RETREAT TO THE HILLS

Meet your private driver outside your accommodation and enjoy a full-day excursion to the Tuscan countryside from Florence. Your guide will be waiting at the meeting point ready to lead you on a tour of two delightful hilltop towns.

Volterra, with its narrow cobbled streets, sweeping panoramas and artistic treasures is sure to please travellers in search of a peaceful break. The area is known to have been inhabited as far back as the Neolithic era but the city as we know it today has Etruscan origins. Remaining portions of the Etruscan walls and temples, together with artefacts housed inside the Etruscan Museum attest to the town’s founding in the 6th century BC. It was later conquered by the ancient Romans, governed by powerful bishops in the Middle Ages and eventually came under the rule of Florence and the Medici family during the Renaissance.

Traces of all these historical phases unravel as you roam Volterra’s picture postcard streets and squares. You’ll come across remains of a 1st century BC Roman theatre, medieval walls, piazze and tower-houses as well as a Renaissance fortress. Highlights of your excursion include the 13th century Palazzo dei Priori emblazoned with terracotta coats of arms, proudly overlooking the main square; the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, housing Benozzo Gozzoli’s precious Procession of the Magi and a finely carved ciborium by Mino da Fiesole; the baptistery where Sansovino’s 1502 marble font can still be admired. The town is especially famous as a centre of excellence for the production of alabaster objects, a centuries-old craft practised here since Etruscan times, when yesteryear’s citizens of Volterra chose this material around 300 BC to create vases, cinerary urns, decorative objects and sculptures. You can browse a range of artefacts skilfully created and tastefully displayed in workshops scattered across the centro storico.

After lunch, a 40-minute drive through the lovely Tuscan landscape brings you to the charming walled town of San Gimignano. Set high atop a hill, it looks out over silver green olive groves and lush vineyards in the Val d’Elsa below. Folktales claim the town was founded in 63 BC when two patrician brothers, Muzio and Silvio, fled Rome for Tuscany after their incrimination in the conspiracy of Catiline and built two castles on this very site. We know, however, that San Gimignano has been inhabited since Etruscan times though it was only much later, during the Middle Ages, that the town thrived due to its location along the Via Francigena, the pilgrimage route that linked Rome to Canterbury.

Here you can saunter through the two central squares, Piazza della Cisterna and Piazza del Duomo, wander along enchanting narrow streets and gaze up at a number of sturdy medieval towers that still dominate the skyline, pronouncing the wealth and ambitions of the families who built them centuries ago. Several outstanding Renaissance masterpieces can be admired here in their original locations, including Benozzo Gozzoli’s celebrated decorative fresco cycle of St. Augustine, located in a chapel of the Church of Sant’Agostino. Don’t forget to take a peek inside the Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta, the city’s cathedral. Behind its bare Romanesque facade, this church conceals a precious Last Judgement by Taddeo di Bartolo, Benozzo Gozzoli’s Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and Ghirlandaio’s fresco cycle depicting the legendary Life and miracles of Santa Fina who spent all her days lying on a wooden pallet deep in prayer.

While you weave your way through this remarkably beautiful town, pause for a moment to breathe in traces of a feudal air that still linger here. It only takes a tiny step of the imagination to picture the scene – not so very different from today – as it appeared to the nobles, knights and dames who must have taken this same route hundreds of years ago.

But San Gimignano also boasts some modern delights… before returning to Florence you might want to taste the local Vernaccia wine or savour the much acclaimed, award-winning ice cream lovingly created by Gelateria Dondoli.