However, in, say, the 13^th century, the town wouldn’t have been so exceptional — the wealthy, or the merely well-to-do, were building towers in many Italian cities, generally as defensive strongholds or to show off. Or both.

At the height of the building frenzy, San Gimignano’s leaders enacted a law forbidding construction of private towers taller than 170 feet.

Most towers did not survive, but a remarkable 14 (or 16 depending how you count — there are two sets of twin towers that are generally counted as one tower each) have survived in San Gimignano, an Italian town of not even 8,000 people.

Several San Gimignano tower houses, including twin towers at left that were built by one home owner.

This fact brings on the tourists by the busload and has some cranky sorts decrying the place as a tourist trap.

The complainers need to get over it (my view).

Whether you have the town to yourself or are joined by hundreds, the towers are impressive. No tourist is tall enough to block your view, and nothing says you have to buy tacky souvenirs (which weren’t a hazard during my October 2018 visit anyway).

The towers are numerous enough, and the town small enough, for one or a few to be visible from almost any point in the historic town center.

Tower houses seen in Piazza Cisterna, the heart of the medieval San Gimignano. The piazza was named for the well at its center (not visible in this photo).

Besides, even without the towers, San Gimignano is a Tuscan hill town with other charms — 13^th century walls, medieval town hall and churches, and restaurants with great views of the countryside that spreads out below its perched setting.

San Gimignano’s 13th century walls.

Valley view from a San Gimignano outlook point.

San Gimignano’s tallest tower, the 177-foot Torre Grossa, attached to the city hall, is available for climbing, but my three fellow travelers and I lacked the time and inclination for that.

I learned later that another tower is outfitted as a rental home for tourists, and it is available for viewing when not rented. It gives new meaning to the world multiplex — 10 stories plus rooftop terrace!!

So, we didn’t see that, but we did, on a single-day visit, find other surprises.

Tops on that list was the interior of the 12^th century Collegiate Church, with walls covered — and I do mean covered — by an amazing collection of frescoes. The church is quite dark inside, no doubt a key reason these vividly colored paintings have survived. (Luck is a factor, too, given that the frescoes survived World War II bombing of the town.)

In my trip diary, I recorded this:

<<The main church, the Collegiate Church, is a plain-looking building on the outside — but, the inside! Oh, my.

<<I was surprised by the series of 14th century frescoes, telling stories from the Old and New Testaments across the length of both sides of the church. The four of us spent some time, after adjusting to the dark interior, trying to figure out the content.

Above, New Testament scenes lining one side of the Collegiate Church in San Gimignano. For a closer look, below, a fresco illustrating the raising of Lazarus.

<<Art for the church’s two long sides was created by different artists, with the Old Testament side offering a bloodier take on things and a simpler style.

Above, Old Testament scenes lining one side of the Collegiate Church in San Gimignano. Below, closer views of vividly illustrated Old Testament stories.

<<Also, at one end, there is a large fresco of St. Sebastian, which was commissioned by city folk after they had prayed to him for relief from the plague, so says my Fodor’s guidebook. I don’t know that I would have been grateful to him, however, given that — according to Rick Steves’ “Hill Towns of Central Italy” — the Black Death sent the town’s population plummeting from 13,000 to 4,000.>>

Fresco of St. Sebastian seen at the back of the Collegiate Church.

I’ll mention another discovery, this one made with a prod from our guidebooks. My friends and I sought out “San Gimignano 1300,” a clay reproduction of what the town looked like when its full complement of 72 tower houses was in place in the Middle Ages.

We were easily entertained as we tried to recognize in the reproduction the places we had visited and the towers that survive.

“San Gimignano 1300,” a clay reproduction of the town as it would have appeared when 72 tower houses still stood.

Cutaway view of a model tower house, see at “San Gimignano 1300.”

It cost us nothing to see “San Gimignano 1300,” but we followed the viewing with a productive visit to the exhibition’s shop, buying mementos to support this project — or so we told ourselves.

I want to highlight some tower houses that tourists can see elsewhere in Italy, but this posting is getting too long, so I offer another: https://besttripchoices.com/my-travel-corner/italy-beyond-the-towers-of-san-gimignano/

Meanwhile, for more about Tuscany, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline, Medieval walls, Chianti wine: https://besttripchoices.com/international-touring-areas/tuscanyhill-towns-italy/

This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”

The post Italy’s ‘Manhattan of the Middle Ages’ appeared first on Best Trip Choices.

The museum had to go below ground because it is obliged by law to preserve the original World Trade Center’s last remnants, which are at bedrock level, and to give the public “meaningful” access to them.

As a result, visitors see surviving parts of Twin Tower foundations and a retaining wall built to keep the Hudson River from flooding the area. Called the slurry wall, it held after 9/11 and saved the city much additional destruction.

Entry to the museum is via an elegant multifaceted glass pavilion, which admits lots of light.

Foundation Hall, at bedrock level in the 9/11 Museum. The slurry wall, which survived the 9/11 destruction, is seen, along with the last steel beam to be removed from Ground Zero. Its removal marked the end of a nine-month recovery effort.

The elegant glass pavilion that gives entry to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, seen on a glorious September day.

It is, of course, a sobering experience to visit the 9/11 Museum. My sister and I visited on a gorgeous sunny September day, a day just like Sept. 11, 2001. Even the sun seems somber in such circumstances.

The first thing any visitor sees on entry are two 70-foot-tall steel pieces recovered from the towers and now rising in the pavilion’s atrium. Called tridents because each has three prongs, they were two of many such pieces that were part of the exterior design of the Twin Towers.

The tridents look like an elegant piece of modern art — if you don’t focus on their provenance. Or, they can be seen as hands reaching skyward in supplication.

Tridents, two steel pieces salvaged from the Twin Towers, seen in the glass pavilion that gives access to the 9/11 Museum’s underground exhibits and artifacts.

New York City fire truck, destroyed on 9/11 and now seen in the 9/11 Museum, just outside the entry point for the museum’s main historical exhibition. Photography is not allowed inside the exhibition.

It’s important to know that the museum’s core exhibition occupies much of the museum’s bottom level and is called the “September 11, 2001, Historical Exhibition.” We nearly missed it.

My only criticism of the museum is that neither the signage (well, any that I saw) nor the museum map made clear the significance of getting into that space at the bottom level.

We might have missed it but for museum staffers who more than once announced clearly to clusters of visitors that they must not skip the historical exhibition.

It is set up in three sections, devoted to events leading up to the attack, including the 1993 bombing at the trade center (which killed six); to the murderous events of the day itself, and to the aftermath.

Warning signs advise when an exhibit or experience may be disturbing. Tapes of cellphone calls from victims telling their families they loved them were one example. Those were indeed disturbing.

Events associated with the 9/11 attacks were thoroughly covered in the media; therefore, much will be familiar to visitors. However, the museum knits the material (and perhaps our fragmented memories) into a helpful whole.

Outside this main historical section, some displays are devoted to the destroyed buildings themselves, particularly the Twin Towers. One panel was packed with mind-boggling trivia.

The World Trade Center and the towers appear in my book “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia,” but I did not have these factoids:

• There were 43,600 windows in the Twin Towers, and it took two months to wash them all.

• On windy days, the towers swayed 12 inches from side to side.

• And, the South Tower Observation Deck’s outdoor viewing platform, at 1,377 feet, was the highest in the world. On a clear day, one could see 45 miles in every direction.

The original World Trade Center, although a workplace for 50,000, was a major tourist attraction. Now, I believe it will attract even more visitors.

The new 1,776-foot One World Trade Center (popularly called Freedom Tower) seems built to be photographed.

Half the World Trade Center’s 16 acres are devoted to the 9/11 Memorial, which encompasses, besides the museum, the reflecting pools that honor all 2,983 victims of the 1993 and 2011 attacks.

The plaza also features hundreds of oak trees, plus benches and pathways. It’s a place for living in the present, as well as remembering.

Displayed inside the 9/11 Museum, a lineup of flags from the more than 90 countries whose citizens were victims on 9/11.

One of two memorial reflecting pools, this one on the footprint of the South Tower, seen at night at the World Trade Center.

The New York City skyline, with One World Trade Center — a natural for photography — standing tallest, seen from the Jersey City, N.J., pier.

For more about New York City, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline: No Rotten Apple here

https://besttripchoices.com/us-cities/new-york-city-new-york/

This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia,” which was published by The Intrepid Traveler.

The post New York: Touring the 9/11 Museum at Ground Zero appeared first on Best Trip Choices.