Pienza has some wonderful views over the Val d'Orcia below, so be sure to climb up from the Piazza Dante Alighieri (Porta al Prato) to the via Santa Caterina at the edge of the town and marvel at the wonderful panorama.

Piazza Pio II (Piazza Spagna) is intact, incorporanting the most rigorous of Renaissance perspective, and containing the cathedral and Palazzo Piccolomini. The town's main axis is corso Rossellino, lined with houses built by the nobility in the 14th century. The Renaissance square has a trapezium shape, and around it are the principal monuments erected by Bernardo Rossellino. In front of the Piccolomini Palace is a magnificent weil, the Pozzo dei Cani, that bears the coat-of-arms of the family. The well appeared in the film The English Patient.
The squared pavement ailows the observer to immediately evaluate the distance and proportions of the buildings.
Around Piazza Pio II, the Piccolomini and Borgia palaces and the cathedral are a testimony to this extraordinary vision which has made its historic centre one of the finest in the world.

The Cattedrale dell'Assunta was built between 1459 and 1462. While the rest of the building is in tufa, the facade is in travertine with a double order of columns and three portals. The façade that is one of the earliest designed in the Renaissance manner. Though the tripartite division is conventional, the use of pilasters and of columns, standing on high dados and linked by arches, was novel for the time.

Its luminous cathedral, Cattedrale dell'Assunta, houses panel paintings by the most renowned Sienese artists of the period. (The Assumption by Lorenzo of Pietro, The Virgin with Child by Sano of Pietro and an altar piece by Giovanni of Paolo and Matteo of Giovanni. Fragments of Romanesque sculpture are preserved in the crypt.

Palazzo Piccolomini

Next door, the imposing family residence Palazzo Piccolomini is graced with a loggia offering a fabulous panorama over Val d' Orcia. The Rucellai Palace in Florence inspired Rossellino's design of the Piccolomini Palace, the principal residence of the Pope. Today it is a museum that preserves many interesting heirlooms of the Piccolomini family. At the rear of the palazzo there is an ornate arcaded courtyard and a triple-tiered loggia looking out on the small but beautiful garden. From here there are spectacular views across to the wooded slopes of the Monte Amiata.
The palace is today the site of the Archivio di Stato of Siena with the museum of the Biccherne where it is possible to admire the outstanding collection of painted biccherna tablets, originally book covers of the ledgers of the biccherna and gabella, the financial and fiscal offices of the commune of Siena.
The Piccolomini garden was commissioned by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Pope Pius II) from Bernardo Rossellino. The small terraced area dominates the entire Val d'Orcia and despite recent alterations still displays the typical features of the Renaissance garden.

There is a nice well, the Pozzo dei Cani, set in an angle between the palace and Corso Rossellino.

Palazzo Borgia | Museo della Cattedrale

Pius encouraged his cardinals to build palazzi to complete the city. Opposite the Palazzo Piccolómini, to the left of the cathedral, is the Palazzo Vescovile (Bishop's Palace), which dates in its present form from the 15th century. It was built for Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI.[1] Palazzo Borgia, on the third side of the piazza, was built to house the bishops who would travel to Pienza to attend the pope. It is now home to the Diocesan Museum, and the Museo della Cattedrale. The collection includes local textile work as well as religious artifacts. Paintings include a 12th-century painted crucifix from the Abbey of San Pietro in Vollore, 14th century works by Pietro Lorenzetti (Madonna with Child) and Bartolo di Fredi (Madonna della Misericordia). There are also important works from the 14th and 15th centuries, including a Madonna attributed to Luca Signorelli.
The Episcopal Palace was purchased by the Pope for the Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, who transformed it by addicting a storey and replacing the Gothic windows. To the right of the bishop's palace, with its facade looking on to the side wall of the cathedral, is the Casa dei Canónici, a palazzo in restrained Renaissance style. It is now occupied by the Museo Diocesano di Arte Sacra, also known as the Museo della Cattedrale.

Facing the north front of the Palazzo Piccolómini, in Corso Rossellino, is the Palazzo Ammannati, built for Cardinal Giácomo Ammannati of Pavia, a friend of Pius II's.

The Palazzo Comunale, made of stuccoed tufa and brick with graffito, is in Tuscan style with an open lodge made of travertine at the ground level and a crenellated tower. The town hall was constructed in the second half of 1462. The bell tower was added later at a lower height than the Cathedral bell tower to underline the importance of church power over civil power. In the Counsel Room there is a beautiful fresco of the Sienese school of the 1400s by an unknown artist.

Other noteworthy buildings in Pienza include the Ammannati Palace, the Gonzaga Palace and the Palazzo del Cardinale Atrebatense, all built in the 15th century. They are are situated on the Rossellino Avenue (between the Gate al Prato to the Gate al Ciglio).

About fifty meters west of the piazza is the church of San Francesco, with a gabled façade and gothic portal. Among the buildings that survived from the old Corsignano, it is built on a pre-existing church that dated from the 8th century. The interior contains frescoes depicting the life of Saint Francis, those on the walls having been painted by Cristofano di Bindoccio and Meo di Pero, 14th century artists of the Sienese School.

Chiesa di San Francesco

The Chiesa di San Francesco is one of the oldest Franciscan buildings of Italy and the only monument that remains of the ancient hamlet of Corsignano. The church dates from the second half of the 13th century, presents a simple hut like facade, decorated with a beautiful Gothic portal and inside a single nave with a hammer beam ceiling. The walls, one time totally frescoed, are today only represented by a few painted figurative images, mainly of evangelistic and Franciscan subjects.
The apse is completely covered with figurative frescoes representing, on the vault, the three Franciscans virtues and on the wall episodes of the life of S. Francis. These like the major part of the paintings, we re executed by Cristofano di Bindoccio and Meo di Pero, Sienese artists from the second half of the 14th century.

Just inside Porta al Prato, Via Gozzante leads to a delightful raised walkway along the walls on the south side of the town which overlooks the valley, the Via Santa Caterina.

The Passaggiata Panoramica passes beneath the garden of Palazzo Piccolomini and continues from the Canonica to the Porta al Ciglio at the far end of Corso Rossellino. Outside the gate is a fortified palace with two impressive round towers. The old medieval streets of Corsignano are extemely picturesque

The hermitage Romitorio di Pienza, an Etruscan tomb excavated in the rocks and used as a hermitage in the Middle Ages, is situated near to the small seventeenth century chapel of Saint Catherine. Originally an Etruscan tomb, the romitorio was later used as a hermitage by monks in the Middle Ages. It is accessible by a short walk, and consists of a series of areas dug out of the sandstone, where the hermit monks lived, presumably from the 11th to the 18th centuries. The complex rises from a privileged position, both from a climatic and landscape point of view. A chapel was constructed in the upper part, dating from the second half of the 1500's, and contains relief sculptured into the rock, representing the Madonna suckling the Child. For the first decades of the last century, it was visited by the women of the area seeking to obtain fertility and an abundance of milk. In the lower part the hermitage there are several spaces with important rock sculptures dating from the second half of the 13th century to the 16th.
The hermitage Il Romitorio is located on a private property, Agriturismo Cretaiole. The Hermitage and adjoining ancient tuff quarry can be visited by appointment.

PODERE SAN GREGORIO 
Via San Gregorio 14, 53026 Pienza (SI)
Tel.: +39 0578 748378 
Cell.: +39 339 3714498 - 339 6640060
Email: info@poderesangregorio.it

Pievi in Toscana | Il Romitorio di Pienza

Pieve di Corsignano

Outside of the historical center of Pienza, is the parish church Pieve di Corsignano, an exceptional example of Romanesque art, a fascinating monument, and essential to an understanding of the history and origins of Pienza. It is just a short walk along the road towards Le Fonti. Continue along the Saint Catherine Walk, or the Dante Alighieri Square, go down along the Via delle Fonti. Map
The Pieve dei Santi Vito e Modesto a Corsignano is characterized by a cylindric tower and a decorated fortress with mythological and fantastic themes, and ancient symbols of fertility. There are two stunning decorated portals, a cylindrical belfry, and all the sculptures that the stonemasons left on the inside and the outside of the church. Of particular interest is the minuscule crypt under the presbytery. Inside the ancient baptismal font is conserved in which Enea Silvio Piccolomini was baptized.[2]

Picture Gallery Pienza and the pieve di Corsignano

On a hill opposite the medieval fortress of Castelmuzio is the picturesque abbey of Santa Anna in Camprena.
The monastery of Sant'Anna in Camprena was founded in 132-1334 by Bernardo Tolomei as a hermitage for the Benedictines. Bernardo Tolomei was the founder of the Roman Catholic Congregation of the Blessed Virgin of Monte Oliveto. The monastery was remade in the late 15th-early 16th century, and several times in the following centuries.
One can recognize this spot as the refuge of The English Patient, a serene Romanesque compound with a Renaissance chapel that houses a fresco by Pinturicchio. In the refectory there is a beautiful cycle of frescoes. dating from 1503-1504, depicted on the back wall. The Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. On the entrance wall three scenes with an enthroned S. Benedict surrounded by monks, the Pietà, the Madonna with Child, S. Anna and two Olivetan monks. All are the works of Antonio Bazzi, called Sodoma, a brilliant Piemontese artist (Vercelli 1477-Siena 1549). Santa Anna in Camprena is not open for the public.

The music festival Accademia delle Crete Senesi was founded on the initiative of some musicians of the Orchestre des Champs Elysées in Paris, among them Philippe Herreweghe. The concerts of the “Accademia delle Crete” take place in small but marvellous churches, among them Sant'Anna, chosen because of their adequate acoustics for the repertoire on the program.

Album Santa Anna in Camprena

To the east of the Via Cassia (just south of San Quirico) a by-road leads past the fortified farm of Spedaletto which belonged to the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena, and was also used as a hospice for pilgrims on their way to Rome. A pretty lane diverges for Pienza (see above), while this road runs along the stony shallow river bed where there are gravel works. The interesting landscape has pasturelands and calanchi (see above). Its wild aspect was partly altered in the 1980s when certain areas were levelled to create arable land. At the end of the valley, where the road begins to climb up to the watershed between the Val d'Orcia and the Val di Chiana, the landscape is better preserved. This was part of the huge estate of La Foce(3000 acres) purchased by Iris and Antonio Origo in 1923 where they spent most of their lives reclaiming the land and cultivating it. They also started a school, nursery school and day clinic on the estate, and Antonio was the founder of the Consorzio di bonifica in the Val d'Orcia which ran other schools. During the war, children from Turin and Genoa were taken in by the Origos, and they ran an orphanage here. Iris Origo (1902-88), the historian and biographer, described her life here in her autobiography Images and Shadows and her war diary War in Val d'Orcia. Her book, The Merchant of Prato , about the life of Francesco di Marco Datini, provides a vivid description of life in medieval Italy.

On the skyline the Castelluccio Bifolchi can be seen, a small castle where a delightful annual chamber music festival (see p 437) is held in summer (in the courtyard and other localities nearby). From the main road, lined with cypresses and pines, there is also a view of the country road which zigzags up to a farmhouse on the estate, which was planted with widely spaced cypresses by the Origos to provide a picturesque view from the main villa.

At the top of the ridge is the main entrance to the villa, still owned by the Origo family and since 1998 the seat of a foundation for the study of the landscape and environment of the Val d'Orcia. The gardens may be visited on Wednesdays (15.00-dusk; entrance fee, which is donated to charity). Ask at the farm office in the courtyard to the left of the house. They are usually at their best in May, June and September.

The villa, built in 1498 as a hostel run by the Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala of Siena, was restored for the Origos by the Englishman Cecil Pinsent, who designed a number of other gardens in Tuscany, most of them in the environs of Florence (see pp 109-110). Here he added the outside staircase and enlarged the house, as well as designing the lovely gardens and farm outbuildings (water was piped here from a spring seven kilometres away). The numerous cypresses he planted (which also served as wind-breaks) are now suffering from disease and some have had to be felled. Beside the house are two ilexes, one of which is very old, pruned to an unusual shape. The orangery is a handsome building by Pinsent (1924).

From the first garden close to the house (1924/5) which has a low hedge of dwarf pomegranates, a little stone ramp leads up to the gardens outside the larger house, partly built in the 19C (it was given its 16C appearance by Pinsent who added the two upper floors and courtyard), where bay and box hedges feature. The lemon garden, towards the Orcia valley, was designed in 1933. A splendid old wisteria flourishes here. The paths are paved in travertine from Rapolano. A terrace looks down onto a third garden, dating from just before the war. Here the box hedges are planted in an interesting design around four magnolias, and the hedge of cypresses is kept low for the view of the valley, which includes the cypress avenue mentioned above, which zigzags up the hill opposite. Above the second garden is the rose garden, with mixed flowerbeds bordered with lavender, and an herbaceous border. From here steps, lined with cypresses, lead up to the top of the hill. A paved pergola (of vines and wisteria) leads along the side of the hill from the rose garden, past grassy slopes planted with fruit trees and banksia roses. The pergola ends at a large wood crossed by paths, one of which leads to the little cemetery, also designed by Pinsent, where Iris and her husband are buried.

Gardens in Tuscany | Villa La Foce

Anello La Foce – Riserva Lucciola Bella – Castelluccio | 12,5 km

The cypresses that twine up a hill side near Chianciano Terme have become an emblem of Tuscany. But they also have a story, for they were planted by Marchese and Marchesa Origo (the writer Iris Origo) as part of a scheme to improve the landscape of what was then among Italy's most desolate regions.