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hlocke's Tuscany guide

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by hlocke.
Three Towns in a Day
Morning

Start early in Monteriggioni which takes all of five minutes to walk from one end to the other, but take time to stop in the bar on the piazza for a cappuccino.

Drive on to Volterra starting with San Francesco and its amazing frescoes. On the Piazza dei Priori admire the Palazzo dei Priori (1208–57), the oldest Gothic town hall in Tuscany and the model for most others, including Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio. Tucked into an alcove on the square is the back door of the Duomo – dive inside. Head down Via dei Sarti for the Pinacoteca; continue on this street, which becomes Via di Sotto, lined with several good alabaster workshops, then Via Don Minzoni, where the Etruscan Museum lies.

Afternoon

One block back, on Piazza XX Settembre, Il Sacco Fiorentino is a good spot for a quick lunch before retrieving your car and continuing to San Gimignano getting there just as the tour buses are leaving (but before 4pm in winter, when things close early). Take a quick spin through the Collegiata frescoes before clambering up the Torre Grossa for perhaps the most beautiful panorama in Tuscany.

If you have time after descending – and after pausing at the Museo Civico – head to the other end of town for Sant’Agostino’s frescoes (by 6:30pm). Try to be up on the Rocca for sunset over the towers.

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Monteriggioni

The subject of the most popular aerial-shot postcard in Tuscany is a tiny hamlet two streets wide. It is entirely enclosed within medieval walls, whose 14 towers were compared by Dante to the Titans guarding the lowest level of Hell. The town holds a week-long medieval festival in July.

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Monteriggioni

The subject of the most popular aerial-shot postcard in Tuscany is a tiny hamlet two streets wide. It is entirely enclosed within medieval walls, whose 14 towers were compared by Dante to the Titans guarding the lowest level of Hell. The town holds a week-long medieval festival in July.

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Colle di Val d’Elsa

Enter from the west to pass under Baccio d’Agnolo’s Mannerist Palazzo Campana gate (1539). The Duomo features a Giambologna/Pietro Tacca bronze crucifix and, in Mino da Fiesole’s tabernacle, a nail said to be from Christ’s cross. Palazzo Pretorio’s archaeological museum is most interesting for the 1920s political graffiti scrawled on this former prison’s inner walls by imprisoned Communists. The (intentionally) sgraffito-covered façade of Palazzo dei Priori hides a small museum of Sienese paintings.

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Chianti Vineyards

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Chianti

The ultimate Tuscan idyll, a landscape of hills clad in grape vines, topped by castles, and dotted with countryside trattorie serving Italy’s most famous wine=.

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Where to Eat

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Wine Houses

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Tuscan Culinary Highlights

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Tuscan Sweets

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Shops and Cafés

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Shops and Cafés

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