Poggibonsi

Poggibonsi lies in the upper Elsa valley, where routes through Tuscany meet between Florence and Siena. The hill above the town preserves traces of settlements from the early Middle Ages. From the fourteenth century Poggibonsi belonged to the Florentine sphere, and Lorenzo de' Medici later commissioned Giuliano da Sangallo to design a fortress on the hill. The great stronghold of Poggio Imperiale was never completed, but its walls remain above the valley.