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Staying 3 nights in San Gimignano—-are we crazy?

Posted by (Seattle, WA) on

I am starting to think about our trip next spring to Italy (late April) even though we haven’t taken our September trip yet—-but that one is all planned, so I have some free time.

We have mostly spent time in northern Italy, with one short foray into Tuscany for Florence, Lucca, This time I am thinking of a week or so in Tuscany and Umbria, plus some time on the coast in Molise. Our major goal, wherever we go, is to spend time walking in cities, and hiking in the countryside and mountains.

Using a new guidebook I just purchased (“Walking in Italy: Exploring Italy’s Great Cities and Finest landscapes on Foot”, by Gillian and John Souter), I have found 3-4 nice hikes right from the towns of San Gimignano and Assisi. I have already thought of Assisi as a possible base for visiting Perugia, so that one is easy.

All I have read about San Gimignano is that it is jammed with day-trippers, which doesn’t sound pleasant. But our experience with Venice and Manarola suggest that even if a place is packed with other tourists during the day, it can be lovely in the early morning and evening. Since our plan would be to leave town and go hiking during the day, might we have the same experience in San Gimignano?

Thanks for your help, as always.

Posted by
15441 posts

San Gimignano gets packed primarily on weekends/holidays when lots of local Italian day trippers join the rest of the tourists visiting there. All other times I’ve not experienced crowds that are comparable to Florence or Venice or even the Cinque Terre in summer. However, be aware that next year I think Easter comes late and Florentines (and the rest of Tuscans) flock to San Gimignano on Easter Monday, it’s like a religious ritual (I still recall as a kid with my family not being able to get a table at a restaurant before 3pm for lunch). Also April 25 (which is Liberation day, a national holiday), May 1 (Labor Day), and any weekend around those days will be busy anywhere. So the end of April next year will be packed everywhere (it’s also Jubilee year and Rome will be unapproachable).

Posted by
58 posts

@Lola, I think this is grand idea. We stayed 4 nights in SanG spring ‘23 and spent early mornings and late afternoon / evenings in town, and the day touring elsewhere. Had the town to ourselves at night. Concierge at the hotel made reservations each night at fabulous restaurants which were all surprisingly full, tho when walking back to hotel the streets were empty.

We typically left town by 9am, and the shop owners were re-stocking and cleaning their stoops, so I don’t know when the day-trippers came. When we returned around 4pm the last of the groups were leaving except for a busy gelato shop in the main piazza. Perfect!

And nearby towns like Volterra that are usually less crowded during the day anyway were just right to visit as everyone was at SanG!

Go for it!

Posted by
16765 posts

Thank you both. And extra thanks to Roberto for mentioning those dates—-I am aware of Easter Monday and May 1, but did not know about Liberation Day April 25.

Our plan was to fly from London to Florence on Easter Monday and spend that night in Siena, then move to our next stop (probably San Gimignano the next day, for 3 nights. That would have us traveling to Assisi on April 25, and I am now thinking we should avoid traveling on that day.

So. . . I will arrange things so we stay the night of 22 April in Siena, then head to San Gimignano. That way we will be taking the train to Assisi on 26 April. We can spend 3 nights there, move on to Assisi for 3 nights, and then to Termoli on 29 April for 3 nights. That way we will not be traveling on 1 May either.

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