Anywhere Italy
Stemma di Piancastagnaio

Tuscany · Siena

Piancastagnaio

A chestnut-belt borgo at 772 meters on the southern slope, where four contrade still race for the Palio delle Contrade each August.

Known for

  • PALIO DELLE CONTRADE

    Costumed race run every 18 August between four contrade through the centro storico, dating to the eighteenth century.

  • MARRONI

    Sweet chestnut harvested across the Monte Amiata slopes, celebrated each All Saints weekend at the Crastatone festival.

  • MERCURY MINES

    Cinnabar and mercury extraction active on Monte Amiata from the Etruscans until 1982, documented in the Sant'Anna museum.

When to visit

Best · May–Oct

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

Why come

The name means plain of the chestnut, and the forest that still climbs the slope above the town is what fed it for most of its history: sweet chestnut, sessile oak, beech. The town itself sits at 772 meters, built around a twelfth-century keep that passed to Siena in 1418 and to the Medici in 1559, and the palazzo built into its old defenses in the sixteenth century reads as the Medici layer set directly against the Aldobrandeschi one. Contrade named Borgo, Castello, Coro and Voltaia divide the centro storico for the August race, while the mining museum keeps the record of an industry, cinnabar and mercury, that ran on the mountain from Etruscan times until it closed in 1982 and that has otherwise left the town to the chestnut trade. What Piancastagnaio adds up to is a place where a volcano's slope has supplied, in turn, timber and food, ore, and a festival calendar, and where the built town still carries each of those histories as a separate, legible layer rather than a single blended one.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Piancastagnaio’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.

Piancastagnaio — photo 1
Piancastagnaio — photo 2

What to see

  • Rocca Aldobrandesca

    Twelfth-century Aldobrandeschi keep at the heart of the centro storico, with a square tower and surviving curtain wall.

  • Palazzo Bourbon del Monte

    Sixteenth-century Medici-era palazzo built into the medieval defenses, with a courtyard loggia and ceremonial hall.

  • Museo Minerario di Sant'Anna

    Mining museum on the cinnabar and mercury extraction of Monte Amiata, active from the Etruscans until the mine closed in 1982.

  • Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta

    Romanesque parish church in the centro storico, with a stone façade and later baroque interior.

  • Bosco del Monte Amiata

    Sweet chestnut, sessile oak and beech forest on the southern slope of the volcano, with trails leading to the summit at 1,738 meters.

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Plan your trip

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 3,871
  • Off the beaten pathi
  • Pharmacy in town
  • Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
  • Nearest airport Rome, 3 h 25 min drive
  • Regional capital Firenze, 2 h 49 min drive
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

  • Elevation: 772 m
  • Population: 3,871
  • Surface area: 69.63 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.

Close by

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