Pre-trip work!

 March 11, 2025  The city of San Gimignano stands on the site of a small Etruscan settlement dating from the Hellenistic period 3rd-2nd century B.C.  It's history begins around the 10th century.  We started in the center plaza.

This is another walled city and our first major attraction was the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta consecrated in 1148. 

The main altar. I will tell you who is under the "table cloth" in front later in this post.

The amazing thing about this church was the amount of frescos! Remember, this is 1148 and the population is essentially illiterate. If you followed the flow of frescos it was salvation history from Genesis to the Resurrection of Christ and His Ascension into heaven.

There are three layers of frescos. Here's how the timeline works.  First, you follow the top pictures around the church, then the second row, and finally the third row. Here are three examples.

Top: The Annunciation, Middle: Palm Sunday, Bottom: Judas receiving 30 pieces of silver & the Last Supper

Top: the Nativity, Middle: the Transfiguration & raising Lazarus, Bottom: the arrest of Jesus while Peter cuts off the ear of the soldier & the disciples falling asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane 

Top: the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, Middle: Jesus teaching in the Temple when he was 12 & John baptizing Jesus in the Jordon, Bottom: Jesus carrying the cross to his crucifixion & Jesus being mocked.

Now I will tell you who is under the cloth in front of the altar.

The Tuscan town of San Gimignano is named for St Geminianus, a bishop of Modena who died in 397, the same year as St Martin. But it also has another patron Saint, one its own citizens, a girl named Fina (short for Serafina). Although her noble family had fallen into poverty, from a very young age, she would give half of her own food to those even less fortunate than herself, until she was struck by a disease of some sort that left her almost totally paralysed. At the same time, her father died, leaving her and her mother in even more dire straights; her mother often had to leave her alone to look for work or beg. In the midst of severe suffering, Fina was never heard to complain, but prayed with her eyes always on a crucifix, “It is not my wounds but Thine, o Christ, that hurt me.” Finally, her mother died and she was left completely destitute, cared for only by two friends named Beldia and Bonaventura. Since she had heard that Pope St Gregory the Great also suffered terribly from various diseases, Fina would often pray to him that he would help her bear her sufferings. Eight days before her death, St Gregory appeared to her and told her that God would give her rest on his feast day, the day on which she died at the age of only 15, in the year 1253.

There is a wax effigy of St. Fina in a glass reliquary under the cloth. 

She is in front of the alter in preparation of her feast day March 12, Clare's birthday.

We found St. Fina's tiny house, but you can't go in.

After we left the church, we found a little shop with a clay model of the entire town in miniature as it was in the 1300's.

We ran into Leonardo Da Vinci giving a speech in Italian. Paul tossed a coin into his basket.

We finished the visit with more scenic views of Tuscany.

Arrivederci!