The Museo Della Tortura is located in the Piazza Cisterna in San Gimignano. The cost, as of December 2002, is €8,00. Pretty steep for a dozen or so small rooms totalling no more than 100-150 items. If you're into the macabre, though, you should not pass it by.

Originals and reproductions of instruments of torture and execution from medieaval times to the twentieth century are housed in moodily-lit stone-walled rooms with modern fittings and fixtures--the feeling is that of a stylish dungeon (There is a dungeon downstairs).

Each item is accompanied by excellenty written descriptions in Italian, French, and English. No details are spared, including which orifice the device was meant for, which limb it was meant to dislocate, who was the usual customer and how the victim would suffer and/or die. The text and illustrations show the care that went into the collection's installation; unlike many museums in Italy, this one is not just a collection of items plopped down and left for your guidebook to explain.

Many of the old instruments are still in use today in some form or another. It's chilling to read something like, "Often a brazier of hot coals was used to heat the spikes before the victim was placed inside. Today, electricity is used to minimize telltale marks."

Particularly unsettling are the devices (such as a human-sized bucket with an iron mask on top) that at first seem relatively harmless but when you read about them, you wish you hadn't had the trippa for lunch.

Before you go, have a few glasses of that excellent San Gimignano wine, wait until dark, and bring someone who is easily spooked.