The Via Francigena is an ancient road between Rome and Canterbury, passing through England, France, Switzerland and Italy. In mediaeval times it was an important road and pilgrimage route. To pilgrims headed south, it was the Via Romea; to those headed north, the Via Francigena.

San Gimignano rises on a hill (334m high) dominating the Elsa Valley with its towers. It was once a small Etruscan village of the Hellenistic period (200-300 BC). It began its life as a town in the 10th century taking its name from the Holy Bishop of Modena, St. Gimignano, who is said to have saved the village from the barbarian hordes. The town increased in wealth and developed greatly during the Middle Ages thanks to the "Via Francigena" the trading and pilgrim's route that crossed it. Such prosperity led to the flourishing of works of art that adorn the churches and monasteries. In 1199 it became a free municipality and fought against the Bishops of Volterra and the surrounding municipalities. Due to internal power struggles it eventually divided into two factions one headed by the Ardinghelli family (Guelphs) and the other by the Salvucci family (Ghibellines). On the 8th May 1300 Dante Alighieri came to San Gimignano as the Ambassador of the Guelph League in Tuscany. In 1348 San Gimignano's population was drastically reduced by the Black Death Plague throwing the city into a serious crisis which eventually led to its submission to Florence in 1353. In the following centuries San Gimignano overcame its decline and isolation when its beauty and cultural importance together with its agricultural heritage were rediscovered. The construction of the towers dates back to the 11th and 13th centuries. The architecture of the city was influenced by Pisa, Siena and Florence. There are 14th century paintings of the Sienese School to be seen and 15th century paintings of the Florentine School.

Walking in Tuscany | The Via Francigena in the Siena Region

Tuscany | San Gimignano

When Archbishop Sigeric was on his way back to Canterbury from Rome around the year 990, he passed through the Valdelsa and noted San Gimignano among the stops that he made. Following the route in the opposite direction from north to south, the road probably entered the current province of Siena near Montecarulli after having passed the Santa Maria a Chianni, a Parish Church, in the Gambassi Terme area.

The route then conttinued to Santo Pietro, seat of a Romanesque church wlth a single nave, Pancole, now a 17th century sanctuary which stands in a place where there is a worshiped image of the Madonna, Collemucioli, with a high stone tower and stretches of pavement nearby, and Strada, a place name which is meaningful in itself, where we find a church with a nave and Romanesque apse dedicated to Saint Michael.

Gambassi Terme Panorama [1]

The real foundation of Gambassi Terme occurred during the Etruscan and Roman Ages, when the first settlements were built close to important roads like the so called "Via Francigena".
An official act dating back to 1037 testifies the presence of a castle in Gambassi Terme and quotes about a donation act of some lands to the Bishopes of Volterra, who, during the century, also got the possession of the castle of Gambassi Terme, holding it up to the XII-th century.
At the end of the XII-th century a little "castrum" (fortified settlemen) rose close to the castle that later became a common with its own statutues.
During the next century Gambassi Terme subdued the consequences of the existing rivalries between the Bishops of Volterra and the close village of San Gimignano, wanting this latter to take the control of the village away from the Bishop.
The quarrels ended only in 1294 when the Republic of Florence conquered Gambassi Terme and annexed it to its countryside.
In 1322 Gambassi Terme became a Florentine Podestà's seat, increasing, along the same century its economy by starting some manufacturing glass activities.
Returning to Certaldo Basso and taking the the road for Gambassi Terme, which, after crossing over the river Elsa, climbs up in the beautiful hilly countryside, you arrive at the magnificent parish church of S. Maria a Chianni, a Romanesque church inspired to the style of Pisa, famous for its elevated presbytery.

Gambassi has medievai origins, lt is now a famous center for glass and a thermal town using iodine-salt watet from Pilo, famous since ancient times. Continuing along the same road towvards montaione it is worth visiting San Vivaldo, a Franciscan convent built at the end of the 15th century in the wood of Boscolazzeroni. Here one can see the so-called 'Sacro monte', a series chapels which reproduce the topography of sacred sites of palestina. The original trinity chapels built at the be- ginning of the 16th centuty have now been reduced to twenty. They exhibit several groups oE polychromous tetracotta statues.