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Val d'Orcia - Under the Tuscan Sun

An essay through Tuscany

By Trotternama

April 23^rd, 2020

What is it about Tuscany?

There are a few places in this world, which are forever etched in the oeuvre of popular romanticism. Name them, and glorious images of crimson sunsets over lush green valleys lined with cypress and olive trees creep into your consciousness.

You can almost smell the misty fog rolling over verdant vineyards. You can almost feel the cobblestone streets beneath your feet.

Tuscany is probably on every travellers “places I want to go” list. Popularised by renaissance painters and Hollywood studios alike, we all want to know how it feels like, to be “Under The Tuscan Sun.”

VAL d'ORCIA

A lot of images of “Tuscany” that stare at us from magazine covers and travel portals are of a small valley called Val d’Orcia which gets its name from the Orcia river. This valley in the south of Tuscany stretches from Sienna in the north to Grosetto in the west and is a UNESCO protected World Heritage national park – known for some of the best wines, thermal spas, and vineyards, that the world has to offer.

Val d’Orcia is kind of a perfect destination to start your tryst with Tuscany. It has a little bit of everything, is an incredible location for photography and can be covered in 2-3 days. There are tons of itineraries available, and all of them are mostly good. I will enumerate just one of them which I have had the pleasure of experiencing.

It’s not exhaustive, but for pencil-pushing, cubicle hugging, salaried employees with limited holidays every year, it is a quick and doable trip packed with the right amount of “Tuscany”.

You can fly into Rome trough Fiumicino, take Trenitalia to Siena, spend a day there and then enter Val D’Orcia from Sienna through Via Cassia (SR 2) and then make your way right across to Pienza.

Some of the suggested stops are

Crete Senesi
Buonconvento
Montalcino
Abbey of Sant' Antimo
San Quirico
Horti Leonini Gardens
Capela Vitaleta
Bagno Vignoni
Pienza
Monticchiello
Montepulciano

CRETE SENESI

If the collective imagination of Tuscany is about rolling hills, fields of golden wheat, stacks of hay and winding roads lined with olive and cypress trees, then this is the place where you get to see it.

A recommendation would be to start at dawn and cover Crete Senesi by early morning so that you can spend some time in Buonconvento which is said to be among the most beautiful villages in the world.

Start down Via Cassia ( SR2) and right from the get-go, the entire journey will be an exhibition in landscape photography. In that early morning misty Tuscan smog, the scenery is downright breath-taking, and as soon as you pass Monteroni d'Arbia, you can see the green hills rolling up in the horizon.

There are two suggested stops.

The Crete Senesi Panorama Point ( 7FGM+8M Asciano, Province of Siena, Italy) You can program this plus code on Google Maps to find it
The Abbey of Monte Olivetto Maggiore as an observation point to capture the whole area

The distance from Siena is about 38 kilometres, and in about 40 minutes you should be there at the panorama point. Words will fail to do justice to the scenery on display. So click your cameras and blink your eyes in wonder and amazement at what millions of people across the world have been besotted by.

The glorious Tuscan landscape.

BOUNCONVENTO

Bunconvento is a small medieval village on the SR2. Won’t take long to reach and you won’t be disappointed with what unfolds before your eyes. Partially destroyed in WWII, the village is surrounded by walls, with 9 watchtowers of which two are broken. It is quite amazing to see how the fortifications have survived to date.

Take a stroll along the city centre, and you will come across beautiful small alleys of cobblestones, lined by red brick houses which have attractive flowers hanging from their walls. It is a photo opportunity at every street corner. The town hall with its old sundial, called the Palazzo Communale is a lovely piece of architecture with a red brick façade, lending a ton of colour and character to the surroundings.

The heart of the historical centre called Via Soccini is where you can head for a mid-morning snack. It is as if the sidewalk cafés have leapt out of renaissance paintings and holiday postcards. As you walk you realise that here in this village time has come to a halt. It is like a different space-time continuum and to experience it; you literally have to slow down to let it all sink in.

If you still have some spare time, check out the Museum of Sharecropping located at Piazza Garibaldi and also the biggest church of the village – the Chiesa dei Santi Pientro and Paolo.

MONTALCINO: THE CITY OF BRUNELLO WINE

Buonconvento done, it is time for some gourmet wine tasting. If you are into classic and expensive wines, then chances are you have heard of the Brunello. Montalcino is where it was first cultivated. Today, this village is amongst the most famous of wine destinations in the world for true wine connoisseurs (it even has a renowned wine and Jazz festival in the summer every year) and most of its fame and fortune comes from the Brunello (which apparently needs 5 years to age before you can drink it).

(I am not much of a wine drinker, but I tried it anyway, and though I could not understand what made it so awesome, it was still a nice drink)

Everywhere around though, it is visible, that wine is in the heart of this village economy. Every second shop in the village sells wine and offers exotic tasting and pairing sessions, and all of it is expensive.

Once you have had your Brunello fix, a recommended next step would be to make a beeline for the “Old Fortress” or the Rocca which is famous for two things.

The international wine and jazz festival (which is conducted inside the fortress)
The views from its ramparts which sweep across Monte Amiata, Siena, and Valdorcia are spellbinding in their panoramic vision

Other notable landmarks of Montalcino are the churches of Sant' Agostino, Sant' Egidio and San Francesco. But the one that really catches the eye is the tall and slender clock tower that graces the Palazzo dei Priori, the city's town hall, while below lies the main square known as Piazza del Popolo with its characteristic Gothic loggia.

Give yourself maybe an hour or two to explore the village landmarks and dabble in some photography. Once the shutterbug in you is satisfied, it’s time to go and explore what happens to be one of the most famous churches in the whole of Italy.

ABBEY OF SANT' ANTIMO

Leaving Montalcino behind, you just have to follow the road signs to find your way to this famous Romanesque abbey built in the 12th century. The drive along the winding country road leading to the monastery is a serene experience with vineyards, olive groves, green hills, and isolated farmhouses dotting the entire landscape.

The beauty though lies in the suddenness of its appearance. Just below the medieval hamlet of Castelnuovo dell'Abate, you see this imperial, monolithic and imposing structure built in the middle of absolutely nowhere. The abbey, built in travertine stone, stands in perfect isolation on a plain, among secular olive groves and rolling wheat fields. A mysterious structure residing in ideal solitude in the middle of desolate greenery – a spiritual destination for the pilgrim on the road.

Inside the monastery, it is solemn. The severe atmosphere has an austere, monastic feel. Passageways and prayer halls come to life out of some dystopian Middle Age fantasy, and the experience is steeped in a thousand years of folklore.

Of centuries gone by and of stories never told, witnessed by walls which cannot speak.

One thing that is recommended is to time your visit with that of the morning prayer mass so that you can immerse yourself in the mysticism of chapel monks chanting sombre Gregorian hymns at the pulpit. The monophonic sounds reverberate from the walls creating a trance like verve which completely overwhelm your senses leaving you a bit disconnected, detached and spiritually uplifted.

Worth experiencing.

San Quirico as dawn breaks and morning shines through

SAN QUIRICO D'ORCIA

Now that you have seen the Abbey of Sant' Antimo, it’s time to get acquainted with the most photographed trees of the world!

Halfway between Pienza and Montalcino sits the beautiful town of San Quirico d'Orcia. Right before you arrive though, you need to cross a bridge, and on the right, you can see the famous cypresses of San Quirico. There are two clusters, and it is highly recommended that you stop for a moment and get cracking on your instagram skills

Feed the following co-ordinates into your GPS

43 ° 03'45.62 "N 11 ° 33'31.86" E
43 ° 03'38.99 "N 11 ° 33'30.49" E

If GPS is a hassle, don’t worry. You will find tons of cars parked by the roadside with hundreds of tourists milling about, going camera crazy for the most famous Cypress trees in the world.

It’s unmissable.

Hay bales lie strewn across the valley floor near San Quirico

A large part of San Quirico’s antique town walls stand along with 14 small towers. The best-kept gate is the Porta Cappucini, a strange hexagonal structure. Central to Via Dante Alighieri, is the Porta Nuova. A small brick gate to the Porta Nuova gives access to the Horti Leonini gardens.

There are quite a few churches of significance that you can visit in San Quirico, but if there were one place that you would rather not miss out on, it would be the Horti Leonini gardens! Laid out by Diomede Leoni in 1580, it is a superb example of the Italian landscaped garden. The smaller garden is shaped like a rhombus and is fenced with brick walls and potted ilex trees. You come across triangular flowerbeds with a doubled-edged fence, but what really stands out is a statue of Cosimo III dei Medici. The composition has a radial design with various kinds and heights of vegetation that separate each flowerbed.

Many parts of it will remind you of the Boboli Gardens in Florence (for those who have seen it)

CAPELLA VITALETTA

From Horti Leonini it’s onward to experience a different kind of landscape.

Located in the hills of Val d’Orcia, between San Quirico d’Orcia and Pienza lies the Chapel of the Madonna di Vitaleta. Take the Strada Provinciale 146 linking San Quirico d’Orcia to Pienza, and as soon as you see the sign for the chapel, turn off into the dirt road that lies ahead.

You’ll then need to park the car and walk to the chapel, which is about a good kilometre away. However, if walks could be divine, this one kilometre lies in that realm of divinity.

Two rows of cypress trees frame this small chapel which is built on a spot where according to legend, Virgin Mary appeared as a shepherdess. Today it is a UNESCO HERITAGE site where thousands of tourists travel every year, because of its sheer beauty. The chapel itself has an aura of mystique because of its isolated location in the middle of nowhere, but what takes your breath away are the 360-degree views of the verdant green valley, the fields of gold and a red carpet of poppies.

Don’t miss out. The pictures you capture here will last you a lifetime of memories.

BAGNO VIGNONI

You can’t really travel to Tuscany and not experience its famous thermal spa’s. It might be difficult to do it in the same day, so the recommendation would be to add a second day and start your spa exploration from the tiny village of Bagno Vignoni; a heart-warming little hamlet situated on a little hill above Val d’Orcia.

Unlike most villages though, the town centre here is an ancient thermal bath whose therapeutic quality has been renowned since antiquity. It is basically a rectangular tank of sixteenth-century origin, which contains the original source of water that comes from the subterranean aquifer of volcanic origins.

While the central pool is no longer open to the public, Bagno Vignoni is perfect for a relaxing romantic holiday away from frenzied city life. Once you have explored the central pool, you can head right down to the Parco dei Mulini to unwind in a spring of hot water. There is no entrance fee, and you can see many tourists and locals having a fun time enjoying the natural hot water baths of this beautiful place.

PIENZA

If wine is on the menu, can cheese be far behind? Welcome to Pienza, the city of cacio or cheese! Pienza is known for its Pecorino cheese made of sheep’s milk, and everywhere in town, you can see little boutique shops selling different kinds of pecorino cheese with wine, handmade pasta, spices and honey!

But it is not cheese that made Pienza famous.

Arguably it is one of the most beautiful cities in the whole of Italy – no small feat considering the number of fascinating towns Italy has. The beauty comes from its location and architecture. Situated on a hilltop in the middle of Val d’Orcia, the city was built in the 1400s by Pope Pius II who wanted this to be the “ideal” city for people to live in. This was the first city where the ideals of renaissance architecture were applied which later spread all across Italy and beyond.

Situated in the city square, the Palazzo Piccolomini, Palazzo Borgia, Palazzo Ammannati, Palazzo Gonzaga and Palazzo del Cardinale Atrebatense are examples of some of the most exquisite Renaissance architecture anywhere in the world.

It is also the city where people fall in love, and with streets which have amorous names like Via del’Amore (street of love) and Via del Bacio (kiss street), it’s no wonder why!

For travellers, though, there is one more reason why Pienza is perfect. It is the best location to explore Val d’Orcia if you have a few days. Crete Senesi, Buonvento, Montalcino, Bago Vignoni, Monticchiello and Montepulciano are all within 15-20 kilometres of its radius, which allows you to make day trips to each of these places and then come back to your hotel by the evening and rest.

The picture-perfect base station.

MONTEPULCIANO

Leaving aside the fact that the Twilight saga New Moon was filmed here, Montepulciano is mostly known for its famous wine Vino Nobile, renowned the world over within wine connoisseurs. It is also the city where the Val d’Orcia meets Val d’Chiana, making it a border town between two of the most beautiful valleys anywhere in the world.

The best way to see Montepulciano is on foot, getting lost in its cobbled alleys and exploring the rural beauty of its many palazzo’s only to find your way back again to the city centre, the Piazza Grande

The Palazzo Communale, Palazzo Tarugi, Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and the sanctuary of Madonna di San Biagio are some of the must-see attractions of Montepulciano. However on the index of cultural gems, the winner is an annual local festival called the Bravio delle Botti ; one of the most interesting and original festivals of Tuscany comprising a race which consists of pushing large wine barrels uphill through the town, the finish line being in the beautiful Piazza Grande in the heart of Montepulciano!

Well that in a nutshell is a virtual window to the natural phenomenon that is Val d'Orcia. Though the valley is infinitely bigger and has many more attractions than the ones listed above, the ones mentioned here give you a fairly good experience of what Tuscany is all about. To see it all you probably will need more than one trip.

But here is the thing about Tuscany. Once you have experienced it, you will most probably end up wanting to go back again. I have been there thrice and am yet to see it all.