Monteriggioni, a town with less than 10,000 inhabitants that Dante mentioned in his "Divine Comedy", is less than 30 minutes by car from Siena.

So, if you have rented a villa in Tuscany, or a farmhouse in Siena , you could spend a day in this charming village.

Like many other towns in the area, for decades Monteriggioni was the object of a struggle between Siena and Florence until the latter conquered it in 1554.

The town probably owes its present structure - a group of buildings surrounded by ovoid city walls with eleven towers and two gates (Porta Romea and Porta di San Giovanni) connected by a street along which are the main square and the Roman-Gothic church of Santa Maria Assunta - to this rivalry.

Festa Medievale is one of the many events taking place in Monteriggioni. In the first two weekends of July, in the light of the stars in the Tuscan summer, the Castle teems with medieval knights, minstrels, jugglers and musicians. During the festival, the "grosso" (the currency used in the Middle Ages) takes the place of the euro. And at the end of the festival, the fireworks reproduce the fire of the city walls.