Locally referred to as Colle, Colle di Val d'Elsa is situated above the valley of the river Elsa, the Val d'Elsa which hosts towns like San Gimignano, Certaldo, Colle Val d'Elsa, Casole d'Elsa, Monteriggioni, Barberino Val d'Elsa and Poggibonsi.

Due to its strategic position along the way of Via Francigena, the medieval pilgrimage and trading route from Central Europe to Rome, Colle di Val d'Elsa developed in three different areas, each of them with its idiosyncratic architecture and art: Il Borgo di Santa Caterina, Il Castello di Piticciano and Il Piano.
Borgo di Santa Caterina and Castello di Piticciano are the older of the three and were inhabited by the ruling families. They are situated on the same east-west ridge and, separated by a large saddle, they dominate the valley floor where the third borgo, Il Piano (the plain), is located. Il Piano now has a modern urban structure built specially to accommodate manufacturing activities.

The area of Colle, which was subject to the authority of Volterra, was an important crossroads to and from central and northern Etruria, a fact attested to by some very important finds, especially in the vicinity of two large necropolises: the Le Ville necropolis and the Dometaia necropolis.

The oldest part of Colle di Val d'Elsa is the colle alta, the higher part, with a well preserved medieval center. The attractive old town of Colle di Val d'Elsa has two important provincial museums, the Museum of Civic and Religious Art and the Archaeological Museum, as well as quite a good Museum of Lead-Crystal Glass.
In the 17 C, the Usimbardi family introduced glass production into Colle di Val d'Elsa. The paper industry was replaced by the new iron and glass industries. The production of glass evolved into lead-glass crystal production and this became the principal industrial activity of Colle di Val d'Elsa, which became known as the Bohemia of Italy in the 19 C. Today Colle di Val d'Elsa produces 15% of the world's crystal.

Colle Val d’Elsa is the birthplace of the celebrated architect and sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio who was born in 1245 and died in Florence in 1310.

Porta Volterrana (Porta Nova)

Porta Volterrana, also called Porta Nova, City gate in Colle di Val d'Elsa (2)

The square opposite the house identified as that of the humanist and Lutheran theologian Aonio Paleario, who was burnt at the stake in 1570 in Rome, offers a welcome spot where one can relax in the shade of the trees and admire the attractive countryside of the Tuscan hills, and a fine view of the Church of San Francesco, one of the first sites of the Franciscan Order in Tuscany (1229).
The Church of San Francesco, which stands alone atop the hill opposite the Castello district, is reached by crossing a 14 C arched bridge, which was built to join the monastery to the Borgo of Santa Caterina. In the church, which is late Romanesque, hidden beneath 17 C overpainting and stucco-work, one can see paintings spanning the period from the 13 C to the 15 C, including work by two local artists from Colle Val d'Elsa, Giovan Battista Tolosani and Cennino Cennini, the famous author of the Libro dell'Arte (Book of Art). In the cloister one can still find remains of frescoes and various preparatory drawings for frescoes by painters from the school of Duccio di Boninsegna.

From Piazza Santa Caterina, continuing along the main road flanked by aristocratic palazzi, one reaches Palazzo Renieri-Portigiani, currently the home of the Palazzo Comunale with its facade of ashlar masonry and a huge crest of the Medici family. The palazzo was built at the request of Bernardino Renieri, who held the post of engineer at the French court of Charles IX, and who was appointed Guelfa architect in the service of Francesco I de' Medici. Dated to between 1575-1580, the building is stylistically similar to the palazzi designed in the Florentine 'manner' by Bartolomeo Ammannati, and is marked by the two-tone use of colour based on terracotta tiles and travertine.

Alongside the Town Hall or Palazzo Comunale stands the Campana bridge, which joins the Borgo and the Castello districts, giving access to the town center.
Today, the difference in ground level, which provided the town with a natural means of defense, is spanned by an impressive brick-built arched ramp, forming an introduction to the stupendous architectural scenario of Palazzo Campana.

Colle Alta, has well preserved the typical medieval structure with narrow paved lanes, steeply sloping streets and flights of steps. An arch opening in the facade of the beautiful Palazzo Campana leads to the town. The 16th century palace, an example of Italian Mannerism, was built by Giuliano di Baccio d’Agnolo, and marks the entrance to the Castle, Il Castello di Piticciano, the oldest part of Colle.
Palazzo Campana was built on the site of the medieval Porta a Ripa, between 1539 and 1550, on the orders of Francesco Campana.
Francesco Campana was doctor in civil and religious law, he was adviser and secretary to Duke Alessandro de' Medici, the Duke of Urbino, and secretary to Clement VII and Duke Cosimo. He illustrated the most difficult passages of Virgil's Aeneid, entitling his work Virgiliana Quaestio.

The museum has its seat in the 14th-century Town-Hall and gathers various local archaeological material from the necropolis of Monteriggioni and other excavations in the area. It includes the Terrosi-Vagnoli Collection and some archaic finds dating back to the 6th century BC, as well as funerary urns, grave goods, pottery, craters and bronze coins.
The reasons why the museum arouses such interest are also due to the splendid pieces which come from the tomb of the noble Calisna Sepu family, in the context of the Pierini Tomb (7th century BC).
The Calisna Sepu tomb, considered to be the richest Hellenistic find made in northern Etruria, has large black-slip vases which are regarded as among the most representative of this kind of pottery, the only example of overpainted Volterran kelebe, some very fine bronze mirrors, and a large array of table ware as used by the Etruscan upper class.

Opening time: Tues. to Fri. 15-17, Sat. and Sun. 10-12 and 15-18 (from Oct. to March); Tues. to Fri. 10-12 and 17-19, Sat. and Sun. 10-12 and 16.30-19.30 (from April to Sept.) Closed on Monday.

In the necropolis situated north-west of the small collection of houses at Le Ville, the first productive excavations in the area were carried out in the 18th century, and continued in the following century (1872), leading to the discovery of numerous objects of various sorts, as well as the more recent exploration by the Gruppo Archeologico Colligiano (Colle Archeological Group) which, with the aim of cleaning the burial site in the area reported from the various excavations, has, since 1976, uncovered fully 10 chamber tombs, all seriously damaged, and often filled in owing to the collapse of their roof. They had already largely been robbed.
Around 20 tombs have been cleaned and studied since 1974 at the Dometaia necropolis and, although they are spread out in a long line over the crest of the ridge, two larger groups can be discerned among them: one around 150 metres away before one gets to the houses at Dometaia, and the other in the borgo (hamlet), both along the road and underneath the houses themselves.

Municipal and Religious Art Museum, which will be moved to the old Conservatory of St. Peter, houses a collection of 12th- to 17th-century Sienese and Florentine paintings as well as church furnishings, liturgical gold-work, sculptures and frescos of the 12th- to 16th century from the Cathedral and other local churches. Its masterpieces are some splendid frescoes by Bartolo di Fredi and One of the oldest pieces of medieval art, the Maestà, from Badia a Isola (near Monteriggioni), a skillful and beautiful work by an unknown artist from the Siena area. The so-called Badia a Isola Master was active at the end of the 13th century in the small circle of Duccio di Buoninsegna, and introduced certain important innovations in his work, thanks to contact with the works of Cimabue and of the young Giotto. His name, Master of Badia a Isola, is taken from a depiction of the Madonna and Child that hangs in the Badia dei Santi Salvatore e Cirino in Abbadia a Isola.

Opening time: Sat. and Sun. 10-12 and 15.30-18.30, closed the other days (from Nov. to March); Tues. to Sun. 10-12 and 16-19, closed Mon. (from April to Oct.)

The Museum of Lead-Crystal Glass is the only museum in Italy wholly dedicated to lead-crystal glass. It hosts some important public and private collections of crystal art works coming from the 15th century until today.

Opening hours in summer (Easter - 31 October): from Tuesday to Sunday and festive days 10.00 - 12.00 / 16.00 - 19.30.
Opening hours in winter (1 November - Easter): from Tuesday to Friday, 15.00 - 19.00
Festive and prefestive days 10.00 - 12.00 / 15.00 - 19.00
Closed on Monday.

Il Sentierelsa is a beautiful walk along the Elsa river through the town of Colle di Val d'Elsa. The itinerary begins at Gracciano, you will find the stairs to this beautiful path and the waterfalls of Diborrato next to the Ponte di San Marziale.

Abbazia di Conèo

The Abbey of Santa Maria Assunta in Conèo

Abbazia di Conèo, Badia a Coneo near Campiglia, is a Romanesque structure that was founded by the Vallombrosan monks at the start of the 12 C and is one of the most interesting examples of religious architecture near Colle Val d'Elsa. Its plan is in the shape of the Latin cross, as is typical of Vallombrosan churches, and the intersection of the nave and the transept is surmounted by a sectioned dome, which is octagonal inside. The internal capitals and the cornice which runs round the outside of the building are decorated with starred flowers and other geometrical devices, of great artistic beauty. The building possesses a number of pre-Romanesque features, with numerous external brackets in the shape of imaginary animals.
Here one can join the historic Via Francigena.

The Abbazia di Conèo is reached by a small road set beyond Campiglia dei Foci, on the road that goes from Colle Val d`Elsa towards Volterra. At Le Grazie, opposite the sanctuary, turn down the provincial road for Casole d'Elsa, following it for around 1 km, as far as the turn-off on the right for Conéo and the Abbey of the same name.
Take the narrow, surfaced road and cross open, rolling countryside, which was once heavily wooded (from which derives the place-name Bosco di Conéo or Coneo Forest, which is not dissimilar to Boscona, another place not far away).
We then reach a bifurcation and, if we turn to the left, we arrive at Conéo.
Instead, continuing on to the right, we descend through woods of common oak and Turkey oak as far as the small road to the left for the nearby Abbey of Conéo.

Pievi or small churches in Tuscany | The Abbey of Santa Maria Assunta in Conèo

Casole is a little idyllic hilltop town with the most beautiful country side surrounding it. The area counts 3.000 inhabitants called Casolesi. Casole d'Elsa is an extensive Commune and is placed close to the source of the river Elsa. For this reason the area was highly populated back in Etruscan times, and several remnants can be found in the area.
Casole has always been under the influence of the big cities, first by Volterra that back in the middle ages became a bishop ship, then followed a short time of independence where Casole had its own town administration (the town hall building testifies to this). Finally, after 1260 the town fell in the hands of Siena.
Today the town appears particularly well kept and, in fact, the town administration often organizes cultural events such as art shows.
The town lives off of tourism which has increased a lot in the last few years and off of agriculture. Lately the area has been given its own DOC for winemaking.
Casole municipality has been awarded the Orange Flag, the mark of quality for tourism and the environment of the Touring Club Italiano, awarded to inland towns which distinguish themselves for the quality of their hospitality.

The main street runs south to north through the center, connecting the two gateways of the village: Porta Rivellino to the south, Porta ai Frati to the north. These two gateways no longer exist today. Rivellino was blown up by the nazis in the second word war.
La Rocca is the most important civil building in Casole, today the seat of the Town Hall. An imposing quadrangular edifice with a massive stone tower in the northern corner and another smaller one at slight angle at the opposite corner.

The collegiate church of Santa Maria Assunta in Casole d'Elsa hosts the now restored funeral chapel of the powerful Aringhieri family, the most important members of which were Beltramo, known as 'Il Porrina', and Ranieri, bishop of Cremona. They are represented, in small dimensions as worshipping the Virgin, in the great fresco showing Mary in Maestà with Angels and Saints.
The death dates of the two Aringhieri (prior to 1309 'Il Porrina', in 1312 Ranieri), allow us to anchor to a very early date this important fresco, whose anonymous author is infact named 'Aringhieri Master'.
The Aringhieri commission brought us another great masterpiece of italian gothic sculpture, kept in the collegiate church in Casole too: the wonderful funeral monument of 'Il Porrina', dominated by the whole-lenght portrait of the dead, a work made by one of the greatest personalities of the first half of 14th Century italian sculpture, Marco Romano.

The Archaeology and Collegiate Church Museum
The 12th-century Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta houses, divided in five rooms, works of art from the Collegiate itself and from other churches of the area.
The art history section of the museum presents various paintings by Alessandro Casolani (1552/1553 - 1607) and his vast family workshop, as well as a substantial number of works dating from the fourteenth to well into the seventeenth century, giving visual evidence that the artistic climate of this ‘citadel’ in the Elsa Valley gravitated mainly in the orbit of Siena, with just a few exceptions coming from Florence.
Among the medieval works, worthy of special note are a Virgin and Child by the “Monterotondo Master,” heavily influenced by Duccio, and a beautifully illuminated choir book decorated by Lippo Vanni. Other remarkable exhibits: panels by Domenico di Michelino and Neri di Bicci, a wooden casket decorated with 15 scenes representing the Mysteries of the Rosary by Alessandro Casolani (1522-1606). The archaeology section houses finds (mostly Etruscan) from a local necropolis.

Relais La Suvera, a former medieval castle and Papal villa, stands high on a hill, overlooking rolling Tuscan countryside and Chianti vineyards.
The origins of La Suvera go back to the High Middle Ages as the Castle of the County of Siena ruled by the legendary Countess Ava Matilde dé Franzesi, a relation of the King of France Clovis, also known as the Queen of Montemaggio. It is therefore likely that the ancient name 'La Suvera' derives from the French souveraine, meaning sovereign.
The first records of the building date back to 1138, when it was the property of the powerful Longobard family, the Ardengheschi. In the mid-16th century, Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere) received the villa as a gift from Pandolfo Petrucci, lord of the Republic of Siena.

Set around a picturesque courtyard, the Renaissance villa is the heart of a borgo which has developed over the centuries, with a consecrated church dedicated to Saint Carlo Borromeo in the 1400's with interiors that reflect 18th century tastes. A few later buildings complete the complex which is surrounded by a park with Italian formal gardens dating back to the 18th century.