Palazzo Comunale of San Gimignano, built in 1288, houses the “historic” headquarters of the Civic Museums. The museum itinerary allows visitors to admire famous cycles of frescoes that succeed in conveying to the visitor the civic sense that had in the palazzo podestarile its chosen home.

Very close to Florence is Fiesole, a town rich in splendid villas and monuments from the Renaissance and medieval periods. But the glorious memory of Rome is especially tangible with the well-preserved theater still used for concerts and performances, the baths and its sacred area.

The castle of Santa Maria a Monte is mainly preserved in its urban layout: the characteristic and original “spiral,” or rather tangent circles at a single point, conformation reveals the presence of three circles of walls, with the Rocca, polygonal in plan with a high scarp, looming over the settlement. 

Ancient jewels carved out of rock, perched on sheer spurs against spectacular natural scenery, they offer journeys through time and the history that shaped them, the memory and beauty of which they still preserve intact. 

The film is set mainly in Tuscany. Locations include Villa Masini in Montevarchi, Piazza Grande and many streets in the historic center of Arezzo, and the Teatro Signorelli in Cortona.

The English Patient was shot for a large part in the beautiful Val d’Orcia, Tuscany. In particular, the film takes place in Pienza between Piazza Pio II, an expression of Renaissance urban planning ideals, and the streets of Cosona, a 15th-century fortified complex.

The house where Massimo’s family lives is the “Podere di Poggio Manzuoli,” in the town of San Quirico d’Orcia. Also in the countryside of Val d’Orcia, Tuscany, were shot the scenes set in the Elysian Fields, in the locality of Terrapille at the foot of Pienza.