Via San Giovanni and the vineyard approach

Via San Giovanni is the spine of the town: a straight, gently falling street of stone houses, arched shopfronts and workshops that runs from the Cisterna down to the southern gate. It is narrow enough that the buildings on one side throw warm reflected light onto the other.

Walk it downhill in the late afternoon. The west-facing façades are lit, the east side sits in soft shade, and the arch of Porta San Giovanni closes the frame at the bottom like a full stop.

Go through the gate and turn back after two hundred metres and you have the other picture entirely: the vineyard road, olive trees and the whole town standing on its hill, fourteen towers in a row above the walls. This is the classic postcard and it needs no ticket, no queue and no early start.

The street carries every arriving visitor from the car parks, so it is a stream of people from mid-morning. Before nine it is quiet, and after seven it belongs to the town again.