Palazzo dei Priori, Montalcino

Because this one building contains Montalcino's whole political history, and you can read it off the outside in about five minutes.

It began as the Palazzo del Podestà, became the Palace of Justice with the prisons in it, and ended as the town hall. The ground floor started as a salt store, and then — when Siena fell and the Republic of Siena took refuge here between 1555 and 1559 — it was turned into the mint. A republic in exile struck its coins in a Montalcino salt cellar.

Then the Medici won, and the building was made to say so. The lower part became a loggia, a statue of Cosimo I was set just outside it, and the tower was raised by a few courses of brick — a change you can still see by looking at the join.

The tower is 62 metres and the Montalcinesi call it il Campanone. Low down are family coats of arms, the Medici one among them.

No friction to speak of, because there is nothing to book: no hours, ticket or tower access is published. This is a building you look at.

Remember the square is a working one. Piazza del Popolo is Montalcino's centre and the loggia is a public arcade used by residents walking through, sheltering from sun or rain, and standing about. It is not a viewing platform for the tower; leave the through-route clear.

Do not climb on the statue or into the loggia's structure. The statue of Cosimo I stands in an open arcade at street level with nothing protecting it, and the loggia's stonework is the part of the building most exposed to contact.

Do not go looking for a way in. No access, hours or ticket is published, the municipality has moved out to Piazza Cavour, and the building extends back into private and administrative premises reached from the Costa del Municipio. Trying doors on the side lane is not a reasonable way to find out.

Ask at Piazza Cavour instead. If you genuinely want to know what is currently open, the Comune di Montalcino is at Piazza Cavour 13 on 0577 80441. One call is better than six attempts at a doorway.

Spend in the square. Piazza del Popolo's businesses carry the cost of the town's visitors and are where Montalcino's own wine is poured by the glass. Looking at a free monument and buying nothing is the easiest thing to do here and the least useful.

No opening hours, no ticket price and no tower access are published anywhere we can verify, and nothing in the sources says the tower can be climbed. This page asserts none of those, and the honest summary is: this is a building you look at rather than go into.

That is less of a loss than it sounds, because everything this page describes is on the outside.

Where to stand

The building faces Piazza del Popolo — stand there, in the square, and work up the tower: the family coats of arms including the Medici at the bottom, then the clock, then il Campanone, then the small bell at the top. From the square you can also pick out the brick heightening where the Medici raised the stone tower.

The loggia at street level is open, and the statue of Cosimo I de' Medici stands in it.

The thing that confuses people

It faces Piazza del Popolo but is entered from the Costa del Municipio, and it extends back to Piazza Garibaldi, which locals call Padella. If you are looking for a way in from the main square, you are looking in the wrong place.

If you need to ask

The municipality is no longer in this building — the seat moved to Piazza Cavour some decades ago. The Comune di Montalcino switchboard is 0577 80441, at Piazza Cavour 13, and that is where to ask whether anything inside is currently accessible.

Any time, and it costs nothing. This is an exterior to be looked at from a public square, so there are no hours to work around and no season that closes it.

Two refinements, both about light. Morning puts the sun on the facades above the loggia and makes the two central windows read properly. And for the tower, aim for a low sun — early or late — because raking light is what reveals the brick heightening where the Medici raised the stone, and picks the coats of arms out of the lower masonry. Flat midday light flattens both.

Spring and autumn are the best seasons in Montalcino generally; summer makes no difference to this building beyond the heat in Piazza del Popolo; and winter is arguably the best time of all for it, because a low winter sun across stone and brick is exactly the condition in which the tower's join is most obvious.

It is also the natural first stop of a day here: look at the palace in Piazza del Popolo, then walk up to the Fortezza at the top of the town.