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The plain exterior belies an interior swathed in frescoes. Lippo Memmi executed those on the right wall (1333–41), Bartolo di Fredi the left wall (1367), Taddeo di Bartolo the gory Last Judgement in the nave (1410), and Benozzo Gozzoli the entrance wall’s St Sebastian (1464). The town’s pride are the Domenico Ghirlandaio frescoes (1475) in the Chapel of Santa Fina.

You can climb all 54 m (175 ft) of the tallest tower in town for one of Italy’s most stupendous views, across the surrounding towers and terracotta roofs to the rolling hills all around.

San Gimignano’s best museum is situated on the first floor of the Palazzo del Popolo, beneath the lofty Torre Grossa. The collection includes works by Pinturicchio (whose Madonna with Saints Gregory and Benedict , 1511, is pictured left), Filippino Lippi and Benozzo Gozzoli, and a Maestà by Lippo Memmi. The frescoes (by Memmo di Filuppucci) of a couple’s marriage and wedding night are unusually erotic for the 14th century.

This triangular piazza, ringed with 13th- and 14th-century towers and centred on a 1237 stone well, will be familiar as a setting for such films as Where Angels Fear to Tread and Tea with Mussolini .

Most tourists miss this little church with its Piero di Pollaiuolo altarpiece (1483) and Benozzo Gozzoli’s quirky, colourful apse frescoes on the life of St Augustine (1465). Benedetto da Maiano carved the tomb of San Bartolo (1488) against the west wall.

A grisly array of torture instruments occupies the Torre della Diavola (She-devil’s Tower). The explanatory placards make for grim reading, pointing out which of the devices are still used around the world today.

The small collection of Etruscan artifacts housed here includes a curious funerary urn topped by a reclining effigy of the deceased, his cup holding a coin to pay for entry into the afterlife.

This modest museum of liturgical art stands on a pretty piazza off the Collegiata’s left flank. Highlights of the collection are a Madonna and Child by Bartolo di Fredi and 14th-century illuminated choir books.

The 14th-century fortress has long since crumbled to a romantic ruin, and is now planted with olives and figs. Scramble up its ramparts for a picture-perfect view of the town’s towers.

The Romanesque façade of a long-vanished church remains wedged between later medieval buildings. Behind it is a local vineyard’s cantina , offering wine tastings, and, beyond, a pretty, shaded terrace with fine country views.