Renaissance Hill Town · Vino Nobile DOCG · Siena Province
Montepulciano
The city of wine — and one of the great Renaissance towns of Tuscany
At 605 metres above sea level, Montepulciano surveys half of southern Tuscany from its elongated volcanic ridge. The town climbs for over a kilometre from the lower gate to Piazza Grande at the summit — a single corso flanked by medieval palaces, wine cellars, artisan workshops, and some of the finest Renaissance architecture outside Florence or Siena. Below ground, the volcanic tufa has been carved into an extraordinary network of cantinas where Vino Nobile di Montepulciano — one of Italy's great red wines — ages in oak barrels. Coming here for a single day is not enough.
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
The King of Tuscan Reds
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano was the first Italian wine to receive DOCG status in 1980 — the highest classification in Italian wine law. Made predominantly from Prugnolo Gentile (a local clone of Sangiovese), aged a minimum of two years (three for Riserva), it is a wine of uncommon complexity: dried cherry, tobacco, leather, iron. The best producers — Avignonesi, Poliziano, Boscarelli, Salcheto — have cellars you can visit directly, many carved into the volcanic rock beneath the town. Most offer tastings; the tourist office can provide a full map.
Piazza Grande
The Most Dramatic Piazza in Tuscany
The main square at the summit of Montepulciano is framed by the unfinished Duomo (the facade was never completed), the Palazzo Comunale with its tower, the Palazzo Nobili-Tarugi with its loggia, and a Medici-era well with carved griffins and lions. On clear days the tower offers views across the Val d'Orcia to Monte Amiata in the south and the Apennines to the northeast. The square hosts the Bravio delle Botti on the last Sunday of August — a barrel-rolling race between the town's eight contrade that is one of the most authentic medieval pageants in all of Tuscany.
Underground Tuscany
The Cantinas Beneath the Stone
Beneath the corso, a labyrinth of tunnels carved into the volcanic tufa connects the wine cellars of Montepulciano's historic producers. Several are open to visitors: Contucci in the basement of Palazzo Contucci on the main piazza; De'Ricci in the medieval fortress at the foot of the corso; Gattavecchi beneath the church of Santa Maria dei Servi. These are not modern wine-tourism venues — they are the actual cellars where wine has been made and stored for four centuries, dark and cool and smelling of wood and stone.
Practical Information
- Location
- Montepulciano (SI), Tuscany — 605 m above sea level
- GPS
- 43.0949° N, 11.7867° E
- From Pienza
- 30 km east (40 min by car)
- From Siena
- 65 km (1 hr 10 min)
- Parking
- Paid car parks at the base; funicolare to the centro (small fee)
- Wine tastings
- Many cantinas open daily 10:00–18:00; tourist office for map
- Bravio delle Botti
- Last Sunday of August — medieval barrel race
Gallery