Our second day trip from Siena was to the village San Gimignano (jim-in-yanno). Centuries ago in towns such as Siena and San Giminano, it was a sign of wealth to build a tower onto your home, but later a king demanded all such towers be torn down in deference to his authority. While Siena had some dozen plus towers, San Gimignano had 72, and is said to be where the legend of Rapunzel originated. Now only a few remain whole, while the bases of others dot the city.

We arrived by train from Siena in the town of Poggibonci, where we took a bus up to San Gimignano. Becky, Shandra, and I first walked around part of the outside of the city wall, as the Tuscan countryside was bright with fall colors. We then wandered into the city itself and ate lunch with our prof. Todd and two of the guys, Shane and Josh. After that, we went up one of the towers, connected to the city museum. We then wandered around the city some more, and sat and sketched in the main square. We finished out our trip by doing some quick shopping, and headed back to Siena.