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All material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission - Adrian Fletcher can be contacted at afletch at paradoxplace dot com
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CIAO ADRIANO
8 DAYS IN TUSCANY AND UMBRIA THE 2007 DOM PARADOX A TOUR FOR NICK (DOM P'S SON) AND JACUI October / November 2007
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DAY SIX
Monday 5 November - San Gimignano and San Galgano
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A day exploring the medieval streets and towers of San Gimignano.
Lunch - La Mandragola (San Gimignano).
Late afternoon drive to the Eremo (Hermitage) where San Galgano - Galgano Guidotti (1148 - 1181 (33)) - reformed high living Sienese knight - built a twig hut, plunged his sword into a rock (where it still is), and died of dank cold pretty quickly.
Below the Eremo, the sun is setting on the facade and chapter house of the large Cistercian Abbey of San Galgano which started life in 1181 perched beside the hermitage on the hill which was becoming a popular pilgrimage centre, but things became a bit cramped and prone to slippage, and the lads naturally graduated down the hill to the boggy field below, because draining swamps was what Cistercians did. Then between 1224 and 1288 they built their monastery and abbey, including the first Gothic (abbey) church in Italy, now a roofless but well kept ruin.
The Abbey of San Galgano was a daughter house of Casamari (south of Rome and still an active Cistercian abbey), which in turn was a daughter of Saint Bernard's Clairvaux in Burgundy. It was Tuscany's first full on Gothic church, and later a model for Siena Cathedral. These were also a later breed of Cistercians - organizers of trade fairs (their site was the last overnight stop before Siena), managers of the Sienese treasury and engineers for its public works, and smelters of iron.
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Medieval towers of the Tuscan town of San Gimignano
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Medieval towers of the Tuscan town of San Gimignano
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La Piazza della Cisterna - the cherry picker in the background is putting up the cross wires that will hang Christmas lighting over piazza and well.
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The roofless Cistercian Abbey of San Galgano in the late afternoon November sun
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Castellina is located near the "i" of "Chianti"
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Go to the Page LIst for a full listing of pages and their status
All material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission - Adrian Fletcher can be contacted at afletch at paradoxplace dot com
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