How to get around Montepulciano

Montepulciano is a single climb, and the honest way to describe getting around it is that the town is the gradient.

Inside the walls: on foot, uphill

One main street — the Corso — rises from the Porta al Prato at the bottom to Piazza Grande at the top of a 605-metre ridge, with short steep lanes dropping off both sides. It is a sustained ascent on stone paving, and there is no level alternative route. Allow an hour and a half to walk up properly, stopping.

Of the five towns in this group this is clearly the hardest. Pienza is level, San Gimignano and Volterra slope, Montalcino climbs to a fortress — and Montepulciano climbs the whole way. Anyone who cannot manage a sustained hill should know that before arriving.

Parking and the orange buses

Park outside the walls at the bottom; the historic centre is restricted. Small local shuttle buses run up and down the spine, which is genuinely useful here in a way it is not elsewhere — using one to get up and walking down is a reasonable plan, and no loss of experience.

To San Biagio: drive it

The Madonna di San Biagio is below the walls, five minutes by car and about twenty minutes down on foot — but the twenty minutes down is forty back up, and in summer that is a bad trade. Drive, park at the church, and walk around it instead.

The cellars, which need no transport

Several historic cellars are cut into the rock under the palaces on the Corso. Walking to a tasting rather than driving to one is the single practical advantage Montepulciano has over Montalcino, and it is a real one.

Getting here

By road. Pienza is about twenty minutes west, Siena a little over an hour north-west. Chiusi-Chianciano Terme, south-east, is the nearest main-line station, with buses onward.

How easily, and at what cost, can you combine the region’s main destinations?

Cost compares the options for each route rather than quoting a fare: inexpensive means the price is not a factor in planning, moderate cost means a real line in the budget, and the expensive option is one worth weighing against the alternative. Fares change from year to year; the ranking between them does not.

The shape of the problem

A linear town on a narrow ridge at 605 metres, with 13,984 residents across 165.33 km². The transport question is almost entirely vertical.

The climb, stated plainly

The Corso runs from the Porta al Prato at the bottom of the town to Piazza Grande at the summit. It is a continuous ascent on stone, with short steep side lanes and no flat route anywhere in the historic centre. This is the hardest of the five Tuscan towns in this group to walk, by a clear margin, and in July and August the middle of the day makes it worse.

Practical responses:

• Go up early or late. Before 09:00 or after 18:00 in summer.
• Take a shuttle up and walk down. Small local buses work the spine, and using one in the uphill direction costs you nothing in experience.
• Plan the day downhill. Start at the top if you can get there by vehicle, and work down.

Parking

Outside the walls, in paid car parks at the lower end. The historic centre is traffic-restricted and the streets are too narrow and too steep to be worth attempting.

To the Madonna di San Biagio

Five minutes by car from the lower town, with parking at the church. On foot it is about twenty minutes down and considerably more back up — not recommended in summer. The building is the architectural reason to come to Montepulciano and deserves to be approached fresh rather than at the end of a climb.

The cellars

Several historic cellars are cut into the rock beneath the palaces on the Corso and open to visitors. This matters for transport: in Montepulciano you can taste seriously and walk back to your hotel, which in Montalcino or the Langhe requires a hired driver. If you are doing one wine town on foot, do this one.

Arriving

• By car — the usual way. Pienza twenty minutes west, Montalcino about an hour, Siena a little over an hour.
• By train — Chiusi-Chianciano Terme is the nearest main-line station, on the Florence–Rome line, with buses up to the town. This makes Montepulciano more reachable without a car than most of these towns.

Onward

West into the Val d'Orcia for Pienza and Montalcino; east into the Valdichiana toward Cortona. Both are slow secondary roads and worth the time.