In the middle ages, this city boasted 72 towers, and now 15 remain - to see what it looked like back then, there's even a new museum with a scale model of the city (San Gimignano 1300). These towers were private fortified homes which were necessary for people to lock themselves up inside and retreat to the top during political insurgence. Other Tuscan towns and cities, including Florence, previously had a lot of tower homes, so this town gives us a sense of what that would have looked like. The way we see San Gimignano today remains a good reflection of its medieval form, with art from the 14th and 15th centuries in the Sienese and Florentine styles. The town flourished in the 13th and 14th centuries with an economy based on wool, wine, and saffron. The local white grape used in the local wine, vernaccia di san gimignano, has been growing here since the early 13th century. Saffron, besides being a good flavour for rice, was an important dye for cloth. This town produced much saffron for export, upon which it charged heavy taxes, but it also dyed long bolts of cloth with the precious spice, and hung this cloth to dry in the tall tower houses - we are not sure if this was down the central courtyard or out the windows.