tranquillity, a beautiful place which inspires reflection . a unique visit, coupled with the romanesque church up the hill. pity that the Lorenzetti frescos in this second church are quite hard to see in terms of lighting ,distance from the visitor

Maybe I'm prejudiced by coming from North Yorkshire, where we have several stunning ruined abbeys - Rievaulx, Fountains, Whitby - but San Galgano came as a real disappointment. After all the other amazing sights of Tuscany, it certainly wasn't worth the long drive to see this. It's almost too-well preserved. It just looks like a bog-standard large church which has lost its roof and windows. None of the scale, little of the complex of other buildings that hint at a long-lost community.
If you're in the vicinity, or going to a concert, by all means visit - but otherwise Tuscany has many more wonders - natural and man-made - that are more worthy of your time.

Just before dusk.... a touring choir were giving a concert

Magical. They did Italian mainstream sacred and operatic choruses. The encore, predictably, was "oh fortuna" - gives me goose bumps to recall. Life is greatly enriched by moments such as these. ('99)

The abbazia is now a shell due to a lightening strike in the 1700's, but it is still very impressive. When we were there, they were setting up for an evening concert. It is a great space for concerts, operas etc.