The Val d'Orcia

Dear Friends,

Today, I would like to talk to you all again about this beautiful valley in the south of Tuscany, called the Val d'Orcia, a place that, in my opinion, everyone should visit on their trip to Tuscany.

This valley, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located between Monte Amiata and the Trinoro Valley, and the rolling hills of Pienza and Montichiello, and offers various sites of interest which one should not miss if they're doing a route through Tuscany.

The most distinguished town in the Val d'Orcia is, without a doubt, its "imaginary capital", Pienza, which overlooks the whole valley with its towering walls. Pienza is located in a place so beautiful that even the Pope fell in love with the area and spent a significant number of Church funds in order to create a project for the “Perfect Renaissance City”. If you would like to learn more about this wonderful place, I would recommend that you check out: Pienza

The second famous town in this valley is, without a doubt, San Quirico d’Orcia. Before talking about this place, it’s important to point out that the road that connects these two towns passes through a landscape of immense and incomparable beauty and which cannot be missed. The scenery that you’ll witness passing through here has been used as a setting for such blockbuster movies as Gladiator, the English Patient, and Twilight, among others.

San Quirico, like Pienza, has a number of sites of cultural, artistic and religious interest that you could visit. For more information, check out: San Quirico d'Orcia

Once you have visited Pienza and San Quirico d’Orcia, the route through this part of Tuscany continues towards Bagno Vignoni, an ancient village famous for its thermal waters. The road between San Quirico and Bagno Vignoni passes through some of the most magnificent scenery that is still beautiful at any time of the year, and I would recommend that you drive slowly and carefully because I’m sure that you will find tourists who have stopped alongside the road in order to immortalize this beautiful landscape with their cameras.

Bagno Vignoni, unlike the other towns, does not have a historic center, but it does have two incredible thermal baths (one of which is only open to the public in the summer) which are worth visiting, in order to enjoy a 35 degree bath surrounded by gorgeous scenery. To learn a bit more about this town, you can read this: Bagno Vignoni

If you wish to see more photos of the towns mentioned in this post, I would recommend that you visit our Facebook page: Tuscany Blog. There you’ll find a lot of photos from these beautiful places. Also, if you become a fan of our page, you can become a part of our group and be able to use our forum to ask questions, advice or comment about your own experiences in Tuscany.

In the next post, we will talk about the “unknown” Val d’Orcia and its less touristy towns which only we Tuscans know about.

Kind regards,

George