited. (More tacky souvenir shops, at least it seemed to me, than anything authentic.) I wished I could have stayed into the evening after all the tour buses left to find out if I could discover a more authentic place.
I hope this helps give some perspective.
If you don't have "free time" enough to see some famous church art, I wouldn't say it matters that San G is five times as large as Monteriggioni. They are not at all comparable towns. One advantage of a tour to San G is that you don't have to get in or out or park in San G, which is a savagely crowded tourist mecca. (Just a fact, not slamming the place! I'm glad we saw it, and had time to walk up to the park at the top of the hill, with rampart views.)
I would think that people back home will ask if you saw San G, they won't ask if you saw Monteriggioni. They have an annual medieval festival at Monteriggioni, which might be the only time it's annoyingly crowded. But I wouldn't want to see Monteriggioni without a car, because it's a tiny place. Certainly charming enough to be worth the visit, but not with the extra overhead of public transportation. It was also easy to park at Monteriggioni, and we had to wait for a space at San G. And it's always UPhill to the town!
I appreciate the responses from you all. You've given me something to think about. I will have to see how much free time we will have in these towns and maybe base my decision by that. I would really love to see them both but unfortunately that's not possible this time. San Gimignano does look beautiful from the outside as all the pictures will attest to. But I'm also drawn to the fact that Monteriggioni is smaller and therefore less touristy. I plan on doing some photography while I'm there and sometimes it's better when there are less people around. I'm still undecided but I might be leaning toward Monteriggioni. I'll do a bit more research before my final decision.
Thank you everyone!
Another great city in the area for wine would be Montalcino. Tuscany and Chianti are not lacking for many great wines.
Thanks David!
So much wine - so little time! I wish I had another full week in the Siena area to explore everything I'd love to see. I've book a full day tour to Montepulciano & Pienza as well. I'm really looking forward to this trip!!
I'd rather visit both San Gimignano and Monteriggioni than spend time doing wine tasting in the Chianti. You can go and wine taste in wineries in California or New York or many other states if you want. But the experience of being in a medieval town mentioned in Dante's Inferno (C. XXXI, ver. 41) is something that cannot be experienced in Napa Valley.
There is actually a winery with tasting room inside the walls of Monteriggioni, it's called Fattoria Castello di Monteriggioni. You can drink there. And I'm sure there are tasting rooms in San Gimignano too.
They are both pretty dried out touristy places; most hints of authenticity are long gone. But Monteregionni is really not worth a stop while St. Gimignano retains its medieval charm and towers. Definitely would choose that.
As usual I find myself agreeing with Roberto.
You can see all of Monteriggioni in a couple of hours. Be sure to.walk the medival walls. San Gimi takes longer, has more architecture, and great restaurants.
Scenic, hmm, because it is larger, San Gimi, plus you can see a lot of Tuscany varied countryside from there. You have some good pastoral vies from Monteriggioni walls but not like San Gimignano.
I spent two nights in San Gimignano in 2013, very enjoyable. Yes, it is very crowded and touristy during the heart of the day, in the heart of the town, in the heart of the tourist season. But it is much quieter and enjoyable in the evening and early morning. If you walk above and beyond the center of the town, there are quiet streets, lovely small churches, artisan shops, and a wine museum with tasting room (museum as I remember). There were two excellent "dueling" gelaterias on the main square, both really good. One advertised "best gelato in the world", the other had "won the national gelato championship". Have two gelatos, and you can decide! When I was in SG I sent an e-mail to some friends, and they responded: "ah, San Gimignano, the Manhattan of Tuscany!". (Towers = skyscrapers). There were once 75 towers, now 4, as I remember. I remember several good stories from encounters in SG, which occurred by having more time in town.
There is a reason why places like San Gimignano, Florence, Venice, etc. are crowded with tourists while Bakersfield, Calif. isn't.
After much consideration and with all the input from everyone in this forum I believe the best spot of the two would be San Gimignano. I wish I had time for both but San G sounds like something I would enjoy more. I am almost tempted to ditch the Chianti wine tasting tour and go public transit and fit Volterra in too. From what I understand it isn't very easy to get to without a car but that would be my #1 choice of the three if I could just get there and back from Siena.
