Monteriggioni

Monteriggioni is a commune in the Province of Siena in the Italian region of Tuscany. It borders on the communes of Casole d'Elsa, Castellina in Chianti, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Colle di Val d'Elsa, Poggibonsi, Siena and Sovicille. On a small natural hillock, this completely walled medieval town in the Siena Province of Tuscany was built in the 13th century by the overlords of Siena to command the Cassia Road running through the Val d'Elsa and Val Staggia just to the west of Monteriggioni. Today, the town of Monteriggioni is the principal center in the modern Comune of Monteriggioni which encompasses 19.49 square kilometers in the area around the town. Distances from other major towns and cities are: Siena – 15 km (9.3 mi) Volterra – 39 km (24 mi) Florence – 50 km (31 mi) Pisa – 157 km (98 mi) Lucca – 123 km (76 mi) Arezzo – 121 km (75 mi) Rome – 250 km (160 mi) Except for some work done in the 16th century, very little has been done to Monteriggioni's walls or buildings since they were first erected. Monteriggioni's walls and the buildings that make up the town are the best-preserved examples of their kind in all of Italy, so it is not surprising that it attracts buses full of tourists, but also architects, historians and archaeologists. The more or less circular walls with a total length of about 570 metres were built between 1213 and 1219, following the natural contours of the hill. There are fourteen towers on square bases set at equidistance, and two portals or gates. One gate, the Porta Fiorentina, opens toward Florence to the north, and the other, the Porta Romana, faces Rome to the south. The main street within the walls connects the two gates in a more or less straight line. The main piazza, the Piazza Roma, is dominated by a Romanesque church with a simple, plain facade. Other houses, some in the Renaissance style, were once owned by local nobles, gentry and wealthy merchants facing into the piazza. Off the main piazza, smaller streets give way to public gardens fronted by the other houses and small businesses of the town. In more hostile times, these gardens provided vital sustenance when enemies gathered without. The town is featured prominently in the Assassin's Creed video game series.

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Monteriggioni is a stopover point on The Via Francigena. You can reach Civitas Vaticana - Città del Vaticano in 13 days.