Seemingly unending lines of grapevines, gently rolling hills, and beautifully conserved medieval hill towns. This is the landscape which greets visitors to Tuscany's Val d'Orcia, a valley traversed by both the river Orcia and the Via Cassia, the ancient Roman road which linked the capital with Northern Italy and was later to become the Via Francigena.
Our journey commences in Montalcino, a name no doubt familiar to lovers of Italian wine. This is the place where the Brunello di Montalcino is produced, one of the world's most highly acclaimed wines. Occupying a strategic position overlooking the town and the surrounding countryside, Montalcino's magnificent 14th century Castle serves as indication of the town's past importance. Like almost all medieval towns in central Italy, Montalcino has its fair share of churches, including the 14th century Churches of Sant Egidio and Sant Agostino and the Cathedral, built in neoclassical style on the site of an 11th century house of worship.
Situated just a few kilometers away from Montalcino, the Abbey of Sant'Antimo is, perhaps, the finest example of Romanesque architecture in Tuscany, if not the whole of Italy. Legend has it that the man responsible for its construction, and who decided to deposit the relics of Saint Sebastian and Saint Antimo here, was none other than the great Charlemagne.
From Sant Antimo we head to San Quirico d'Orcia, the origins of which are believed to date back to the Etruscan period. A beautifully conserved medieval town, still enclosed within its massif perimeter wall, San Quirico d'Orcia is home to the stunning Romanesque Collegiate Church of Saints Quirico and Giulitta, and the Horti Leonini gardens. The gardens, a splendid example of renaissance landscape gardening, were constructed in the late 16th century on land donated to Diomede Leoni by Francesco I dei Medici.
The tiny Tuscan town of Bagno Vignoni has been famous since Roman times for the health inducing properties of its thermal waters, waters which surface from the town's volcanic rock at a temperature of 50° to be channeled in to the large baths in the center of the main square. Opposite the 16th century fountain, there is a little sanctuary dedicated to Santa Caterina of Siena, who apparently regularly took a dip in the waters of Bagno Vignoni.
Long before reaching Castiglione d'Orcia, visitors will see the form of the town's imposing Rocca degli Aldobrandeschi rising up on the horizon. Life in the little medieval town continues to gravitate around its Piazza Vecchietta, named after Castiglione d'Orcia's most illustrious citizen, the renaissance painter Lorenzo di Pietro. The piazza is famous for its geometric patterned pavement created using river stones, and the superb 17th century marble fountain at its center. The Church of Santi Stefano and Degna is more than worthy of visit.
Our journey through the Val d'Orcia concludes in Pienza, town built entirely according to the canons of renaissance architecture and now an UNESCO world heritage site. It was Pope Pius II, born Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who decided to transform his home town in ideal city. Pope Pius II called upon Bernardo Rosselino, one of the most revered architects of the time, to realize his ambitious project. The heart of Pienza is its trapezoidal piazza overlooked by the Cathedral, Palazzo Borgia, and Palazzo Piccolomini, this latter with elegant renaissance courtyard and hanging garden.
