Very picturesque site, though crowded on weekends.

A tip: if you feel like having a lunch there and the restaurant next to the abbey is overcrowded with busloads of tourists, go to Salendo wine bar located halway to the chapel with the sword - they serve great local food and wine in a very relaxed outdoors setting (you can sit inside as well if the weather is not good).

We visited her about 20 years ago and were captivated by the quiet and dignified ruin.
The sound of bees buzzing round the clover outside could have been, with a stretch of imagination, been Gregorian plain chant.

This time, the abbey was full of workmen erecting scaffolding for a concert, they even had a noisy diesel forklift INSIDE the building.

I had thought it was a religious place but it appears the authorities think it just a cash raising opportunity. They could have placed their concert in the grounds with th abbey as a backdrop.

Someone needs to rethink their priorities.

have you ever been to Chiusdino & sorrowndings? Mistic, just incredibly mistic, good eating, nice people! get there & see, it will be surprising. Take time to visit the villages of Chiusdino, Montalcinello, Ciciano, simple, beautiful nature, good & parfumed air, you will feel the land as yours. Once you go, you will always retourn! The nice small Bistro lost in Ciciano is a good place to start with, they will help you to drive around and discover & have a nice lunch
CRI

Visited San Galgano in 2006. Drove from Siena to San Galgano. Not much hype, but San Galgano is beautiful. It is a ruined abbey. The walls are intact, but there is no roof or windows, yet it is still very impressive. Very peaceful and quiet. So many Italian sites are overun with tourists, they are loud and bothersome. Not San Galgano, it is a great place to just be outside and relax. Especially for us, American tourists, becasue I don't think I saw another group of americans, mostly Italian tourists (and a large Italian motorcyle touring club), I hate going to another country and being overrun by loud, obnoxious american tourists. San Galgano avoids all that. We bought some of the monks grappas and honey. Nothing overly elaborate, but I definately recommend.