Food designations
10 olive oil towns within two hours of Florence
Ten towns: what each is best for, what a home costs, and the catch. A square meter runs from €980 in Lucignano to €4,200 in Siena.
Città dell'Olio comuni within two hours of the center of Florence. 10 towns shown, nearest first.
Table no. 35 · Ranked by min · 10 towns
Tuscan oil has a capital region and it is not the supermarket shelf. The Città dell'Olio towns within two hours of Florence sit among the groves that press some of Italy's most protected extra virgin.
Nearest first. November is the frantoio season, when the new oil comes green and peppery and the mills accept visitors who ask politely.
- 1.Fiesole24 minFirenze · TuscanyBest for a trip without a car. The train stops in the commune.homes €2,250 to €3,400 a m² in the center · 13,809 peopleAn Etruscan hilltop above Florence, still looking down on what later replaced it.
- 2.Greve in Chianti44 minFirenze · TuscanyBest for Chianti Classico DOCG. The town gives its name to Chianti Classico DOCG.homes €1,500 to €2,100 a m² in the center · 13,381 peopleThe market town on the Greve river, with a triangular piazza arcaded since the sixteenth century.
- 3.Vinci50 minFirenze · TuscanyBest for a slow weekend. The Touring Club gives it its orange flag for small inland towns.homes €1,100 to €1,650 a m² in the center · 14,587 peopleThe hill town on Montalbano where Leonardo was born in 1452, with a ship-shaped castle that now holds his machines.
- 4.
Monteriggioni59 minSiena · TuscanyBest for a stage of a long walk. The Via Francigena passes through.homes €1,500 to €2,250 a m² in the center · 9,950 peopleA circular Sienese fortress built between 1213 and 1219 on a natural hill, fourteen towers on a 570-meter wall, intact and unbroken. - 5.
San Gimignano61 minSiena · TuscanyBest for a World Heritage site. UNESCO lists a site in the comune.homes €2,200 to €3,300 a m² in the center · 7,452 peopleA walled hill town at 334 meters with 14 surviving medieval towers, UNESCO listed since 1990 and the home of Vernaccia. - 6.
Castellina in Chianti63 minSiena · TuscanyBest for a wine weekend. It belongs to the national association of wine towns.homes €1,300 to €1,900 a m² in the center · 2,605 peopleA Chianti hill town at 578 meters on the watershed between the Arno and the Ombrone, with an Etruscan tumulus, a Brunelleschi-reinforced wall and a covered medieval walkway around its edge. - 7.Montaione67 minFirenze · TuscanyBest for a soak. The comune has thermal baths.homes €1,000 to €1,500 a m² in the center · 3,438 peopleA medieval glassmaking and truffle borgo at 341 meters above the Valdelsa, with a Franciscan replica of Jerusalem in the woods nearby.
- 8.Lucignano69 minArezzo · TuscanyBest for a walk through the old town. It is on the list of Italy's most beautiful villages.homes €980 to €1,250 a m² in the center · 3,442 peopleA 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.
- 9.
Siena73 minSiena · TuscanyBest for everyday life on foot. Nine of the ten everyday services we look for are mapped within 500 meters of the center.homes €2,400 to €4,200 a m² in the center · 52,990 peopleThe medieval rival of Florence at 322 meters on three hills, with a shell-shaped piazza where seventeen contrade race bareback horses twice a year. - 10.Castiglion Fiorentino74 minArezzo · TuscanyBest for a trip without a car. The train stops in the commune.homes €1,000 to €1,400 a m² in the center · 12,823 peopleA walled hill town at 342 meters between Arezzo and Cortona, where Etruscan walls support the medieval Cassero.
TEN OF THE TOP TEN ARE IN TUSCANY
We write letters from the Italian towns we visit: the town, what is worth eating there, and when to turn up. It is free, and you can leave whenever you like.
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