Traditional events and festivals take place all year round in San Gimignano and the surrounding area.
Take advantage of your stay at Hotel Leon Bianco to enjoy these experiences, some of which are the most anticipated events of the year in Tuscany.
If you stay at the Hotel Leon Bianco between January and February, especially if you’re travelling with children, don’t miss the San Gimignano Carnival! The turreted squares and medieval streets come alive with colorful parades of masks, allegorical floats, as well as adults and children in costume.
Guided tours with experts that will help you appreciate the best wines available from the most-renowned wineries of the area.
During one weekend in June in San Gimignano, the clock goes back a few centuries and we find ourselves at the Ferie Messum, a 13th-century celebration of the earth’s fertility. Walk among ladies, noble lords, common people, and typical medieval stands: over two days the whole town parades in costume. The most awaited moment is the "Giostra dei Bastoni", where four knights challenge each other, one from each district, to win the golden sword.
Concerts, performances, workshops and shows for children, meetings, installations, outdoor lounge area, dance, theater, exhibitions, literary walk, musicals and parades: a full and fantastic universe in which to lose yourself. Celebrate the summer, into night, in San Gimignano.
Staying at the Hotel Leon Bianco means you’re only 45 minutes from Siena: no better reason to visit the world-famous Palio, with centuries of history behind it. Everyone knows about the final race, but the event goes on for four days: from the assigning of the horses, to the general tryouts and then the real Palio. The city is festooned with the colors of each district. The races on 2nd July and 16th August consist of three laps of Piazza del Campo, and you’ll witness unique emotion: it’s like a crescendo of adrenaline and love from each proud district of the city.
Join in the 31st festival of theater and street artists that attracts thousands of visitors every summer. Mercantia, the great street party in Certaldo, returns in 2018 with great street bands and theater projects. Almost 100 events and shows, 400 different artists performing every evening, including theater, street bands, parades, dance, and visual arts ... a unique event of its kind.
In summer, the full charm of our town become even more irresistible with special evenings and events organized to fully enjoy the season. Choose from a rich calendar of events: opera, prose readings, ballet, and chamber music against the backdrop of Piazza Duomo; and film screenings in Piazza della Rocca. Summer is magical in San Gimignano.
For a truly magical evening, enjoy a glass of wine while you take in the spectacle of watching shooting stars. In Piazza Sant'Agostino, during the night of San Lorenzo, you can join the tasting of local wines in a special atmosphere. Let yourself be enveloped by magic.
While in San Gimignano you can enjoy the best in classical music. Between September and October, a lineup of classical masters perform at the Teatro dei Leggieri.
Every year, around the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, San Gimignano lights up with a thousand colors. "Lumiére" attracts artists who use plays of light, video mapping, and live performances to give an original and precious touch to medieval buildings and historic towers, accompanied by music.
The last night of the year is celebrated in the Piazza del Duomo in San Gimignano. From 10pm on, a full program of events, with music, stands, and fireworks, will keep you entertained until the break of the new year.
Enjoy the woody notes of wines aging in oak barrels and the strong accent of tannin, treat yourself with the unmistakable scent of Tuscan wines. In the second half of April the Orcia Wine Festival is a celebration of the best bottles of the Val d'Orcia. The market exhibition develops in the 18th-century rooms of Palazzo Chigi in San Quirico d'Orcia and offers an excellent opportunity for wine and local products tastings.
The spring in Tuscany begins with a trip back in time: the journeys on the historic trainways of the Treno Natura start in this time. The fabulous train takes you in past times and idyllic landscapes: you travel on "centoporte" (“one hundred doors”) carriages driven by steam locomotives, rattling in the green Tuscan hills. The Treno Natura, leaving from Siena, stops in some romantic stations during the most beautiful festivals and folk events in Tuscany.
The event Cantine Aperte, promoted by the Tuscan Wine Tourism Movement, is one of the most popular wine tourism appointments. Year after year, in a weekend of late May, professionals and wine fans meet to taste excellent wines and visit the most famous wineries for free or at discounted rates. Families, couples and wine lovers all over Tuscany reach the wineries, many in the Chiantishire, involved in the initiative.
Every year, in the first two weekends of July, the fortified village of Monteriggioni is immersed in the atmosphere of many centuries ago. During the festival Monteriggioni di Torri si corona the hamlet comes back to the Middle Ages: foods and drinks, dances and songs, games and tournaments fill the rich program of these days. And not only: elegant ladies, valiant knights and commoners crowd the alleys of Monteriggioni. The enchantment is irresistible.
