Via San Giovanni
Via San Giovanni is the spine of San Gimignano — a stone-paved street that runs north from Porta San Giovanni, the medieval gate where most visitors first set foot in town, all the way up toward Piazza della Cisterna and the cluster of towers beyond. Shops selling local saffron, Vernaccia wine, and hand-pressed olive oil line both sides, and the towers rise above the rooflines as you walk, growing taller the further in you go.
It is, in practical terms, the town's main artery. But walking it slowly, early before the tour groups arrive, it reads more like a medieval stage set that has been continuously inhabited — which is more or less what it is.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who come back tend to arrive at Porta San Giovanni before 9am, when the street belongs mostly to locals opening shutters and delivery vans squeezing through the gate. That hour, the light hits the stone at a low angle and the towers cast long shadows down the street. By midday, it's a different place entirely.
The story behind Via San Giovanni
The town itself was renamed San Gimignano in 450 AD, tradition holding that Bishop Geminianus of Modena intervened to spare the settlement from Attila's forces. The first written record of the name dates to 929. By 1199, the commune had broken free of the bishops of Volterra and established its own podestà, entering a period of prosperity built on saffron trading and the Via Francigena pilgrimage route — of which Via San Giovanni was effectively the local passage.
The street's character was shaped by that medieval peak, when the town's rival families built as many as 72 tower houses to signal wealth and power. The Black Death of 1348 cut the population roughly in half and froze the town's development, which is why the street — and the architecture above it — looks much as it did seven centuries ago.
Good to know
Buses from Siena run regularly; from Florence, change at Poggibonsi. Parking sits just outside Porta San Giovanni — cars don't enter the old town. The street itself is always accessible. Torre Grossa and the Palazzo Comunale open daily: April–October 10am–7:30pm, November–March 11am–5:30pm; combined entry from €10.
Summer brings real heat and the street can feel close in July and August, when it is also at its most crowded. Spring and autumn are easier — mild enough to walk slowly, with fewer people. Winter mornings can be sharp and the light is low and clear, which makes for good photographs of the towers.
Where is Via San Giovanni?
Location
- In San Gimignano
- 43.4668, 11.0427
- Open in Google Maps
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