Attractions

Underground Tunnels & Noble Wine

The local wine consortium, the Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (www.consorziovinonobile.it and www.vinonobiledimontepulciano.it), has a showroom and tasting center in the Palazzo del Capitano on Piazza Grande where you can sample the wares of every single member (which means most Vino Nobile vineyards) Monday through Friday from 11am to 1pm and 4 to 7pm, Saturday from 11am to 3pm. There are also plans underway to convert more of the palazzo into a wine museum. However, many folks still like to visit the cellars of individual producers.

Montepulciano has more enoteche and cantine (wine cellars) than you can shake a wine bottle at, most offering the chance to sample local products: pecorino cheese, salami, honey, olive oil, and, of course, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Many shops also let you descend into their cantine, often a linked maze of basements, underground tunnels that once connected the palaces, and older grottoes carved into the tufa of the mountain. Calling the grottoes "Etruscan tombs," as the signs in the stores proclaim, may not be far from the truth -- the earliest foundations of a city on this site are still contested.

The cantine with the most attention-grabbing tunnels include the second of Montepulciano's two Pulcino wine shops, at Via Gracciano nel Corso 80 (tel. 0578-757-948; www.pulcino.com), which boasts a grab bag of "attractions" in its lengthy cellars, from a wishing well and an Etruscan tomb to a collection of iron implements found here -- medieval weapons, household tools, and even a chastity belt. The Gattavecchi cantine (tel. 0578-757-110; www.gattavecchi.it) burrow under Santa Maria dei Servi , with moldy tunnels and a staircase leading down to an even moldier chapel-like structure carved into the rock -- no one knows when it dates from or what it was, but it's intriguingly and suggestively located directly below the altar end of the church. At Piazza Grande, the Contucci winery (tel. 0578-757-006; www.contucci.it) occupies the 13th-century cellars of the Palazzo Contucci. Down at the opposite end of town, the classy showrooms of the Avignonesi wine empire reside at Via Gracchiano nel Corso 91 (tel. 0578-757-872; www.avignonesi.it).

A Famous Spa Town En Route to Chiusi

Take the SS146 about 7km (4 1/3 miles) southeast out of Montepulciano to Chianciano Terme (tel. 0578-682-923; www.termechianciano.it), one of Tuscany's most famous spas. You drink the thermal mineral waters of the Acqua Santa, Piazza Martiri Perugini (tel. 0578-68-411), supposedly to clean out your liver (daily 8am-2pm; Mar 16-Nov 15 also 4-6pm) and the other hot springs, those of Acqua Sillene, Piazza Marconi (tel. 0578-68-551), are used for thermal baths and to make mud packs for aching muscles and joints (daily 8am-6pm; Apr 16-Oct 16). The cold springs of Acqua Fucoli, Viale G. Baccelli (tel. 0578-68-430; daily 8am-6pm Apr 16-Oct 16), are usually drunk in the afternoon (allegedly to clean out the digestive system). Chianciano Terme (the Old Town) and Chianciano Bagni (the spa) are of the same comune but really separate communities, about 1.6km (1 mile) apart, connected only by an umbilical cord of hotels called Viale Libertà.

The Old Town is compact and full of cars (with no pedestrian zones as in more popular hill towns), but it's still pretty. The Museo della Collegiata, Piazzolina dei Soldati (tel. 0578-30-378; Tues-Sat 10am-12:30pm and 3-6:30pm; Nov-Mar open only on request), has some good Florentine and Sienese art from the 13th to the 18th centuries. Admission is 1.50€ ($1.95); ring the bell for the custodian.

There are many hotels in town, so the tourist office, Piazza Italia 67 (tel. 0578-671-122; fax 0578-63-277; www.chianciano.turismo.toscana.it), will be able to find something to suit you, but you'd do well at the Grand Hotel Ambasciatori, Viale della Libertà 512 (tel./fax 0578-64-371; www.barbettihotels.it). It offers all the amenities, a rooftop pool, and a small gym, and doubles cost 95€ ($124).

About 5km (3 miles) south of Chianciano on a side road is La Foce (no admittance), the house where American Iris Origo and her Italian husband aided and hid partisans fighting against the German occupation of Italy during World War II. A scholar and biographer, Origo penned the famous biography of 13th-century businessman Francesco Datini titled The Merchant of Prato, and she also recorded her war experiences at this villa in the well-regarded War in the Val d'Orcia. From the road you get a good view of the eroded biancane and a famously scenic Etruscan road winding its way back and forth up the next hill (you'll recognize it instantly from all the postcards). Many an amateur watercolorist, including Prince Charles, has taken a stab at capturing the scene on paper.