I found it's possible to avoid doing a leap of faith into the haystack at this first part after arriving at Monteriggioni. This allows you to freely explore the outside areas! At first I thought it could be a cutscene skip as well, but unfortunately it doesn't work that way... lucky for speedrunners since this trick is a pain to do.
(I haven't got a consistent way to do it. I mostly just shake the analog stick from up-left to up-right while trying to jump, and with luck, this happens.)
The ladder you can see Lucy climbing in the scene is not a ladder at all!
Walking into (either?) haystack has some glitchy effects. I think when I tried to jump up it caused Desmond to teleport. Then the actual scene began. I didn't watch much of the scene in fear of the auto-save ruining testing for me.
Roads leading out from Monteriggioni are blocked or in their stead are huge chasms. What is this, Silent Hill? I tried both sides and just got rewarded by falling in water far beneath the level as ground gave way. Navigating as close to the city walls as possible allowed getting further, almost completely to the other side of Monteriggioni. But on this testing attempt, I still fell short of reaching the front gate... get it, "I fell"... ah, screw it.
