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Once more in the roads of Tuscany we travel to discover
the magic of art, history and nature. Destination Val d'Orcia exploring
the city of Pienza, eased among the hills and the cypress lines etching
the summit of hills and knolls. In 1996 Pienza, like another municipality
of the Siena province, San Gimignano, became UNESCO World Heritage.
Pienza, risen between 1459 and 1462 through will of Pope Pio II, was
built in the delightful and beautiful Val d'Orcia by the most illustrious
humanists of the time, respecting the rules of renaissance art.
A town that seems to bound the visitor into another dimension, where
time flows slowly and unaware of every day pace. The central square,
Piazza Pio II, is the centre of the town and gathers around itself all
Pienzas major buildings: Palazzo Piccolomini, Palazzo Borgia,
Palazzo Comunale and the cathedral. Palazzo Piccolomini, commissioned
by Pope Pio II as the family residence, is now a museums where you can
visit the ancient hall of arms, Pio IIs study, bedroom and library.
Palazzo Borgia, today the seat of the Diocesan Museum, hosts in its
11 rooms Siena paintings of the period between the 13th and the 18th
century painted by Lorenzetti, Signorelli, as well as illuminated codes,
Flemish tapestries. As well as the permanent exhibition the museum also
organises temporary art exhibits and collateral events. Finally the
majestic cathedral, also built with the elegance, harmony and sense
of proportion of the renaissance period. And then Saint Francis
Church, one of the most ancient Franciscan buildings in Italy, once
completely frescoed although now the only ones remaining are the 14th
century pictorial depictions.
And finally the Hermitage, a few meters away from
Pienzas historical centre, made up of a number of spaces excavated
by the hermit monks, among which a small chapel and a number of evocative
little halls dug out of the sandstone starting from the 11th century.
Nearby Pienza you will encounter the Pieve di Corsignano or Romanic
origin, immersed in an almost unnatural landscape at the centre of the
Val d'Orcia; the Castello di Spedaletto along the track of the ancient
Via Francigena is halfway between Pienza and Bagno Vignoni.

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