Practical information for visiting Montepulciano

Italy's four national operators — TIM, Vodafone, WindTre and Iliad — cover the town well; a 605-metre ridge is about the best ground for a signal in Tuscany. Visitors from elsewhere in the EU can use their home data allowance under EU roaming rules; visitors from outside the EU usually find a local prepaid SIM cheaper than roaming.

Three local notes.

• The cellars are underground. Several historic cellars are cut into the rock beneath the palaces on the Corso, and there is no signal in them. They are also cool, quiet and some of the most atmospheric rooms in the town, so this is a feature rather than a problem — but do not plan on taking a call from one.
• The palace masonry is thick. Reception inside the Palazzo Comunale and the Duomo is poor.
• Coverage falls away in the valleys on both sides. Driving west into the Val d'Orcia or east across the Valdichiana, download maps first — the ridge is good and the valleys are not.

Public wi-fi is available in parts of the centre, and a town of nearly fourteen thousand people has cafés and hotels with reliable connections — better than anywhere else in this group.

Montepulciano is a safe town of 13,984 residents. The dominant hazard here is not crime; it is the hill.

• The climb is the real risk, and in summer it is a serious one. The town is a continuous ascent on stone from the gate to Piazza Grande at 605 metres, with little shade and stone holding the heat on both sides. In July and August a midday climb has put visitors in genuine difficulty. Go up before 09:00 or after 18:00, carry water, and use the local shuttle buses for the uphill leg if there is any doubt.
• The paving is polished stone and the gradient is constant. Wet, it is slippery, and a slip on a slope is worse than on the flat. Shoes with grip, and take the descent as carefully as the climb — most falls here happen going down.
• Walk the Corso facing the traffic where it is open to it. The lower stretch carries permitted vehicles, the street is narrow, and there is no continuous pavement.
• The walls have drops. The ridge falls away on both sides and the viewpoints are not uniformly fenced. Hold on to children.
• Watch your bag on the Corso in the middle of the day and during the Bravio delle Botti on the last Sunday of August, when the whole town is packed into one street.
• The Bravio is a barrel race on a hill. Heavy barrels pushed uphill through crowded streets by teams who are competing hard. Stand where you are directed, keep children off the course, and do not step out to photograph.
• Taste in the cellars and walk home. The one safety advantage this town has: you can do a serious tasting on foot. Use it rather than driving the hill roads afterwards.
• Wild boar are common on the wooded slopes at dusk. Give them distance, especially a sow with young.

For any emergency call 112. The municipal switchboard is 0578 7121, at Piazza Grande 1.

Montepulciano is a town of 13,984 people and has the hospital at Nottola, just outside it, which makes it considerably better served than the villages in this group. Visitors from the EU carrying a valid EHIC or GHIC card can use public healthcare on the same terms as Italian residents; visitors from elsewhere should carry travel health insurance, because treatment is billed directly. For anything urgent, 112 reaches medical services.

Four points specific to Montepulciano, and the first is the important one.

• This is the hardest walking of the five towns in this group, and it is not a marginal difference. The town is a sustained climb on stone from the gate to Piazza Grande at 605 metres, with no level alternative route anywhere in the centre. Anyone with a cardiac condition, a respiratory condition, a mobility limitation or a bad knee should plan around it: use the local shuttle buses for the uphill leg, start at the top and work down, or choose Pienza instead, which is level.
• Summer makes the climb genuinely dangerous for the unfit. Little shade, stone radiating heat, and the hardest hours coinciding with the hottest. Walk before 09:00 or after 18:00 and carry water — this is not ordinary sightseeing advice, it is the specific risk of this town.
• Alcohol and a hill do not combine. The historic cellars are on the Corso, which means a tasting is followed by a walk on a steep stone slope. The advantage is that you need not drive; the caution is that you still have to get down.
• The descent is where people fall. Polished stone on a constant gradient. Take it slowly, especially in the wet.

Emergency number: 112, free from any phone. It is Italy's single emergency number — medical emergencies, the Carabinieri and emergencies generally — and it routes the call to the right service.

Police: 113. Fire brigade: 115. Financial Guard (Guardia di Finanza): 117.

The municipality can be reached on 0578 7121, at Piazza Grande 1 — the town hall is on the main square itself, at the top of the climb.

Hospital: there is a hospital at Nottola, just outside the town, which makes Montepulciano the best-served of the five towns in this group for medical care. For anything urgent call 112 and let them dispatch.

The hill is the Montepulciano-specific emergency consideration. The historic centre is a continuous stone climb to 605 metres with restricted vehicle access, so an ambulance cannot necessarily reach the upper town quickly or at all. If someone is in difficulty on the Corso: call 112, say clearly how far up the street you are and which gate is nearest, and if you can, get them into shade and sitting down. In summer, heat exhaustion on this climb is the likeliest call anyone here will make.

If you are separated from your party, Piazza Grande is the rendezvous — it is at the top, there is only one route to it, and everybody ends up there. For a lower meeting point, the Porta al Prato at the bottom works and saves a climb.

Note on the civic museum: its own website was unreachable (403) when this page was written, so no contact details or hours for it are given here. The municipality on 0578 7121 is the place to ask.