Lost in Europe 2012: 10/19/12

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On our final stop to Lucca we went to San Gimignano. A meticulously restored hill town. San Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany north-central Italy. Known as the Town of Fine Towers, San Gimignano is famous for its medieval architecture, unique in the preservation of about a dozen of its tower houses,which, with its hilltop setting and encircling walls form "an unforgettable skyline". Within the walls, the well-preserved buildings include notable examples of Romanesque architecture. Of all the towns we have visited this town was the in the best of condition. A superb job of restoration. If not for the stores you would be in the 12th century or earlier, The town also is known for the white wine, produced from the ancient variety of Vernaccia grape which is still grown on the sandstone hillsides of the area.

Aside from being a very popular tourist attraction it had great surrounding scenery and some very nice shopping opportunities. Being close to Florence the leather products were some of the best you are going to find in Italy. Of course Carolyn and I and our friends did our part to help the economy. Apparently almost no one pays taxes in Italy. Few accept credit cards and cash is the way business is conducted with no sales tax added ? This is the practice everywhere we have gone. Thank God for the ATM machines.

We went on the tour of the Torture Museum. Not sure that was a good idea. We may be scared for life. After traveling through France and Italy old towns ,castles and dungeons we learned how inhumane people were in the early days but had no idea how bad they really were. The museum had many of the tools / equipment used around the world to torture people . Beside the more modern electric chair and gas chamber they had all the medieval tools used with very explicit description of why and how these acts were executed. They had every imaginable tool of inflicting pain. There were tools for torturing children and people who gossiped. To gruesome to ever describe in this blog. We saw it all, very interesting but still unbelievable. Have no doubts man definitely had a morbid and ignorant side in the early days.