Instead of Siena
Instead of Siena: hill towns within 90 minutes
Siena is a city that behaves like a town twice a year and like a destination the rest of it. The Campo is worth the trip and it is not a quiet place to stand.
The Crete Senesi, the Chianti hills and the Val d'Elsa are what the postcards of Siena are actually photographs of, and they have towns in them.
Hill towns in our catalogue within 90 minutes of Siena by road, ranked by outside recognition. Siena itself and the other famous places are left out. 23 towns match; the 12 best-recognised are below.
Instead of Siena
Siena · 52,812 residents · Toscana
- LucignanoArezzo
Hill town · Borgo dei Borghi
- From Siena
- 45m by car
- By train
- Reachable
- Residents
- 3,383
- When to go
- Apr–Oct
Hill town · Borghi più belli d'Italia
- From Siena
- 1h 25m by car
- Residents
- 1,500
- When to go
- All year
- MontalcinoSiena
Hill town · UNESCO
- From Siena
- 1h 3m by car
- By train
- Reachable
- Residents
- 5,611
- When to go
- Apr–Oct
- PanicalePerugia
Hill town · Borghi più belli d'Italia
- From Siena
- 1h 30m by car
- Residents
- 5,281
- When to go
- Apr–Oct
- CetonaSiena
Hill town · Borghi più belli d'Italia
- From Siena
- 1h 29m by car
- Residents
- 2,488
- When to go
- Apr–Oct
The 5 best-recognised of the 23 towns that match. Drive times measured by road from Siena. More of them follow below.
Lucignano
Province: Arezzo · 400 m
A walled elliptical hill town at 400 meters between Siena and Arezzo, planned in medieval concentric rings around the goldsmith's reliquary called the Tree of Life.
San Casciano dei Bagni
Province: Siena · 582 m
A hilltop borgo at 582 meters above 42 hot springs that produced the largest Etruscan bronze hoard of the last fifty years.
- ✷ We've been
Montalcino
Province: Siena · 564 m
A walled hill town at 564 meters above the Val d'Orcia, the last fortress to hold out for the Sienese Republic and the birthplace of Brunello.
Panicale
Province: Perugia · 431 m
A walled hill town at 431 meters on Monte Petrarvella, where a 1505 Perugino fresco covers the back wall of San Sebastiano.
Cetona
Province: Siena · 384 m
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.
- ✷ We've been
Castelnuovo Berardenga
Province: Siena · 351 m
A commune of 351 meters, the last castle Siena built against Florence, in 1366.
- ✷ We've been
San Quirico d'Orcia
Province: Siena · 409 m
A walled stop on the Via Francigena at 409 meters in the UNESCO Val d'Orcia, where a twelfth-century Collegiata, a Renaissance garden and the Bagno Vignoni thermal pool sit within fifteen kilometers of each other.
Paciano
Province: Perugia · 391 m
Walled hill town of 957 people at 391 meters above the lake, three parallel streets, eight towers and three medieval gates intact.
Montaione
Province: Firenze · 341 m
A medieval glassmaking and truffle borgo at 341 meters above the Valdelsa, with a Franciscan replica of Jerusalem in the woods nearby.
Città della Pieve
Province: Perugia · 508 m
A red-brick hill town at 508 meters above the Valdichiana, the birthplace of Perugino and the home of Italy's narrowest alley.
Corciano
Province: Perugia · 408 m
A walled medieval castello at 408 meters eight kilometers west of Perugia, where Saint Francis stopped on his way back from a Lent spent fasting on the island in 1223.
- ✷ We've been
Monteriggioni
Province: Siena · 274 m
A circular Sienese fortress built between 1213 and 1219 on a natural hill, fourteen towers on a 570-meter wall, intact and unbroken.
Drive times measured by road from Siena. A town with no time shown is one the router could not reach, usually because it is served by ferry. How this data is built.