Monteriano
Encyclopedia
Monteriano is a fictional Tuscan
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

 hill town. It was the original title and is the principal locale of E. M. Forster
E. M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster OM, CH was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society...

's 1905 novel Where Angels Fear to Tread
Where Angels Fear to Tread
Where Angels Fear to Tread is a novel by E. M. Forster, originally entitled Monteriano. The title comes from a line in Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism: "For fools rush in where angels fear to tread"....

. The author describes the town in an incomplete faux entry to Central Italy by Baedeker
Baedeker
Verlag Karl Baedeker is a Germany-based publisher and pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides. The guides, often referred as simply "Baedekers" , contain important introductions, descriptions of buildings, of museum collections, etc., written by the best specialists, and...

 as follows:—
The location of Monteriano is not given exactly. Somewhere in the Sub-Apennines, it is about 20 miles (32 km) from Empoli
Empoli
Empoli is a town and comune in Tuscany, Italy, about 20 km southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the latter river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The commune's territory becomes a hilly one as it departs from the river...

, and near Siena. By inference one would travel from Monteriano on the road to Siena to reach Poggibonsi. It is perhaps near the actual town of San Gimignano
San Gimignano
San Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy. It is mainly famous for its medieval architecture, especially its towers, which may be seen from several kilometres outside the town....

 (43°24′18"N 11°1′12"E), although this seems unlikely due to the need for railroad access. However, Lilia refers to the fact that they have purchased a house outside of the Volterra gate which is located only eighteen miles from San Gimignano. The site of Monteriggioni
Monteriggioni
Monteriggioni is a comune in the Province of Siena in the Italian region Tuscany. It borders on the communes of Casole d'Elsa, Castellina in Chianti, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Colle di Val d'Elsa, Poggibonsi, Siena and Sovicille...

 (43°23′23"N 11°13′28"E) fits the description, if one assumes the inscription on the Siena gate is intended for citizens of that town to read on their way to Poggibonsi. Both sites would logically have a Volterra
Volterra
Volterra, known to the ancient Etruscans as Velathri, to the Romans as Volaterrae, is a town and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy.-History:...

gate, as described. The name of the city is a combination of three syllables from the name of Monteriggioni (Monteri-) and two final syllables of San Gimignano (-ano).

Specific details of Monteriano unfold in the course of the novel.
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