San Miniato embodies typical Tuscan traits: a small town with a very definite identity, twelve centuries of history, a perfectly preserved medieval aspect and serenely beautiful landscapes. The town clings to the slopes of a hill dominating the valleys of the Elsa and Arno rivers.

At the top stands the thirteenth-century Tower, the only trace of the stronghold built in 1240 by order of Frederick II, where Pier delle Vigne, the clerk of the Swabian court who features in a famous Canto of Dante’s Inferno, committed suicide.

Below the Tower lies the Prato del Duomo, looking out over the Arno plain like a terrace with a panoramic view, dominated by the marble and fired brick profile of the thirteenth-century cathedral and its belfry known as “Matilda’s Tower” after the countess of Canossa.

The same piazza also contains the Palazzo dei Vicari del Popolo, the Bishop’s Palace and the Diocesan Museum, which holds a valuable collection of religious art including paintings by Filippo Lippi and Neri di Bicci and a terracotta Christ by Andrea del Verrocchio. Behind the Cathedral, and more precisely from the Sanctuary of the Crucifix, a stairway leads directly to the Town Hall and the fourteenth-century Oratory of the Virgin of Loreto.

A few steps further on other fascinating churches await us, such as the Oratorio della Misericordia, adorned with a Madonna of Giotto’s school, and San Francesco, a majestic Romanesque building in fired brick built in the 13th century on the foundations of a little temple dedicated to San Miniato, the original nucleus of the town.

From the Prato del Duomo the way leads down to Piazza della Repubblica and the eighteenth-century Palazzo del Seminario, then to Piazza del Popolo and the Gothic church of San Domenico, decorated with beautiful frescoes of the Tuscan school. In addition to paintings by the Master of San Miniato and Giusto d’Andrea, there is also a great Renaissance sculpture, the Tomb of Giovanni Chellini, designed by Donatello and carried out by Bernardo Rossellino - major artistic personalities were present in this area long disputed between Pisa and Florence, which ended up by taking for itself the best of both.