Museum Hopper

one of our first true touristy stops in siena was at the torre del mangia , the tall tower in their main plaza, palazzo publico .  the next day, we went to the museo civico , which is also housed in the city hall off the plaza.   the view from the top of the torre del mangia is pretty fantastic.  it has a great vantage point on the top of siena's duomo as well as the surrounding countryside.  their system for climbing the tire could be expedited a bit, but it does prevent the horrible problem of tourist crossing in very narrow stairwells.  this stairwell was pretty typical for stairwells built in the medieval ages/early renaissance.   Siena's Duomo Palazzo Pubblico from up high   the museum is in the right side of the building below.  torre del mangia is at the top of the tower (obviously)!  the square is pretty spectacular. the museum consists of a number of frescos and is within the old civil building on the squ...

our first stop in san gimignano was the museo civico, which is in the base of the largest tower.  we bought the combined ticket! we went up to the tower first to beat all the other tourists up there!  the view of the town is fantastic.  all the other towers are visible as well as the surrounding countryside.  it was a very unusual stairwell for an old tower as in it was fairly wide and looked as though the stairs had been added in the last 50 years!  i loved seeing the town square from up above.   the museum was at the base of the tower.  the frescos outside the museum are fantastic.  the items within the museum are not very impressive.  the most impressive items within the museum were actually discovered a few years ago as beautiful frescos.  part of the museum was even under construction.   i could not believe that these frescos were outside for so many years.  they are finally covered with plexiglass! t...