Tuscany · Pisa
Montescudaio
A fortified hill borgo, named for a mountain of shields, with DOC wine since 1977 and bread, oil and grape all stamped in its identity.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Montescudaio is on our list
It holds Borghi più belli d'Italia, Città del Vino and Città dell'Olio.
The nearest town with a letter is Castagneto Carducci, No. 37, 25 min by car.
Subscribe and you get Montescudaio's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- May–Sep
- By car
- 51 min from Pisa
- Population
- 2,192
- J11°
- F14°
- M15°
- A18°
- M22°
- J27°
- J31°
- A31°
- S26°
- O21°
- N16°
- D12°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. The sea is warmest in August at 27° and coldest in February at 14°. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Going to the sea? How to find the free beaches in Italy.
Why come
Montescudaio sits fifteen kilometers inland from the Tyrrhenian coast, on a hill above the valley the Cecina river cuts toward the sea. Fewer than 2,200 people live in the commune, and most of them are outside the centro storico, which is left as a tight knot of stone houses ringed by its old walls: a single church, the clock tower, and the terrace where the vines drop downhill toward the Val di Cecina and the water beyond. The town holds four designations at once (Borghi più belli, Città del Vino, Città dell'Olio and Città del Pane), and its walls were built around an eleventh-century abbey.
Wine and bread are both grown and baked around the same hilltop that once needed fortifying. The fortress, the loaf, and the vineyard are not three separate stories here but three uses of the same ground, worked over centuries after the shields it was named for stopped being necessary.
How to get there
From Pisa (PSA), about 57 min by car.
Bologna (BLQ) is about 2 h 30 min away.
By car from the center of Pisa 51 min, Siena 1 h 40 min or Florence 1 h 42 min.
Coming by train into Livorno Centrale? Montescudaio is about 41 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Pisa airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Centro storico
Walled medieval village, a tight ring of stone houses on the hilltop, built around the abbey that gave the settlement its first walls and structure.
Torre Civica
Clock tower at the entrance to the borgo, the tallest visible structure and former civic landmark of the fortified village.
Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta
Eleventh-century parish church on the site of the medieval abbey, the anchor around which the walled village took shape.
Belvedere
Panoramic terrace at the edge of the borgo overlooking the vineyards of the Val di Cecina and the Tyrrhenian Sea on clear days.
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.
SaQua - Ristorante in CollinaRistorante
SaQua - Ristorante in Collina has one Gambero Rosso fork (77/100) and 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?
Montescudaio is a village with a town close by.
- A village of 2,192, with Cecina (28,062 people) 10 min away for the shopping and a meal out. Our rule is a town within 15 minutes.
- Livorno, a city of 153,154, is 44 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 2,192, up 0.6% since 2015
- Nearest city Livorno, 44 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Cecina, 9 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €1,200 to €1,800 per m² to buy, €4.30 to €6.30 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
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 91% of homes
- No primary school in the comune's register
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Pisa airport (PSA), 57 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Florence, 1 h 42 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
9% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Albania and Ukraine, against 9% across Italy. 25 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly Germany. There are 215 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 38% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Pisa province ranks 29th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Cecina, 9 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Pisa, 44 km away. The nearest IB school is International School of Siena, 55 km as the crow flies.
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 at the 2025 rate, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds 0.7% to your income tax. 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.
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. 13% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 19% in a high or medium one. 6% 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
DOC MONTESCUDAIO
DOC registered in 1977 covering the Cecina valley: Sangiovese-based red, Trebbiano-Malvasia-Vermentino white, grown on the slopes below the borgo.
PANE TOSCANO
Saltless Tuscan bread, one of the few Pisa-province communes in the Città del Pane network, baked in wood ovens around the centro storico.
MONS SCUTORUM
Latin name meaning mountain of shields, marking the site as a fortified medieval outpost long before the modern village.
Common questions
- What is Montescudaio known for?
- Montescudaio is a fortified hill borgo at 242 meters, named for a mountain of shields, with DOC wine since 1977 and bread, oil and grape all stamped in its identity.
- Where is Montescudaio?
- Montescudaio is a comune in the province of Pisa, in Tuscany.
- What is the nearest airport to Montescudaio?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Pisa (PSA), about 57 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Pisa to Montescudaio?
- About 51 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Montescudaio?
- Best in May–Sep. August is the warmest month, averaging 31 degrees, and December the wettest, with about 15 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Montescudaio?
- Ravello, Isola del Giglio and Fiumefreddo Bruzio.
- How many people live in Montescudaio?
- 2,192 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Montescudaio a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Montescudaio is a village with a town of 5,000 people within 15 minutes (Cecina, 10 min). The nearest city, Livorno, is 44 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Cecina, 9 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 91% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 242 m
- Population: 2,192
- Surface area: 20.24 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 Montescudaio appears in
- The best small coastal towns in TuscanyTuscanycoastalsmall6 towns · smallest 358 residents
- The best towns with a serious restaurant in the province of PisaPisa provinceserious restaurant6 towns · smallest 2,192 residents
- The best towns with a serious restaurant that eat well within 90 minutes of LivornoNear Livornowithin 90 minserious restauranteats well6 towns · smallest 2,192 residents · closest 44 min away
- The prettiest small villages that eat well in TuscanyTuscanyeats wellprettiest villagessmall7 towns · smallest 1,421 residents
- The best coastal towns within two hours of SienaNear Sienacoastalwithin 2 hours8 towns · smallest 2,192 residents · closest 74 min away
- The best hidden coastal towns that eat well in TuscanyTuscanycoastaleats wellhidden9 towns · smallest 2,192 residents
Near here, with a letter
- Written about. No. 37.
Castagneto Carducci
Province: Livorno
A hilltop borgo at 194 meters above the Costa degli Etruschi, renamed for the poet Carducci in 1907 and the home of Bolgheri and Sassicaia.
25 min by car
- Written about. No. 38.
Campiglia Marittima
Province: Livorno
A walled hilltop borgo above the Val di Cornia, where the Rocca tower watches a mining landscape worked from the Etruscans to 1976.
38 min by car
- Written about. No. 69.
Peccioli
Province: Pisa
Borgo dei Borghi 2024 in the Valdera hills, a medieval village that funded a public contemporary-art program with revenue from its landfill plant.
26 km away
Our guide
Our nearest guide, 43 km away
Arno Corridor: the towns, when to go, how to get there
The Arno Corridor guide came out of the letter. Letters from the towns we visit. Free.
Read the guide: The working road from Florence to the sea. 8 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.