Dalma & Andreas
Where to Go/What to See
The Historic City Center of San Gimignano- UNESCO World Heritage Site
The historic city center of San Gimignano is a complete immersion into the 1300s borgo ambience. In fact, the city (still mostly intact today) is one of the best examples of an Italian city from the middle ages today. Winding medieval streets lead you to wonderful wine bars, restaurants and unexpected views over the Tuscan Hills.The main square serves as a nucleus for ice-cream eaters, a weekly market (every Thursday) and open-air concerts.
Take a Cooking Class
Enjoy eating your way through Italy? We do too! Which is why we can definitely recommend taking a cooking class while you are in Italy with us. There are several cooking class options through Trip Advisor, but we found the reviews and photos from the Montese Cooking Experience to be just superb. From their website: "We want to share with you what until now have been our secrets: love, which is created with a ladle in your hand, a pot on the stove, a little flour scattered everywhere, and harmony, which eventually finds its peak round the table. As we share our secrets, we also want to share our stove. We recommend our basic cooking classes to the people who are new to the Tuscan cooking tradition. Dishes are prepared using only the best local products as well as produce from own vegetable garden. You will learn to prepare handmade pasta, ravioli, ribollita and other delicious recipes of our area .. plunging fully into a family atmosphere and into a location of rare beauty."
Go Horseback Riding
Want to see Tuscany from a different perspective? Surrounded by its own vineyards, olive groves, saffron crops, orchards and fields producing the plants to feed the farm animals - horses, chickens, rabbits and bees - Il Vecchio Maneggio “The Old Horseback Riding Centre” Estate is a working-holiday farm where you will enjoy the atmosphere of a century-old tradition. Agriturismo "Il Vecchio Maneggio" - the only one in the area of San Gimignano – offers its guests the exclusive and unique bonus of a great love for horses and a long breeding experience started by grandpa Mario. Simone, experienced rider, is available for teaching and leading their guests in wonderful short, medium, and long tours. At the farm there are 20 horses with different characteristics to fit the requirements of adults, children, beginners and experienced riders “Il Vecchio Maneggio” is the ideal place to have a break and enjoy beautiful horseback riding tours in Tuscany by day or under the stars.
Visit Guardastelle Vineyard
Are you interested to learn more about the wine grown in this region? Then a stop at the Guardastelle Vineyard is for you. With its gorgeous views, groves of ancient olive trees, and delicious wines, the Guardastelle Vineyard is a feast for the senses. Your wine tasting experience begins with a tour of the grounds and some background history about this small family owned winery. The wine tasting portion is served with house specialties and from all of the reviews, is said to be delicious. If you're interested in a personal, friendly and knowledgeable sommelier guided tour in a beautiful setting then this is for you. Its very close (essentially walking distance) to San Gimignano.
Visit Corbucci Vineyard
If you have a special love for wines, Corbucci Winery is the right place for you to taste good wine and learn about tradition and passion for wine making. Located in the heart of Tuscany, the winery produces different types of wine such as the famous Chianti Docg red or the Vernaccia di San Gimignano Docg White, and Francesco Paolo Corbucci and his staff will make sure that you’re going to have a top and exclusive wine experience. The property extends over approximately 25 hectares of vineyards and olive groves set on well-drained and sunbathed soils where the Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Trebbiano, Vernaccia e Vermentino and Canaiolo vines have a maximum yield of approximately 50 quintals of grapes per hectare. Top positioning, careful pruning and vinification including the use of oak barrels are just some of the secrets that make Corbucci wines great. The Corbucci farm today exports to many countries like Brazil, England, China, the Netherlands and Germany.
Visit Il Colombaio di Santa Chiara Vineyard & Olive Groves
This lovely agritorismo is located only minutes away from San Gimignano. Here, you have the opportunity to tour the vineyards and learn about the family business of wine and olive oil making. The grove of 3000 olive trees stand on a hill at 400 meters above sea level, in front of the San Gimignano towers. Correggiolo, Leccino, Moraiolo, and Frantoio are the typical olive trees of this area. From these tress, the vineyard produces Correggiolo oil (made only from the Correggiolo variety) and the Organic extra virgin olive oil (made from Leccino, Moraiolo, and Frantoio varieties). Their vineyards stand on the DOCG Vernaccia di San Gimignano soil for over 21 hectares. Only a small part of this area is wooded. Most of the vineyard soil is composed of old Pliocene sands, clays, pebbles and gravels. They alternate older plots of land with cavernous limestones. This variability produces a wide array of wines for tasting.
View San Gimignano from Above at the Torre e Casa Campatelli
Located in San Gimignano, Campatelli is an 18th-century building that features one of the town’s famous medieval towers. The residence of a high-ranking family in the 19th and 20th centuries, Casa Campatelli reconstructs - through its furniture, decor, paintings and private mementos - the ambience and history of a traditional Tuscan family and society of a bygone age. Set against the background of 1000 years of history, visitors will get to explore the villa with guided English tours, learning more about both the origins of the legend of San Gimignano and also the town's history. A must see for the history lovers coming to the wedding.
Have a Spa Day
Need to relax a bit before the wedding? Why not book a spa day at Irispa benessere! Irispa benessere is surrounded by groves of ancient olive trees and offers a variety of amenities including indoor and outdoor swimming pool heated to 34 °, a sauna, a turkish bath, a Tuscan aromarium, a fitness room and relaxation corner with herbal teas. The spa also has a large variety of facials, massages, and other treatments sure to make you feel like new before the wedding day. You can also experience the Spa in the evening under the stars, every Friday of the year, enjoying prosecco and fresh fruit.
Go Hiking at the Riserva Naturale di Castelvecchio
The Castelvecchio Nature Reserve is located in the Val d’Elsa, a few kilometres from San Gimignano. It extends to the south all the way to the rocky spur where the evocative ruins of Castelvecchio are located, an important medieval fortresses naturally defended by the deep and recessed Botro di Castelvecchio and Botro della Libaia, tributaries of the Elsa River. The vegetation in the reserve is quite varied: along with an oak forest home to Turkey oaks and downy oaks, there’s also Mediterranean scrub, while on the valley floor, you can find beech trees, sycamores and many yews. The rocky walls are the perfect environment for the rare peregrine falcon, which spends its winters here. The flattest stretches of the chalky hills are covered in dense shrublands, which together with the grazing land and farming areas surrounding the reserve provide food for many birds, including the rare short-toed snake eagle, red-backed shrike, African stonechat and common redstart.
Take a Day Trip to Siena
Siena is a city where the architecture soars, as do the souls of many of its visitors. Effectively a giant, open-air museum celebrating the Gothic, Siena has spiritual and secular monuments that have retained both their medieval forms and their extraordinary art collections, providing the visitor with plenty to marvel at. The city's historic contrade (districts) are marvellous too, being as close-knit and colourful today as they were in the 17th century, when their world-famous horse race, the Palio, was inaugurated. And within each contrada lies vibrant streets populated with artisanal boutiques, sweet-smelling pasticcerie (pastry shops) and tempting restaurants. It's a feast for the senses and an essential stop on every Tuscan itinerary. Siena is about a 50 minute drive from Gambassi Terme.
Take a Day Trip to Volterra
Volterra's well-preserved medieval ramparts give the windswept town a proud, forbidding air that author Stephenie Meyer deemed ideal for the discriminating tastes of the planet's principal vampire coven in her wildly popular Twilight series. Fortunately, the reality is considerably more welcoming, as a wander through the winding cobbled streets dotted with Roman, Etruscan and medieval structures attests. Known for its artisanal heritage – alabaster carving in particular – the town is a particularly satisfying stop for those seeking to stock up on Tuscan art and handicrafts. Volterra is only about a 30 minute drive from Gambassi Terme.