As a thank you to fans, @Twilight gave us a peek into director Chris Weitz's production notes from the Montepulciano shoot.
Montepulciano Set
We will be using the town of Montepulciano to serve as Volterra. We scouted about ten Italian hilltowns, and Montepulciano offered the best combination of beauty, age, change in height (you can see rolling fields below from the alleys running up to the main square, etc.) and symmetry that satisfied my obsessive qualities. Why not finish off this roundup with a little Italian scenery:
This is the clock tower of the main square of Montepulciano. Directly underneath is where Edward intends to reveal himself to the crowd (I prefer that to an alley way – that would be too blah and ordinary). The cafe on the very right of the shot was THE hangout for Twi-fans who went to Montepulciano -- people would sit up there and order coffees for the whole day to get a close look at filming!
This is what Bella sees as she finishes her run upwards and arrives at the square:
In other words, she sort of ascends through a series of alley ways and streets to the square itself. Here is a shot from the top of the clock tower itself, showing the square from above which, like the throng of visitors to the festival, also happens to be red –
To the upper right, you can see the corner that Bella turns as per the previous photo; and past that, green hills below…