On Tuesday, we left Urbino, and headed for San Gimignano - an ancient town famous for its renaissance-era tower-houses.
This trip took us out of the region of the Marche, through a town called Gubbio which is in Umbria and into Tuscany - our home region.
Gubbio, apart from being a picturesque town in its own right, is geologically famous for the "Gubbio layer", first discovered nearby. This is a thin layer of rock which was laid down after the impact on Earth of the gigantic meteorite thought now to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
After leaving San Gimignano, we briefly visited the tiny fortified village of Monteriggioni. In 1214, he government of Siena decreed that a wall be built around this existing settlement, in order to use it as an outpost in their ongoing war with Florence. We have often seen it from the motorway, which gives an impressive view - not photographible of course, and up-close photos are also disappointing - hence the helicopter shot!
 |
| Starting out from Urbino, we were quickly back in the deep chasms of the Appenines. We took the tunnel, but apparently there is still an old road through ... |
 |
| The 13th cent. Palazzo dei Consoli in Gubbio |
 |
| Gubbio - view looking through the porticoed side of the Palazzo dei Consoli |
 |
| Vineyards in the Chianti region which we passed through |
 |
| The ancient skyscraper-like skyline of San Gimignano |
 |
| San Gimignano - leaving next morning |
 |
| Monteriggione - without a helicopter (or maybe a drone) I couldn't have got a shot like this ... |
 |
| ... but inside, up on the wall, it was easy to get a shot like this ... |
No comments:
Post a Comment