The history of northern Italy is complex. It's a constant back and forth between different political and religious forces, between different cultures and ideals, between different interests. Guelphs and Ghibellins are two factions that developed in the 11th and 12th century. Their names originated from different opposing families in Germany. Guelphs ist the Italian form of the House of Welf, a family of dukes in Bavaria, a part of northern Germany. Their constant opponents were the Ghibellins originating in the family of Hohenstaufen. The struggle between the two began during the Investiture Controversy in 1075. In this controversy the pope in Rome and the Holy Roman Empire were fighting about the right to choose and install bishops and abbots as well as the pope himself. So a loss of power would have been very central and weakening for the faction of the pope. It took more than 50 years to solve this controversy in the Concordat of Worms in 1122.
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But even though the immediate struggle between pope and emperor was solved by this treaty, the constant fighting and the animosities between Guelphs and the Ghibellins continued for centuries. Cities developed that were mainly dominated by the Guelphs and other cities were dominated by the Ghibellins. But even within cities party allegiances often differed from guild to guild, from family to family. So a city could easily change party after internal upheavals.
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During all these years the Guelphs were always supporters of the pope and the church, while the Ghibellins were always the imperial party and were supporters of the Holy Roman emperor. The Guelphs usually included merchants and burghers, while the Ghibellines tended to be noblemen. So there was always a tension here as well. Some families indicated their faction affiliation in their coats of arms by including an appropriate heraldic chief.
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They also used the architecture of their palaces, towers and fortresses to distinguish their factional allegiance. There's this always alive rumor that Ghibelline structures had "swallow-tailed" crenellations, while those of the Guelphs were just square as usual. Because city walls did barely exist at that time many of the richer families started building their own little fortresses right within the fabric of the cities. Their palaces were fortified and they often started building immense towers as an escape strategy to be safe from plunderings, riots and besiegements. These towers were significantly taller as the houses and palaces next to them as they could reach heights of well above 70 m. So over time they also became landmarks and signs of wealth and prosperity. There was almost a race of who could build the tallest tower. So the city of Florence ended up having 200 towers, Bologna 180, Lucca 250. If you think about it, these are insane numbers for cities and towns of that size. Later many of these towers had to be cut down through legislation or they weren't strong enough to withstand several earthquakes or battles.
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One of the rare exceptions of this trend is the tiny city of San Gimignano in Tuscany, not too far away from the city of Siena. Here many of the original towers are still visible at their original heights. Therefore the city is also called the Town of Fine Towers. Also here in this little city the conflict between Guelphs (Ardinghelli family) and Ghibellines (Salvucci family) resulted in competing families building towers of increasingly greater heights. Towards the end of the medieval period there were 72 of them, each of them up to 70 m tall. Today there are still more than a dozen of them left. Some of them got cut down here as well. You can easily identify them by their missing crenellations. Some of them are open to the public, so you can climb up to the very top. The view from above is truly remarkable. It's not only the old town underneath with its narrow streets and pathways, its organic roofs and the other towers in immediate proximity, it's also the view over the gentle hills of the Crete Senesi, the famous region south of Siena.
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As I like towers and always enjoy the opportunity to slightly change my perspective I certainly climbed up the Torre Grossa, which is still 54 m tall. It was built in 1310 and is the tallest remaining tower in town. It's part of the Palazzo Nuovo del Podesta, which is a museum today, and is probably the most dominant tower of the city. Every skyline of San Gimignano clearly shows an identifiable picture of Torre Grossa.