Museo di San Francesco, Greve in Chianti

Because a town of thirteen thousand people has a museum holding a Granacci, an Embriachi ivory and a Venetian rock-crystal cross — all of them carried in from country churches that could no longer keep them.

The museum opened on 7 September 2002 in the former convent of San Francesco, and from November 2003 it also holds an Antiquarium of Etruscan, Roman and medieval finds from the territory.

The friction is that it is small and its hours are not published in the sources behind this page — a two-floor civic museum, not a major gallery.

The smart way is to see it after the Propositura di Santa Croce, since one of the museum's panels — a 14th-century Annunciation — came out of that church.

This collection exists because country churches could not keep it. Nearly every piece has a church named against it. Treat the museum as what it is — a refuge for works that were losing to damp, theft and depopulation.

No flash. Polychrome terracotta, painted stucco, painted glass, carved ivory and a rock-crystal cross are about as light- and handling-sensitive a group as a small museum can hold.

If it is open and staffed, it is staffed thinly. A municipal museum in a town of 13,321 people runs on few people; arrive in good time rather than at closing.

Pay the admission if there is one. This page cannot tell you the price because nobody publishes it, but a collection drawn from a dozen parishes is maintained locally.

Where. In the complex of the former convent of San Francesco, Greve in Chianti, a short walk from Piazza Matteotti.

Hours and admission. No opening hours or admission charge are published in the sources behind this page, and the comune's own site carries none either. Confirm before making a special trip.

Who to ask. The Comune di Greve in Chianti, Piazza Giacomo Matteotti 7/8, switchboard 055 85451. Its organisational structure lists an Ufficio Turistico.

How long. An hour. Two levels plus the archaeological section, and the ground-floor oratory deserves half of that on its own.

See it in the right order. Visit the Propositura di Santa Croce first: the museum's 14th-century Annunciation came out of that church, and the Buglioni frame here is by the same workshop as the ciborium there.

And then Montefioralle, whose church of Santo Stefano gave up the rock-crystal reliquary cross on display in the sacristy.

Check first. No hours are published for this museum in the sources behind this page, which makes it the one sight in Greve that can defeat a casual visit. The comune switchboard is 055 85451.

Weekdays and the shoulder seasons are the likeliest for a small civic museum to be staffed and quiet at the same time.

Autumn fills Greve for the harvest, and a two-floor museum fills faster than a square does.

Winter is when a Chianti day needs an indoor hour, and this is the best one in the town — if it is open.

4 October is San Francesco, which is the convent's dedication if not the museum's subject.