1) Bargellini Square
It is the most important square in the village, with the Church, the ancient Town Hall, and patrician houses. It is dedicated to Cav. Orazio Bargellini, a notary from Florence who often lived in Montevettolini and left bequests to the town. It is triangular, with a slight slope. Its apex is towards Via dei Palazzi (once called Via del Sale). In the square area called “under the holm-oaks”, the weekly market was held. On the front and right sides there was a beautiful portico used as a shelter by merchants. The building on the long side , 2) the Ex Oratorio del Corpus Domini, was the seat of the “Compagnia del Corpus Domini “, known as “Corporation of the Whites”, from the colour of its members' mantles. Now it's the seat of the “A.Tonini” Philharmonic Society and of the “SS Crucifix Commitee”, once called Congregation of the Crucifix.
Until 1920, in front of the portico of the church, there was a travertin well opening to the cistern below. Its pomp is now near the door of the Bell Tower.
In the square on the left of the church there is a building with a stone coat of arms with S Francis's hands and the date 1719, when the building was partly restored: 3) it is S Francis ‘s Former Oratory, which was the seat of S. Francis's Confraternity (or Company of the Blacks from the colour of the capes of its members.)

4) Ex Town Hall Palace
Built before the XIII century, it was the seat of the Podestà until the XV century, and on its façade we can see some Podestas' coats of arms.
On the ground floor there was the kitchen, the cellar and the stables. In the floor we can still notice some holes, where the ancient barns were once located. Upstairs there were two bedrooms and the Council Hall where the Council was gathered and justice administered,
On the right side of the building there was a tower, now impossible to see, used as a prison and demolished to the first floor of the palace.
In 1775, when Montevettolini and Monsummano Terme were put together, the offices were moved to Monsummano Terme and the palace was no longer the seat of the town hall. Now, there a coffee bar and some societies are located there.
From Bargellini Square we can go into Barni Street. Walking along it, we reach , on the right 5) Mimbelli Palace, an ancient homestead, now a patrician residence and one of the best palaces in town.

6) St. Bartolomeo Square (once "Piazzetta San Bartolommeo")
Small quadrangular steep paved square.
To be noticed in the middle the trapdoor of a cistern (water- supply) built in 1864, in order to make up for the demand of water supplies. The original hydraulic pomp is at the bottom, in the left corner of the square.

From St. Bartolomeo Square you go on into Via del Crociale (once "Via Piana"), then you reach the crossroads, now called "Crociale" (once "Canto alla Gracchia" or "dei Poggi"); here you can find the 7) "Memorial Park" (Parco della rimembranza), dating back to the first postwar period, with a memorial of all times fallen in wars.


8) Malacoda Square
We don't know why it's so named; it certainly doesn't mean a good omen, as Malacoda is one of the devils named by Dante in his Inferno. In this small square, as well, at the top on the left, there was a very ancient cistern, called "Le fontane"; it has been restored in 1537 and enlarged in 1848 and then in 1880. It was pulled down about in 1960
9. The Door of the Neighbourhood (or "Malvicino" or Barbacci", from the name of a family who owned lots of surrounding properties).
It's the only access door that is unimpaired in its purpose among the three ones of the ancient town walls. It's 2.50 metres wide, with two arches describing a lunula and standing on rough capitals formed by merely bevelled stone slabs.
At present you can still notice the joints once used to close it. It dates back to the 13th century.


10.Tower of the Spur (Torre dello Sprone), also called "delle Murina", once "Roccaccia".
It's so said probably because it lays on the end of a tip of land, close to some supports of the ancient town walls.
It's got a heptagonal shape: six narrow and dissimilar sides outside the walls and the seventh inside, six metres long. It's less ancient than the other ones, in fact it isn't reminded before 1537.
Its not very massive walls had slits, now disappeared, and small windows with round arches, still there. It was surely more than 14 metres high.

11) Oratory of Our Lady of the snow (Oratorio della Madonna della neve)
Built at the beginning of the 17th century on a preexistent edge or tabernacle dating back to the end of 1300, it's been restored many times during the century.
Even though the oratory has a very simple outside structure, it preserves a valuable "Madonna col bambino e Santi" that may be dated back to the beginnings of 1400. This is probably the work of a provincial artist, that shows the pictorial influence of Gentile da Fabriano.

Going up along a narrow path towards the village, you reach Rondò, overlooked by the Villa Medicea.
On its right side you can see 12) the ancient quadrangular tower, under which the Door of the Corner (Porta del Cantone), main door leading into the ancient castle, opens.
Before the 16th century, the tower was much higher than it is at present (21 metres), and maybe it was a battlemented tower.
The door, 2.70 metres wide and 4,74 metres high, with a round arch, was remarkable for its elegance of proportions and magnificence.
Reminded in the Statutes since 1410, the tower was closed in 1599 by Medici, for the convenience of their Villa.

13) Villa Medicea
The Medici of Florence made it built as a hunting residence, between the 15th and the 16th centuries; on one side the Villa took over the ancient fortress of the 12th-13th centuries, on the other side it inglobed the tower overlooking the Door of the Corner.
They say that the ancient fortress was as high as the Bell-tower (Campanile), and that it was so big to allow the presence of a quarterdeck, little tower in which were the sentries and the last shelter in case of siege.
The Villa, with an irregular polygon with twelve sides as a plan, seems to keep inside a trabocchetto, that they say is a lots of metres deep drain, hidden by a movable floor.
The hapless man leaded in there would hurtle down till he was transfixed by steel blades or grinded by some machinery.

14) The Bell-Tower (Campanile)
The Bell-tower is the only undemaged tower we can see at present; it's made of evenly set out and finely joined stones.
It was erected on a high and lonely place, so that it could overlook the other fortalices and from its top you could see the enemy armies wherever they came from.
Each tower side measures 7,47 metres; it's 26,50 metres high and it overlooks a door with 2,70 metres wide round arches ; it was used to get into the enclosure of the fortress.
To be noticed the tower clock, that strikes only six times, the sundial, the coats-of-arms of the Comune and the one of the Opera of Santa Maria; the medicean one isn't there anymore. It dates back to the 13th century.

15) The Church of St.Michele Arcangelo and Lorenzo Martire
During the centuries, the first building dating back to 1200 has been modified-changed many times, with the addiction of two naves and the outside arcade.
The current look is due to the 17th century renovation by Vittorio Anastagi.
Lots of works of art can be admired inside: a “Madonna col bambino”, painting of the first half of the 15th century, and a wooden Crocifisso of the 14th century.
Behind the high altar there is a painting by Santi di Tito called “Madonna in gloria e Santi”, that is signed and dated 1599.
In the chapel on the left of the presbytery there is a “Madonna col bambino e i Santi Lazzaro e Sebastiano” (it dates back to the beginning of the 16th century), close to the works of Filippino Lippi, and a “Madonna con i Santi Francesco e Antonio”, contemporary to the other one and attributed to the School of Raffaellino del Garbo.

The Towers of Montevettolini
They were six, some of which we've already seen: the Bell-tower (14), the Spur tower (10), the tower incorporated in the ex-Comune (4) and at last the one inglobed into the Villa Medicea (12).
You can make out the fifth tower (16) watching the right corner of the west facade of the Church of St.Michele, when you enter the large square on the left of the present doorway. It has been englobed in the church during the 18th century.
Only few writings tell about the sixth tower (17) and they say it was in front of Via delle Pietraie.
In 1822 the ruins of the quadrangular tower made the young Giovacchino Di Luigi Trinci want to carry out some excavations: owing to them a human skelethon with a big rusted sword and some coins were found.

The doors of Montevettolini
There were three doorways to the village. We have already seen two of them: the Door of the Corner (12) and the Door of the Neighbourhood (9).
The third door, called "del Montaletto" (or "Montaletti" or "Pidocchio") (18) stood on the top of a steep way, where it closed slantways Via della Gita (once Via Piana di Sotto), at the beginning of Via dei Palazzi (once Via St. Andrea or Via del Sale).
This small door (it was 2 metres wide), was restored in 1799 but later on, in 1830, as the door was unsafe, the Comune ordered its demolition, in spite of the strong opposition of the population in Montevettolini .

Main Festivals
- Medieval Festival - in the 2nd weekend in September.
- Great Festival (Costume Procession of Jesus' Passion and Death)- on Good Friday, every three years (2007-2010-...).
- Thanksgiving Procession - on Easter Monday, every three years (2007-2010-...).
- Madonna of the Snow Festival - on the first sunday of August (at the Oratory of the Madonna of the Snow).
- Mechanic Christmas crib - Christmas time (at the Ex-Brotherhood of St. Francesco, on the left of the Church).

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