Montaione, the heart of Tuscany

montaione, firenze, toscana

Montaione is one of the most advanced cities in Tuscany in the agritourism sector for its structure, art and organization.
The small town (3.347 inhabitants) has important artistic and natural beauties and several years ago began to build a series of accommodation facilities that allows Montaione to be in a privileged position nowadays in this field.

History

In the territory surrounding Montaione there is a tangible evidence of the presence of the Etruscans, which confirms with no doubts the history of the town, whose foundation has not been ascertained with certainty, though. After the Longobard domination, Montaione became a free town from 1257 to 1369 when it was forced to surrender to Florence. From then, Montaione shared its history with the one of Florence.
From 1200 on, Montaione is famous for its glass industry, and this was the main economic activity of its inhabitants until the past century, when the glass firms were brought down to the valley, and in particular to the town of Empoli. Montaione then became a town with a main agricultural economic activity.

Arte

Since the year 500 a.c. the town is surrounded by a big wall, which, after damages received during WWII, was supplanted in the 60s by the external development of the town. Inside the urbanistic structure (3 parallel roads), the most relevant sites to see are the former city-hall (now the Archaeological Museum) and the San Regolo Church. In the surroundings it is compulsory to visit the San Vivaldo Convent (7 km.). Its name comes from the Franciscan friar Vivaldo Stricchi from San Gimignano, who came here to pray at the beginning of 1300, and was found dead inside the tree that he used as his house. On this place, at the end of the XV century, a convent was built, whose main peculiarity resides in the series of chapels surrounding the Church which were built around the year 1515 (30, only 18 are left).