Tuscany · Siena
Cetona
A medieval borgo, sold by Cosimo I to the Vitelli in 1556 and the centro storico still shaped by their fortress reconstruction.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Cetona is on our list
It holds Borghi più belli d'Italia, Bandiera Arancione and Città del Vino.
The nearest town with a letter is Città della Pieve, No. 78, 19 min by car.
Subscribe and you get Cetona's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 59 min from Perugia
- Population
- 2,438
- J9°
- F12°
- M13°
- A17°
- M22°
- J27°
- J32°
- A31°
- S25°
- O20°
- N14°
- D11°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
The town sits on the western flank of a ridge at the meeting point of Toscana, Umbria and Lazio, where the mountain divides the Val d'Orcia from the Val di Chiana. The medieval comune passed between Siena, Orvieto and Perugia before falling to Siena in the late fourteenth century, and it was Cosimo I who later sold it whole to a marchese. The fortress at the top of the grid and the square laid out below it are two halves of the same Renaissance move: a private residence replacing a garrison at the summit, a flat civic stage opened up at the base.
Above the town, in the woods, the hermitage and the caves belong to a much older layer, human use of the mountain reaching back to the Mesolithic, long before any comune or marchese laid claim to it. What the town adds up to is a settlement built in tiers: a prehistoric mountain, a contested medieval center, and a Renaissance overlay that reorganized the base of the hill without touching what stood above it.
How to get there
From Rome Fiumicino (FCO), about 2 h 9 min by car.
Bologna (BLQ) is about 2 h 29 min away.
By car from the center of Perugia 59 min, Siena 1 h 16 min or Florence 1 h 30 min.
Coming by train into Perugia? Cetona is about 56 min away by road.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Piazza Garibaldi
Elliptical square at the foot of the medieval grid, flat and open where the streets above it climb steeply. The civic stage of the borgo, still the first thing that orients a visitor.
Rocca di Cetona
Fortress at the top of the centro storico, its walls and keep still standing though the interior became a private residence rather than a garrison.
Convento di San Francesco
Franciscan convent below the borgo, founded in 1212, with a single-nave church and a small cloister still in religious use.
Eremo di Santa Maria a Belverde
Hermitage in the woods on Monte Cetona, reached by a marked path, holding frescoes by Cola Petruccioli of Orvieto inside a fourteenth-century structure.
Grotte di Belverde
Cave complex documented since the Mesolithic, with Paleolithic and Bronze Age layers, open seasonally with guided tours.
From the guides
Where to eat
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
Da NiloTrattoria
Da Nilo carries one Gambero Rosso prawn, plus a spot in the Michelin Guide.
Before you sit down: how to order at a restaurant, how to spot a tourist trap, what aperitivo is and how the Italian bar works.
Living here
Could you live here?
Cetona is a village with a town close by.
- A village of 2,438, with Chiusi (8,081 people) 13 min away for the shopping and a meal out. Our rule is a town within 15 minutes.
- Arezzo, a city of 96,479, is 59 min by car. Inside our 30 to 60 minutes: close for the services, far enough to keep its own life.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 2,438, down 12.4% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Arezzo, 59 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Montepulciano, 17 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €1,000 to €1,500 per m² to buy, €3.20 to €4.50 per m² a month to rent
Weighing a move here? See the moving year.
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Remote
- Pharmacy in town
- Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
- Full fibre reaches 89% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Perugia airport (PEG), 1 h 9 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Florence, 1 h 30 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
12% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, North Macedonia and Morocco, against 9% across Italy. 39 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly the United States, Germany and Denmark. There are 401 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 47% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Siena province ranks 21st of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Montepulciano, 17 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Perugia, 45 km away. The nearest IB school is Viterbo International School, 63 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is Assisi International School, 57 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds between 0.38% and 0.55% to your income tax, depending on your income, with nothing due on income under €9,500. 7% pensioner tax: this town is not in a qualifying area.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Tuscany spends about €2,410 a month, €540 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €770 a year for water, on the Tuscany average. In Siena, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.28, a meal in a pizzeria €17.81 and a man's haircut €25.49.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone D, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from November 1 to April 15, up to 12 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. Under 1% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, under 1% in a high or medium one. 9% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
VITELLI
Marchese Chiappino Vitelli bought the town from Cosimo I in 1556 and reshaped it around the Renaissance Piazza Garibaldi at the foot of the medieval grid.
MONTE CETONA
1,148-meter ridge above the borgo, dividing the Val d'Orcia from the Val di Chiana, with Paleolithic caves on the southwestern flank.
BELVERDE
Cave complex on Monte Cetona with Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age occupation, and a hermitage with Cola Petruccioli frescoes nearby.
Common questions
- What is Cetona known for?
- Cetona is 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.
- Where is Cetona?
- Cetona is a comune in the province of Siena, in Tuscany.
- What is the nearest airport to Cetona?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Perugia (PEG), about 1 h 9 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Perugia to Cetona?
- About 59 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Cetona?
- Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 32 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 11 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Cetona?
- San Quirico d'Orcia, Pienza and Trequanda.
- How many people live in Cetona?
- 2,438 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Cetona a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Cetona is a village with a town of 5,000 people within 15 minutes (Chiusi, 13 min). The nearest city, Arezzo, is 59 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Montepulciano, 17 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 89% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 384 m
- Population: 2,438
- Surface area: 53.57 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
The ranked lists
Lists Cetona appears in
- The best small towns with a serious restaurant in the province of SienaSiena provinceserious restaurantsmall6 towns · smallest 1,137 residents
- The best small olive oil towns within 90 minutes of PerugiaNear Perugiaolive oilwithin 90 minsmall7 towns · smallest 937 residents · closest 27 min away
- The prettiest small villages that eat well in TuscanyTuscanyeats wellprettiest villagessmall7 towns · smallest 1,421 residents
- The best hidden wine towns with a serious restaurant in the province of SienaSiena provincewineserious restauranthidden8 towns · smallest 1,421 residents
- The 9 best wine towns that eat well within 90 minutes of PerugiaNear Perugiawinewithin 90 mineats well9 towns · smallest 1,421 residents · closest 26 min away
- The best olive oil towns with a serious restaurant within 90 minutes of PerugiaNear Perugiaolive oilwithin 90 minserious restaurant9 towns · smallest 1,137 residents · closest 39 min away
Featured on
Cetona appears on this themed pick from our Collections:
Near here, with a letter
- Written about. No. 78.
Città della Pieve
Province: Perugia
A red-brick hill town at 508 meters above the Valdichiana, the birthplace of Perugino and the home of one of Italy's narrowest alleys.
19 min by car
- Written about. No. 45.
Radicofani
Province: Siena
The Val d'Orcia's basalt watchtower: a 1,044-resident UNESCO-inscribed borgo at 814m on a volcanic outcrop visible across half of southern Tuscany, crowned by an outlaw's fortress that Dante and Boccaccio both wrote into their pages.
13 km away
- Written about. No. 43.
Montepulciano
Province: Siena
A Renaissance hill town at 605 meters on a limestone ridge, aging its Sangiovese-based red in vaulted cellars beneath the palazzi.
17 km away
Our guide
Our nearest guide, 32 km away
Umbria: the towns, when to go, how to get there
The Umbria guide came out of the letter. Letters from the towns we visit. Free.
Read the guide: Two banks, no sea. 21 towns, the drive and train times, the months, where to eat and sleep.
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.