Val d'Elsa:
San Gimignano, Colle Val d'Elsa, Monteriggioni
Three fortified villages between Siena and Florence. San Gimignano is the classic symbol of the medieval Tuscan village, offering, in addition to its famous stone towers, beautiful churches packed with frescoes and sculptures, starting with the Collegiata, where the best art of Siena and Florence come together. Don’t miss the Pinacoteca in the Palazzo Comunale, from which you can climb to the top of the Torre Grossa tower, or the Spezieria di Santa Fina. Colle Val d'Elsa, hometown of Arnolfo di Cambio, is a quiet place off the beaten track with plenty of intriguing churches and Renaissance buildings to see. Its strategic location on the Elsa River made the town a centre of paper production, and more recently of the manufacture of crystal, an industry in which the city leads the world. A contemporary touch was added in 2000, when architect Jean Nouvel coordinated a team of contemporary artists working on a number of buildings in the city. Monteriggioni, a castle in the form of a hilltop crown of towers, was built in 1215 as an outpost to protect the city of Siena from Florence. While exploring the Val d'Elsa, that is, the Elsa Valley, I also suggest you visit the monuments of the old part of the town of Poggibonsi: the archaeological remains of Poggio Bonizio, the Basilica di San Lucchese, the Fonte delle Fate, and the fortress of Poggio Imperiale, stopping by the village of Casole d'Elsa to see the Collegiata, the little museum and contemporary art installations.
Chianti:
castles, villages, vineyards and legends
Possibly the most mysterious of the areas around the town of Siena, the Chianti country retains all its ancient charm. Rather ironically for an area best known today for its excellent wine, the name Chianti would seem to come from an ancient word for water, which abounds in the area. The unique Chianti district in the heart of Tuscany is one third vineyards and two thirds forest, on the slopes of the region’s low mountains, dotted with countless little castles and tiny fortified villages dating back to the Etruscans. In medieval times, the villages of the “Chianti Classico” district, Gaiole, Radda and Castellina in Chianti, formed the Terzieri of the powerful military alliance in defence of Florence known as the Lega del Chianti, the Chianti League. Always a place of passage, the Chianti area preserves its historic traditions and legends, such as the Gallo Nero, the black rooster that has become a symbol of the area’s famous wine, and the story of the ghost of Bettino Ricasoli, lord of the castle of Brolio. I’ll take you on a tour of the Chianti district’s villages, castles, abbeys, and private gardens, stopping on the way to sample the region’s world-famous “red gold”!
Montagnola: Magnificent gardens, Romanesque chapels and enchanted cloisters
Once abundant in mineral resources and marble quarries, the Montagnola is now the least frequently explored part of the province of Siena, though it has some incredible surprises in store for the visitor. Romanesque art takes imaginative form in the country churches in Ponte allo Spino, the historic summer residence of the bishops of Siena, Rosìa, Pernìna and Marmoraia, and in the intimate private cloister of the Abbey of Torri, with its three orders in different styles and its vast repertoire of carved capitals. The woods and fields of the Montagnola district are dotted with villas of the ancient aristocratic families of Siena, such as those in Celsa and Cetinale, with their magnificent parks and Italian-style gardens designed by prominent Renaissance and Baroque architects to amaze the visitors of yesterday – and today!
The Abbey of San Galgano and the sword in the stone
Hidden among the woods on the way to the Maremma, the roofless Cistercian Abbey of of San Galgano is an essential destination for any curious traveller. The tour begins at the Romanesque rotunda of Montesiepi, where, the knight Galgano Guidotti, struck by a vision of the Archangel Michael, planted his sword in the rock to form a cross and gave up his knighthood to become a hermit in the year 1180. The monastic community continued to grow after his death, building the abbey in the valley below, accessed via a short country path. Our tour continues in the village of Chiusdino, where Saint Galgano was born, to visit his home, now a museum displaying precious artefacts such as a splendid reliquary of his head, a masterpiece of the goldsmith’s art of fourteenth-century Siena.
The Crete Senesi, or Clay Hills of Siena:
Asciano and Monte Oliveto Maggiore
This area presents some of the most spectacular landscapes of Tuscany, along the poetic Via Lauretana, the pilgrimage route to the Sanctuary of Loreto, in the region of the Marche. The dirt roads running along narrow ridges, cypress-lined lanes and hills dotted with farmhouses have inspired painters for centuries, such as Sienese Renaissance painter Giovanni di Paolo. I highly recommend a stop in Asciano, in the centre of the clay hills, to visit the tiny but marvellous museum in Palazzo Corboli, containing a collection of tablets painted on gold leaf and wooden statues from the churches of the area, along with a mysterious fresco cycle of oriental inspiration. Don’t miss the guided tour of the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, mother house of the Benedictine Order of the Olivetans, founded in the fourteenth century by Saint Bernardo Tolomei and enriched with splendid masterpieces of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century art. The wooden choir stalls in the church were inlaid to create optical illusions by the sixteenth-century monk Giovanni da Verona. The frescoes in the main cloister illustrate the life of Saint Benedict of Norcia, founder of western monasticism, as interpreted by prominent central Italian Renaissance painters Luca Signorelli and Antonio Bazzi, better known as Sodoma. The monastery’s library, chapter house, refectory, and ancient wine cellars are open to visitors. The tour concludes with a stop in the village of Chiusure.
Val d'Arbia:
Murlo and Buonconvento
The tiny village of Murlo rose to world renown for a scientific experiment demonstrating that its people still have the same DNA as their ancient Etruscan ancestors. In the 1960s, a team of American archaeologists brought to light the remains of a princely Etruscan home which had been burnt down, rebuilt, and then abandoned by a prominent family on the run. The village’s archaeological museum displays the remains of the roof of the house, which is surprisingly similar to modern-day roofs but with unusual terracotta statues, defenders of the home wearing big hats. At the spot where the Arbia flows into the Ombrone River stands the walled market town of Buonconvento, fortified by the city of Siena. Don’t miss the village’s lovely little museum of medieval and Renaissance art, the anthropological Museo della Mezzadria, all about traditional farming life, and a stroll about the town’s houses in Art Nouveau style.
Val d'Orcia:
San Quirico, Bagno Vignoni, Radicofani, Castiglion d'Orcia
A World Heritage Site since 2004 with its intact landscape, the Val d'Orcia offers classic Tuscan landscapes dominated by the gently rounded peak of Mount Amiata. The five main towns in the valley are all worth visiting: Pienza, with its Renaissance square built on a human scale on the orders of Pope Pius II; San Quirico d'Orcia, with its Romanesque churches, the Horti Leonini, the oldest example of a public park, dating back to the sixteenth century, and Palazzo Chigi, a palace worthy of a pope; and Montalcino, with its fortress, Palazzo dei Priori and nearby Abbey of Sant'Antimo, Tuscany’s most beautiful Romanesque church. Then there are Castiglion d'Orcia and Radicofani, with their imposing fortifications and beautiful churches, and the villages of Montichiello, Bagno Vignoni, and Bagni San Filippo, perfect places to stop for a meal or to take the waters at the hot springs. Don’t miss the gardens of Villa La Foce.
All these attractions can be combined to create a variety of itineraries over several days.
All these attractions can be combined to create a variety of itineraries over several days.
Pienza:
from Corsignano to Pope Pius II
Enea Silvio Piccolomini was born in 1405 in the village of Corsignano, overlooking the Val d'Orcia. The man of letters, diplomat and pope wanted to rebuild his hometown as a new Renaissance city. He himself designed the town square, describe as ideal and built on a human scale, with the cathedral, Palazzo Piccolomini and the cardinals’ palaces. Pienza offers the ideal combination of art, history and landscape. My tour takes you below the surface to discover what the town looked like before and after Pius II, from the Romanesque church of Corsignano, outside the city walls, to the efforts of Count Silvio Piccolomini to revive the memory of his illustrious ancestor in the early twentieth century. No visit to the Pienza area would be complete without a stop in the fascinating fortified frontier village of Monticchiello.
Montepulciano and
the Val di Chiana Senese
A sixteenth-century treasure, the town of Montepulciano actually dates back to Etruscan times. We may begin our tour outside the town, at the Temple of San Biagio, a splendid sixteenth-century church with a central layout designed by the architect Sangallo, going on to visit the church of Sant'Agnese, the town’s other patron saint, and proceed up the main street, which changes its name as it rises amid beautiful palaces and churches in a variety of architectural styles. At the top is Piazza Grande, home to the town’s vast cathedral with its incomplete façade, the Contucci and Nobili Tarugi palaces, also designed by Sangallo, and the City Hall or Palazzo Comunale, a miniature version of Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio. Montepulciano was in fact a smaller version of Florence, a fact that will become clear upon visiting the city’s museum, whose many treasures include a collection of ceramics by Della Robbia. Don’t forget to stop by one or two of the wineries in the cellars of the town’s ancient buildings!
The Etruscans:
archaeological tour
Our Etruscan ancestors loved music, the theatre, art and wine. They were great hydraulic engineers and refined goldsmiths. Women enjoyed the same status as men in political, military and cultural life. The great Etruscan civilisation, rediscovered when the swamps of the Val di Chiana were drained in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, continues to turn up amazing discoveries in more recent excavations. Chiusi, one of the northern capitals of the Etruscan confederation, is home to the National Etruscan Museum, containing treasures such as the anthropomorphic canopic jars. The town’s Civic Museum contains the world’s biggest collection of engraved tombstones, and the road down to the lake passes through a necropolis where visitors may descend into the original tombs. Chiusi also has two fascinating Christian catacombs. Chianciano Terme is renowned for its Museum of Water, containing the ruins of a temple dedicated to a divinity of hot springs. In Sarteano, as well as the medieval castle and collection of paintings in the church of San Martino, I suggest a stop at the little archaeological museum, containing a reconstruction of the painted tomb of the Quadriga Infernale, discovered only recently. While in San Casciano dei Bagni, a sanctuary and votive treasure that was one of the most important in Europe in the Hellenistic age is re-emerging after being forgotten for thousands of years, submerged in the waters of the hot springs.
The treasures of Mount Amiata
A mountain of volcanic origin, sacred to Tinia, the greatest divinity of the Etruscans, Mount Amiata dominates the landscape of southern Tuscany with its rounded peak. The town of Abbadia San Salvatore rose around the severe volume of the Benedictine Abbey of the same name, founded in the eighth century by Longobard King Ratchis and characterised by a Romanesque façade with twin towers. Every one of the columns in the crypt is different! The church also contains a 12th-century wooden crucifix and frescoes by the local Nasini family of painters. Next to the church is the historic town centre, built of dark stone, with the characteristic architraves of the houses decorated with symbols engraved in stone. A visit to the Mining Museum is an interesting experience. The town of Piancastagnaio wraps around the massive Rocca Aldobrandesca, offering testimony of its past importance such as Palazzo Bourbon del Monte and the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Pietro. The “Piatto delle Streghe” is a monolithic fountain, now practically abandoned, in the garden next to the church. Stop by the town of Santa Fiora to see the church sacred to saints Flora and Lucilla, with a collection of Della Robbia ceramics, the ghetto, and the beautiful fishpond at the source of the Fiora.
Art and wine tour
The province of Siena produces a record-breaking number of prestigious wines, including five DOCG wines produced only in specific territories. They are Chianti Classico, patented by Baron Bettino Ricasoli in the 19th century and produced in the municipalities of Gaiole, Radda and Castellina in Chianti; Chianti Colli Senesi, produced in the hills just outside Siena; Vernaccia di San Gimignano, the queen of the region’s white wines, known and sold all over Europe since the 13th century, traded along the Via Francigena; prestigious Brunello di Montalcino, also officially classified in the late nineteenth century and now produced in more than two hundred wineries, all in the municipality of Montalcino, between the town, the Orcia valley and the sea; and, finally, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, which Francesco Redi called “the king of all wines” in the 17th century. Any number of itineraries combining art and culture with wine-tasting can be built around these wines, as well as other traditional local products such as pecorino cheese, cured meats, honey, saffron, home-made pasta and traditional recipes.
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