Alternatives to
Alternatives to San Gimignano: every hill town in Tuscany, in one list
39 towns · 1 region · the complete list
Lucignano, Tuscany
San Gimignano has the towers and it has the coaches. Tuscany has around eighty other walled hill towns that had towers too, most of them knocked down in the same medieval feuds, and a good number still have a gate you drive through and a square where the bar is the only thing open at three.
This is every Tuscan hill town in the catalogue, 39 of them, with San Gimignano itself removed. Ordered by outside recognition, so the ones with a Bandiera Arancione or a Borghi più belli plaque come first. That is a starting order, not a verdict.
Instead of San Gimignano
San Gimignano · 7,480 residents · Toscana
- LucignanoArezzo
Hill town · Borgo dei Borghi
- From San Gimignano
- 1h 24m by car
- By train
- Reachable
- Residents
- 3,383
- When to go
- Apr–Oct
Hill town · Borghi più belli d'Italia
- From San Gimignano
- 2h 5m by car
- Residents
- 1,500
- When to go
- All year
- MancianoGrosseto
Hill town · Borghi più belli d'Italia
- From San Gimignano
- 2h 47m by car
- Residents
- 7,052
- When to go
- Apr–Oct
- MontalcinoSiena
Hill town · UNESCO
- From San Gimignano
- 1h 43m by car
- By train
- Reachable
- Residents
- 5,611
- When to go
- Apr–Oct
- PienzaSiena
Hill town · UNESCO
- From San Gimignano
- 2h 12m by car
- Residents
- 1,976
- When to go
- Apr–Oct
The 5 best-recognised of the 39 towns that match. Drive times measured by road from San Gimignano. More of them follow below.
Lucignano
Province: Arezzo · 400 m
A walled elliptical hill town at 400 meters between Siena and Arezzo, planned in medieval concentric rings around the goldsmith's reliquary called the Tree of Life.
San Casciano dei Bagni
Province: Siena · 582 m
A hilltop borgo at 582 meters above 42 hot springs that produced the largest Etruscan bronze hoard of the last fifty years.
- ✷ We've been
Manciano
Province: Grosseto · 444 m
A market town at 444 meters in the southern Maremma, with a Sienese fortress of 1424 and the thermal frazione of Saturnia in its territory.
- ✷ We've been
Montalcino
Province: Siena · 564 m
A walled hill town at 564 meters above the Val d'Orcia, the last fortress to hold out for the Sienese Republic and the birthplace of Brunello.
- ✷ We've been
Pienza
Province: Siena · 491 m
The first Renaissance ideal city, built from 1459 on the Val d'Orcia ridge.
Anghiari
Province: Arezzo · 430 m
A walled medieval town at 430 meters over the upper Tiber valley, where Florence beat Milan in 1440 and Leonardo started the fresco he never finished.
- ✷ We've been
Barga
Province: Lucca · 410 m
A medieval hilltop town at 410 meters in the Serchio valley, where Giovanni Pascoli wrote his last poems and the August festival serves fish and chips.
Cetona
Province: Siena · 384 m
A medieval borgo at 384 meters, sold by Cosimo I to the Vitelli in 1556 and the centro storico still shaped by their fortress reconstruction.
Pitigliano
Province: Grosseto · 313 m
The Little Jerusalem of southern Tuscany, carved into a tuff spur in the Maremma, where the houses, the synagogue and the streets are all cut from the same volcanic rock.
Massa Marittima
Province: Grosseto · 380 m
A medieval mining town at 380 meters, free commune from 1255 to 1337, whose cathedral holds the relics of San Cerbone.
The rest of the 39
One page, laid out for paper. Print it or save it as a PDF from your browser’s print menu.
- 19.Poppi
- 20.Monteriggioni
- 21.Castelnuovo di Val di Cecina
- 22.Volterra
- 23.Loro Ciuffenna
- 24.Murlo
- 25.Trequanda
- 26.Fosdinovo
- 27.Barberino di Mugello
- 28.Chiusi
- 29.Castiglion Fiorentino
- 30.Castellina in Chianti
- 31.Cortona
- 32.Rapolano Terme
- 33.Stazzema
- 34.Chiusdino
- 35.Fiesole
- 36.Licciana Nardi
- 37.Siena
- 38.Pontremoli
- 39.Arezzo
One page, laid out for paper. Print it or save it as a PDF from your browser’s print menu.
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