Montepulciano: The Steep Town, the Underground Cellars, and the Temple in the Field Below

Quick answer

Montepulciano is the Val d'Orcia's *big* town — a Renaissance city poured along a ridge, with more palaces, more shops, more restaurants and more stairs than anywhere else in the valley. Our Montalcino-or-Montepulciano comparison decides *whether* to come; this is the page for *how*.

The essentials: the whole town climbs from the lower gate to Piazza Grande at the summit, where the Palazzo Comunale's tower (€5, or €2.50 for the terrace, open daily 10:00–18:00 from April to November at our check) gives the valley's best two-valley view; the Duomo holds Taddeo di Bartolo's 1401 Assumption; the town's historic wine houses open their underground cellars right on the Corso — Contucci free and self-guided, De' Ricci as a paid tour — so the Vino Nobile tasting needs no car; and below the walls stands the Tempio di San Biagio, Antonio da Sangallo the Elder's 1518–1545 Renaissance temple, the best building in town and outside it. Once a year, on the last Sunday of August, eight contrade push 80-kilo barrels 1,800 metres uphill through all of it in the Bravio delle Botti.

Give it a full day or a long half — it is the one valley town that genuinely fills one — and arrive by the 112 bus from Siena (weekdays, about 1h35, roughly four usable runs) or by car with the climb in mind. This guide walks the ridge from bottom to top, goes underground, walks out to the temple, and explains the race.

The ridge: from the gate to Piazza Grande

Montepulciano is built along a single spine, and the visit is that spine walked uphill. From the lower gate the Corso climbs in a long, bending ascent lined with Renaissance palazzi — the town's sixteenth-century wealth from wine and the Medici connection is written in their façades — past wine shops, artisan doors and the cellar entrances that will matter later. Take it slowly: as our comparison guide warns, this is a genuine hill town and the walk from the bus end to the top is long and steep. There is no shortcut worth taking; the climb *is* the town.

At the summit, Piazza Grande — not the trapezoid of Pienza but a broad square of separate monuments:

• The Palazzo Comunale, the town hall whose fifteenth-century façade by Michelozzo deliberately echoes Florence's Palazzo Vecchio — Medici loyalty in stone. Its tower and terrace are the reason to arrive here with energy left: 150 steps to the top, or a lift to the terrace and 52 steps from there, for views over both the Val d'Orcia and the Valdichiana. Tower €5, terrace €2.50, open daily 10:00–18:00 April to November at our check, with festive openings at Christmas — confirm on the day.
• The Duomo, consecrated in 1712 behind an unfinished façade, and inside, the town's great painting: Taddeo di Bartolo's Assumption of the Virgin, 1401, a gold-ground Sienese altarpiece from the school that dominated this corner of Tuscany before Florence did.
• The well and the palazzi that frame the square — the set where *Twilight: New Moon* staged its Volterra scenes, as our set-jetting guide records, which is why a share of the square's visitors are looking for a fountain that was a prop.

The square rewards an early or late arrival; in the middle of a summer day it is the most crowded space in the valley.

Underground: the cellars you can simply walk into

Montepulciano's distinctive pleasure is that its wine lives *beneath* the town. The historic houses dug their cellars into the rock under their palazzi centuries ago, and several open them as walk-in attractions on the Corso and the square — which makes this the one wine town in the region where a serious tasting needs neither a car nor a booking.

Contucci, under its palazzo on Piazza Grande, is the generous one: at our check free tastings of up to six wines, and the main-floor cellars free to wander, with rooms carved into the rock below and joined by tunnels. It is the natural first stop after the tower.

De' Ricci — the cellars beneath Palazzo Ricci, reached by a monumental staircase into a vaulted underground hall that visitors compare to a cathedral — runs as a paid tour: around 60 minutes in the cellars plus 30 for the tasting, at €20 per person at our check.

Ercolani's "underground city" is the sprawling third, covered in the comparison guide.

The wine is Vino Nobile di Montepulciano — Sangiovese-led, DOCG since the first 1980 cohort alongside Brunello, aged two years (three for Riserva), and the humbler, kinder-priced neighbour of Montalcino's famous red. The comparison guide has the rules; here the advice is practical: taste at Contucci first, decide whether the De' Ricci tour is your afternoon, and buy the bottle in town rather than at the airport.

Vino Nobile, decoded at the table

A one-minute course before the cellars, so the labels make sense. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is a Sangiovese wine — the grape is called *Prugnolo Gentile* here — made under rules our comparison guide verified against the consortium: at least 70% Sangiovese, two years' ageing before release, three for the Riserva, and DOCG status from the first cohort of July 1980, the same day as Brunello. The "Nobile" is old: the wine carried the name centuries before the rules did, and the town's cellars were dug for it.

What to order, and in which order. Ask for the estate's Rosso di Montepulciano first — the younger, lighter, cheaper wine from the same vineyards, released after a short ageing, and the honest measure of a house's fruit — then the Nobile, then the Riserva if the pour is offered. Tasting up the ladder shows you what the oak and the years add; tasting down it only shows what they hide. In the walk-in cellars the pours are generous and the pressure is low; in the enotecas on the Corso, a flight of three is the normal request and a glass of Rosso with lunch is the normal accompaniment.

How it compares. Against Brunello, Nobile is the softer, earlier-drinking, kinder-priced sibling — the comparison guide's phrase is the humbler label and the kinder price — and the cellars make the case for it better than any list: the same Sangiovese, a different hill, a town that lets you taste under the palace instead of booking a cellar in the countryside. In the vendemmia weeks the estates are picking and the town smells of it; that is when the cellars are worth the queue.

San Biagio: the temple in the field below

Leave the walls by the road that drops west and, a short walk down a cypress avenue, the best building in Montepulciano stands alone in the fields: the Tempio di San Biagio, built by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder between 1518 and 1545 — a centrally planned Renaissance church in honey-coloured travertine, a Greek cross with a dome and a single finished bell tower, set deliberately apart from the town so that its geometry could be seen whole.

It is the High Renaissance's ideal church actually built, on the model the architects of the age drew and rarely realised, and its isolation in the landscape is the point: approach it down the avenue and the proportions do exactly what Sangallo intended. Inside, the light is cool and the space is calm after the town's stairs. Whether an entry charge applies has varied — our comparison guide declined to print one for that reason — so carry a few euros and be pleasantly surprised if the door is simply open.

Budget the leg honestly: it is downhill out and uphill back, on top of the town's own climb. Do it in the morning before the ridge, or leave it for the golden hour when the travertine warms and the fields are empty — the second is the better photograph and the harder walk.

The Bravio delle Botti: barrels uphill, once a year

On the last Sunday of August Montepulciano's slope becomes a racecourse. In the Bravio delle Botti, the town's eight contrade — Cagnano, Collazzi, Coste, Gracciano, Poggiolo, San Donato, Talosa and Voltaia — each field two pushers who roll an 80-kilogram barrel the 1,800 metres uphill from the bottom of town to the cathedral steps on Piazza Grande, for a painted banner. The 2026 race ran on 30 August, at the end of a week of events that opened on the 22nd with the proclamation of the Gonfaloniere; costumed processions, contrada dinners and a great deal of Vino Nobile fill the days before.

For a visitor it is the Val d'Orcia's answer to the Palio — smaller, rougher, less lethal and easier to get close to — and the one week of the year when the town's steepness becomes its spectacle. If your dates fall in the last week of August, book beds early and expect the Corso closed for the race; the September festival calendar picks up where the Bravio leaves off.

Getting there, eating, and pacing the day

By bus — the straightforward one. Montepulciano is the Val d'Orcia town public transport actually reaches well: Autolinee Toscane line 112 from Siena, weekdays, via San Quirico and Pienza, fastest journeys around 1h35, about four usable connections a day — plan the return before committing, and treat Sundays separately. The bus leaves you at the *bottom* of the town; the day begins with the climb. From Rome or Florence by rail, Montepulciano Stazione is the trap our car-free guide explains: a distant station with poor onward links, not the town.

By car. Park below the walls where the signs direct and climb from there; the centre is not for driving. The driving guide covers the region's rules.

Eating. The town has the valley's deepest choice, and one destination institution: Osteria Acquacheta, the bistecca-by-weight, shared-table, book-weeks-ahead legend that our day-trip restaurants guide treats in full. Beyond it, the two-streets-away rule applies with extra force on the Corso.

Pacing. Morning: San Biagio while the legs are fresh. Late morning: the Corso climb, with a cellar or two on the way. Midday: Piazza Grande, the tower, the Duomo. Lunch at the top. Afternoon: the descent through the shops, and the bus or car onward to Pienza and the valley. In the vendemmia weeks of September the cellars are at their busiest and best; in winter the town is quiet, the stairs are the same, and the tasting rooms are warm.

How we checked these details

Checked 21 September 2026, by web research; direct page fetches are blocked in our environment, so this rests on search-surfaced material — the Pro Loco's visitor pages, the Bravio's official site and the comune, the cellars' own pages and large bodies of recent visitor reporting — rather than pages we opened.

Verified: the Palazzo Comunale's tower and terrace tickets (€5 / €2.50), the daily 10:00–18:00 April–November pattern with Christmas openings, the 150-step climb or lift-plus-52; the Michelozzo façade (one source dates it 1424, our earlier comparison guide 1440 — we print "fifteenth-century" and note the disagreement); the Duomo's 1712 consecration and Taddeo di Bartolo's 1401 Assumption; the Tempio di San Biagio by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, 1518–1545, outside the walls; Contucci's free tastings of up to six wines and free self-guided main-floor cellars; De' Ricci's paid tour of about 60 minutes plus a 30-minute tasting at €20; the Bravio delle Botti's eight contrade, 80-kg barrels, 1,800-metre uphill course, and the 2026 dates (opening 22 August, race Sunday 30 August); the line 112 figures from our car-free guide; and the wine rules from the comparison guide's verification.

Not established, and flagged: whether San Biagio charges entry and how much — carry cash; the tower's exact winter arrangements beyond the Christmas openings; cellar hours, which change with the season; and Ercolani's current format. Confirm all on the day.

We have no commercial relationship with any cellar, restaurant, festival or body named. Nothing on this page is bookable through us.

Final thoughts

Montepulciano is the valley's town for people who want a *town* — palaces, shops, a square that functions, cellars under your feet and a temple in the field — and are prepared to earn it one stair at a time. Do it in the right order and the stairs become a structure: temple, climb, cellar, tower, lunch, descent.

And keep the barrel race in mind as you go up. Eight men once a year push eighty kilos up the slope you are walking, for a painted flag and a year of bragging rights. The Corso feels different when you know that.