San Gimignano and Volterra Day Tour from Siena

San Gimignano, the hill town of towers

The morning begins in San Gimignano, about forty minutes from Siena. Its silhouette of stone towers rising above the Elsa valley is one of the classic images of Tuscany. Your guide explains the conflicts and fortunes behind them: in the Middle Ages the town grew rich from trade and from pilgrims heading to Rome, and rival families built ever taller tower houses as symbols of power, until the town government limited their height.

With an expert guide you see more than the postcard: the old well in Piazza della Cisterna, the town hall and the Torre Grossa on Piazza del Duomo, and the frescoed interior of the Collegiate Church. Is San Gimignano worth visiting? Its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and arriving with a small group in the morning means quieter lanes and better photos.

Lunch on an organic farm in the Tuscan countryside

Between the two towns the tour leaves the main roads for the countryside, where rolling fields, olive groves and woods stretch towards the horizon. Lunch is served on an organic farm, where the dishes are freshly cooked with seasonal produce such as vegetables, pulses, olive oil and bread, the simple flavours of Tuscan home cooking.

The farm lunch is a relaxed break in the middle of the day and a chance to talk with your guide about rural life in Tuscany. Halal meat is not usually available in the countryside, but vegetarian dishes are easy to prepare; please tell us about any dietary needs when you book and we will pass them on in advance.

Volterra, from the Etruscans to the Romans

Volterra stands high on a ridge between the valleys of the Era and the Cecina, with views that reach towards the sea on clear days. Long before the Romans it was Velathri, one of the most important cities of the Etruscans, and its ancient walls still enclose the town. The Porta all'Arco, an Etruscan gate from the fourth or third century BC, is one of the oldest arched gateways still standing in Italy.

Your guide also leads you to the remains of the Roman theatre, built in the first century BC on the slope below the medieval walls and overlooked by a viewpoint on the walls above. The Guarnacci Museum keeps one of the richest Etruscan collections anywhere, including carved funerary urns. Many people ask how to get to Volterra: it has no railway, so a tour from Siena is the simplest way.

Medieval Volterra and Piazza dei Priori

Inside the walls, Volterra is a town of stone palaces and quiet, steep lanes. Its main square, Piazza dei Priori, is one of the finest medieval squares in Tuscany, dominated by the Palazzo dei Priori, begun in the early thirteenth century and considered the oldest town hall in Tuscany. Nearby stand the Romanesque cathedral and its octagonal baptistery.

On the edge of the town, the Balze are dramatic eroded cliffs that have swallowed ancient churches and walls over the centuries, a striking reminder of the forces that shape these hills. A fifteenth-century fortress, still used as a prison, crowns the highest point. The best time to visit Volterra is spring or autumn, when the air is clear and the views are wide.

The alabaster workshops of Volterra

Volterra has been famous for alabaster since Etruscan times, when the soft, translucent stone quarried in the nearby hills was carved into funerary urns. Today the craft is still alive in small workshops scattered through the old town, where artisans saw, carve and polish the stone into lamps, bowls, sculptures and fine decorative pieces.

During the tour you visit one of these workshops to watch the artisans at work and learn how the raw blocks become delicate objects that glow when light passes through them. It is one of the most memorable parts of the day and a good place to find an authentic souvenir of Tuscany. Afterwards the vehicle returns you to Siena in the late afternoon.