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Stemma di Montepulciano

Tuscany · Siena

Montepulciano

A Renaissance hill town at 605 meters on a limestone ridge, aging its Sangiovese-based red in vaulted cellars beneath the palazzi.

Known for

  • VINO NOBILE

    DOCG red based on Sangiovese (locally Prugnolo Gentile), one of three principal Tuscan reds alongside Brunello and Chianti Classico.

  • SAN BIAGIO

    Sangallo's Renaissance temple built 1518-1545 on a Greek-cross plan, the iconic image of Montepulciano from below the walls.

  • BRAVÌO DELLE BOTTI

    Annual barrel race up the steep streets to Piazza Grande, run on the last Sunday of August since the fourteenth century.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

  • J
  • F
  • M
  • A
  • M
  • J
  • J
  • A
  • S
  • O
  • N
  • D
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

Why come

The ridge runs between the Val di Chiana and the Val d'Orcia, 70 kilometers southeast of Siena, and the town follows its spine uphill: streets climb from the gates toward the high point, where the main square sits ringed by the buildings that define the skyline from below. The origin predates the Renaissance fabric by centuries. Etruscan tombs survive in the surrounding hills, though almost nothing of that period shows in the centro storico itself, which was rebuilt wholesale in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries over whatever came before.

The wine and the festival both use the climb as their setting rather than their subject: the cellars are cut into the rock beneath the palazzi, keeping a constant temperature for aging, and the barrel race each August sends two men from each of the eight contrade hauling an eighty-kilogram cask up the same gradient that every visitor covers on foot, only slower. The steepness that shaped the defensive site nine centuries ago is still what a person feels first, in the legs, before the buildings register at all.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Montepulciano’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

Montepulciano — photo 1
Montepulciano — photo 2

What to see

  • Tempio di San Biagio

    A 13-meter dome and travertine façade standing alone outside the walls, the ground falling away below it so the building reads as a single volume against the hillside.

  • Piazza Grande

    The high piazza at the top of the ridge, ringed by the Duomo, the Palazzo Comunale and the Palazzo Tarugi, all rebuilt in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

  • Palazzo Comunale

    Town hall designed by Michelozzo in the fifteenth century, its tower offering a view over the Val di Chiana and Val d'Orcia.

  • Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta

    Cathedral finished in the early seventeenth century, housing the triptych of the Assumption by Taddeo di Bartolo from 1401.

  • Cantine storiche

    Underground brick-vaulted cellars beneath the Renaissance palazzi where the town's red is aged, several open for guided tours.

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We recommend

Where to eat and stay

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.

  • IndigenoBistrot

    Indigeno carries one Gambero Rosso table, plus a spot in the Michelin Guide.

  • OsmosiRistorante

    One Michelin star for Osmosi, and two Gambero Rosso forks (83/100).

  • La Bottega del NobileRistorante

    One Gambero Rosso fork (78/100), at La Bottega del Nobile.

  • Le Logge del VignolaRistorante

    Le Logge del Vignola has a spot in the Michelin Guide to its name.

  • Osteria Porta di BaccoWine Bar

    Osteria Porta di Bacco has two Gambero Rosso bottles to its name.

  • Ristorante Caffè Pasticceria PolizianoPasticceria

    Ristorante Caffè Pasticceria Poliziano holds a place on Italy's historic-locali register.

  • Borgo San VincenzoHotel

    Borgo San Vincenzo carries a place in the Michelin hotel guide.

  • Precise Tale Poggio Alla SalaHotel

    Precise Tale Poggio Alla Sala carries one Michelin Key.

  • VILLA POGGIANOHotel

    VILLA POGGIANO holds a place in the Michelin hotel guide.

Signature product

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCGDOCG

Sangiovese-based, aged in oak, named noble in the 1500s when it reached the Vatican cellars.

See the towns we cover in the zone of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG.

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.

Living here

  • Population 13,274
  • Off the beaten pathi
  • Pharmacy in town
  • High school within a 30-minute drive
  • Train station in the comune
  • Nearest airport Bologna, 2 h 28 min drive
  • Regional capital Firenze, 1 h 29 min drive

Thermal baths in town: Terme di Montepulciano.

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

  • Elevation: 605 m
  • Population: 13,274
  • Surface area: 165.33 km²

These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, 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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