Side Trips

En Route to San Gimignano

Monteriggioni, 20km (12 miles) northwest of Siena along the SS2, is one of the most perfectly preserved fortified villages in all of Italy. The tourist office is at Largo Fontebranda 5, 53035 Monteriggioni (tel. 0577-304-810). You've probably seen aerial photos of this place at postcard stands. The town was once a Sienese outpost; the city's soldiers patrolled the walls and kept an eye out for Florentine troops from the vantage points of Monteriggioni's towers. All 14 of these have survived more or less intact since the day Dante likened them to the circle of Titans guarding the lowest level of Hell. Although more day-trippers are stopping by every year and there's even a board-rated four-star hotel (Hotel Monteriggioni; tel. 0577-305-009; www.hotelmonteriggioni.net; doubles 230€) hidden in one of the buildings, Monteriggioni remains a sleepy little place. Most of the village is taken up with gardens and a few olive trees. Monteriggioni is content to offer you a lunch at one of its two restaurants, and sell you a few postcards from the shops on the central piazza.

Another 10km (6 1/4 miles) along a secondary road takes you to Colle di Val d'Elsa, the medieval birthplace of master Gothic architect Arnolfo di Cambio, who designed Florence's Palazzo Vecchio and Duomo. The tourist office is at Via Campana 43, 53034 Colle di Val d'Elsa (tel. 0577-922-791; fax 0577-922-621). Buses run here from Siena and San Gimignano, and you can also get a train on the Siena-to-Empoli line (with connections to Florence) that stops in Poggibonsi, from which buses connect to Colle di Val d'Elsa. Don't enter Colle's old city at the east end; instead, circle around the small center to come in the west side for the proper introduction, passing over a short bridge and under the yawning arch of Baccio d'Agnolo's Mannerist Palazzo Campana gate (1539). If you're driving and want to get out to explore, park beneath the walls at the lot off the SS68 and walk up the steps to the old town.

The main road of the Old Town, Via del Castello, leads to Piazza del Duomo. The cathedral contains one of the nails supposedly used to crucify Christ in a Mino da Fiesole tabernacle in the left transept and a bronze Crucifix designed by Giambologna and cast by his student Pietro Tacca over the high altar. Next door is the Palazzo Pretorio, which houses a small archaeology museum (tel. 0577-922-954) with a rather bland Etruscan collection and some 14th- and 15th-century frescoes. The communists jailed here in the 1920s scrawled political graffiti on some of the walls. April through September, it's open Tuesday through Friday from 10am to noon and 5 to 7pm and Saturday and Sunday from 10am to noon and 4:30 to 7:30pm; October through April, hours are Tuesday through Friday from 3 to 5pm and Saturday and Sunday from 10am to noon and 3 to 6pm. Admission is 3€. A fine set of Sienese-school paintings resides in the nearby Museo Civico e d'Arte Sacra, Via del Castello 31 (tel. 0577-923-888), housed in the graffiti-covered Palazzo dei Priori. It's open April through October Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to noon and 4 to 7pm; November through March, hours are Saturday and Sunday only from 10am to noon and 3:30 to 6:30pm. Admission is 3€.