Day Trips From

Day Trips From
Day trips from Siena

Tips and Advise for day trips from Siena by Road to Travel Inc.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Monteriggioni 

If you are staying in Siena for a few days try to hop over to Monteriggioni, an enchanting small hilltop town nearby. It is circled by virtually intact medieval walls that remind of the days when Monteriggioni served a strategic lookout point at the Siena’s front-line defence against the bellicose Florentine Republic. 


Monteriggioni

So important was this fortified town in its glory days that it even earned a mention in Dante Dante’s Divine Comedy:

“As with circling round
Of turrets, Monteriggioni crowns his walls;
E’en thus the shore, encompassing the abyss,
Was turreted with giants, half their length
Uprearing, horrible, whom Jove from heaven
Yet threatens, when his muttering thunder rolls”.

There are a few points where you can climb up the 10-metres high ancient walls to admire the neat vineyards and rolling hills of the Tuscan countryside around Monteriggioni and great views of the old town and the 14 turrets that have changed little since their construction in the 13th century.

Piazza di Roma

On the main square, Piazza di Roma, you will find the pretty Church of Santa Maria Assunta that has been offering housing to pilgrims traveling the Via Francigena route for many centuries. In old days, the fortified village had large vegetable gardens that fed its population during frequent sieges, which today have been tuned into pretty gardens. 

Monteriggioni is the perfect place to relax and forget about the hustle and bustle of big cities. Strolling around the old centre, admiring old stone buildings and elegant arches is better done without rush. You can taste local Chianti and Brunello in small wine shops and enjoy delicious Tuscan dishes in tiny restaurants.

Church of Santa Maria Assunta

Every July the town celebrates the Medieval Festival of Monteriggioni. The streets fill up with locals dressed up in period costumes who play medieval music, dance, and demonstrate ancient crafts recreating the atmosphere of the castle centuries ago. Restaurants an trattorie offer medieval dinners and visitors have to exchange modern money for Middle Age coins to buy food and wine. 


Photos via Flickr by: Isabelle Puaut, Henrik Berger Jørgensen, Javier G.Valdivia.

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