The town of Montelupo Fiorentino, founded in the Middle Ages but with pre-Etruscan origins, is in the province of Florence and it has a population of about 11,000 inhabitants. The pivots of its economy are the production of Chianti wine and of pottery.

The XIV century Tower of the Frescobaldi, the Medicean Villa of the Ambrogiana, rich in works of art and in precious furniture, and the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista, where a work representing the "Madonna con il bambino ed i Santi" is kept, can be visited near the town of Montelupo Fiorentino of Etruscan origins.
The territory of Montelupo is included in a very interesting area from an archaeological point of view. In effect, the excavations carried out in the area in the 70's unearthed numerous testimonies dating to the Palaeolithic, to the Mesolithic and to the first primitive civilizations of the Neolithic and of the Iron Age. Moreover, there are also testimonies of the Etruscan and Roman presence here.
Nevertheless, as most of the Tuscan towns, Montelupo was founded with the construction of a castle in the Middle Ages that the Florentines restructured and enlarged in 1204. By this time, the centre was already specialized in the production of enamelled pottery that experienced its acme between 1490 and 1540. The village, which developed around the ancient but still present Prioria di San Lorenzo, was further fortified in the XIV century, even if the plague remarkably affected the population increase of the village. Montelupo progressively appeared as one of Florence's productive appendixes, since it exercised its dominion over the small and rich handicraft centre by involving it into its historical events.
In the XVII century, the production of pottery changed to meet new markets needs: on one side, there are the commissions required by the Medici who require extremely precious decorations as well as pottery for the church of Santa Maria Novella and the floors for their villas; on the other side, also a more economic and more pragmatic popular production intensified. This sector wet through a crisis in the XVII century, but the continuous activity of the glassmakers allowed this activity to continue and recover its strength in the XIX century and remain the most important activity of this Tuscan centre.