Pienza

ience is a small village in southern Tuscany, in the famous Val d’Orcia, a must visit. It is located approx 20 km is di Montalcino and a few km west of Montepulciano in the beautiful region of Val d’Orcia south of Siena, between soft and poetic hills and fabulous views. Pienza enjoys a truly strategic position perched on top of a hill, overlooking the entire Orcia valley with a breathtaking view.

This charming village is widely known as the city “ideal” of the Renaissance, creation of the great humanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini, later became Pope Pius II. Piccolomini had the economic possibilities and the influence to be able to transform his humble native village, Corsignano, in what he believed must be a utopian city, which should have embodied the principles and philosophy of the classical age and the great Italian Renaissance.

The project was carried out by the architect Bernardo known as Rossellino, under the guidance of the great humanist Leon Battista Alberti. In just 3 years a complex of beautiful and harmonious buildings was built: Cathedral, the papal residence or Piccolomini Palace, the common, and the enchanting central square.

The historic center of Pienza was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996.

The imposing Piccolomini Palace to the right of the Duomo has a fantastic Loggia with a wonderful suspended garden from which you can admire a truly unique view over the entire Orcia valley, from Montalcino to the volcanic Mount Amiata. Palazzo Piccolomini was even chosen by Franco Zeffirelli to shoot some scenes of his famous and romantic film Romeo and Juliet; here the two lovers meet for the first time at the party in the Capulet house.

The impression you get, walking through the narrow streets of Pienza, it is that of a harmonious and proportionate whole; somehow it is as if you were admiring a Renaissance city portrayed in a beautiful painting.