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.
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 16 min from Perugia
- Population
- 2,488
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.
When to visit
Best · Apr–Oct
- J9°
- F12°
- M13°
- A17°
- M22°
- J27°
- J32°
- A31°
- S25°
- O20°
- N14°
- D11°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
The festa: Stefano, 26 December
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.
Our guide
Our nearest guide, 62 km away
Tuscan Mainland: the towns, when to go, how to get there
The postcard country, and what is under it. 15 towns, the drive and train times, the months, where to eat and sleep.
Read the guideOr take the Sunday letter: one town a week, free.
The button takes you to the letter's own page on Substack, where you leave your email. About the letter
Read on
Cetona in our articles
The best small towns with a serious restaurant in the province of Siena6 towns, Cetona among them.
The best small olive oil towns within 90 minutes of Perugia7 towns, Cetona among them.
The prettiest small villages that eat well in Toscana7 towns, Cetona among them.
The prettiest villages with a medieval festival in Toscana8 towns, Cetona among them.
How to get there
From Bologna (BLQ), about 2h 47m by car.
Rome (FCO) is about 2h 51m away.
By car from the centre of Perugia 1h 16m, Siena 1h 33m or Florence 1h 47m.
Coming by train into Perugia? Cetona is about 1h 12m away by road.
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.
The slow-trip planner
Building a trip? Find where Cetona fits in a slow Italy circuit.
Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.
We recommend
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 NiloRistorante
Da Nilo carries a spot in the Michelin Guide.
Il Tiglio di Piazza da NiloTrattoria
Il Tiglio di Piazza da Nilo has one Gambero Rosso prawn to its name.
Through the year
What happens here
Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.
Sagra del Bico di Cetonafood festival
usually held across June and July. Borghi Toscana - Eventi
Corsa delle brocche a Cetonahistorical re-enactment
usually held in July. Borghi Toscana - Eventi
Living here
- Population 2,488, down 12.4% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Remotei
- Pharmacy in town
- Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
- Nearest public hospital Abbadia San Salvatore, 20 km as the crow flies
- Full fibre reaches 89% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Nearest airport Bologna, 2 h 47 min drive
- Regional capital Firenze, 1 h 47 min drive
Could you live here?
Cetona is at the end of the road.
- A village of 2,488. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Chiusi, is 30 minutes away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Arezzo, a city of 96,260, is 1 h 15 min by car. Further than our 30 to 60 minutes, a long way for the hospital visit or the monthly shopping.
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. The rest of the series, and the best towns to move to, arrive in the Sunday letter.
The button takes you to the letter's own page on Substack, where you leave your email. About the letter
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?
- Bologna (BLQ), about 2h 47m by car.
- How long is the drive from Perugia to Cetona?
- About 1h 16m 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.
- Is there a sagra or a festival in Cetona?
- Yes. Sagra del Bico di Cetona and Corsa delle brocche a Cetona. June is when the first of them falls.
- Which other towns are like Cetona?
- San Quirico d'Orcia, Pienza and Trequanda.
- How many people live in Cetona?
- 2,488 at the 2023 count.
- Is Cetona a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Cetona is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Chiusi, is 30 minutes away. The nearest city, Arezzo, is 1 h 15 min away by car. The nearest public hospital is in Abbadia San Salvatore, 20 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 89% of homes.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
The numbers
- Elevation: 384 m
- Population: 2,488
- 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.
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