Food and Wine in San Gimignano

San Gimignano is a Great Food Destination:

Chocolates and pastries at Armando e Marcella

If you’re a foodie or love cooking, San Gimignago is a destination for you. The traditional cuisine of this Tuscan hill-town features many of the typical dishes that you’ll see on menus of trattorias and restaurants in Tuscany, and if you’re into cooking, you can easily buy these Tuscan food ingredients here.

San Gimignano’s Vernaccia wines are said to be the best white wines in all of Italy and they go well with fish, white meats, vegetables, Tuscan ham, ribollita soup and other summer dishes.

Food in San Gimignano

Food is unavoidable in San Gimignano. From the first moment we stepped through the Porta San Giovanni and onto Via San Giovanni at the southern end of town, we knew that this is a foodie’s destination. Along Via San Giovanni and all the way up to Piazza della Cisterna, there are providores and enoteche selling typical Tuscan produce.

There are many trattorias and restaurants where you can enjoy Tuscan cuisine and what’s more, your enjoyment of Tuscan food needn’t end when you leave town. If you are allowed to take food back home with you, there are plenty of foodstuff that you can buy in San Gimignano.

Here are some of the typical Tuscan food products to buy.

Vernaccia Wines

Tuscan Food in San Gimignano

Wines

San Gimignano’s reputation for its fine Vernaccia wines has been noted since medieval times. It is said that Dante, Michelangelo and the many poets who have visited this beautiful town all raved about Vernaccia wine, so the Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG comes highly recommended.
San Gimignano also produces quality reds such as the San Gimignano Rosso DOC, San Gimignano DOC Rosé, the traditional Tuscan Chianti Colli Senesi and the San Gimignano Vin Santo DOC, a classic dessert wine.

If you want to know more about San Gimignano wines, head for the Museo del Vino di San Gimignano, located west of the Piazza Duomo. At the Museo del Vino you can learn about San Gimignano’s vine cultivation and wine production and they also offer wine tasting here.

Cured meat in San Gimignano

Cured Meats

Meat lovers will find lots of prosciutto, spalla (shoulder ham) and salami in the providores in San Gimignano. Cured wild boar meat (cinghiale) is very popular, as you can tell from the many stuffed wild boars greeting visitors at the entrance of the food shops. There is an abundance of Soprassata, wrapped in a jute cloth, hanging on racks in the shops.

Other traditional meat products include buristo (a type of salami), salsiccioli (traditional sausages) and meat from the Cinta Senese, the white-belted pig that is unique to this region.

Various artisan cheeses

Cheeses
The most typical Tuscan cheese is the pecorino and here you’ll find Pecorino Fresco (under-ripe cheese), Pecorino Semistationato (medium matured cheese) and Pecorino Stagionato (matured cheese). There is also the Marzolino, a spring cheese that’s typically oval in shape.

Other Tuscan Products
Saffron, honey, porcini mushrooms, dried pastas and olive oil are some of the other products that are plentiful in San Gimignano. And if you are looking for some sweet treats to take with you or a coffee break, Armando e Marcella at Via San Giovanni 88 has nice almond biscotti, chocolate, pan forte and other Italian pastries.

See more photos of yummy food in San Gimignano Here.

For more information about San Gimignago, see our San Gimignano Trip Planner Here.