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FROM SIENA TO SAN GALGANO
Leaving Siena towards the Abbazia di San Galgano, you find
several villages which are worth a stop. The first one is Cuna
which is an extraordinary fortified agricultural village, preserved
intact since the Middle Ages.
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The
imposing fortified farm, surrounded by a red brick-wall, was raised
in the 14th century by the Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala in Siena.
In the farm-village, you find the nice brick-church with the remains
of some frescoes from the 15th century. The itinerary continues to
Monteroni d'Arbia, a modern residential settlement along the
Cassia road. In the centre of the village there is an intact mill,
also built by the Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala, which founded
the village. A short deviation and you reach Lucignano d'Arbia,
a fortified village with gates and towers from the 14th century. At
Lucignano you visit the church dedicated to John the Baptist, lined
with an imposing bell-tower which was built for military purposes.
Inside you find a Crucifixion by Bartlolomeo Neroni, called Il Riccio
in the 16th century.
Murlo, a picturesque and calm Sienese village, has ended up
in the newspapers thanks to a scientific experiment which has shown
that there is Etruscan blood in the inhabitants veins. The blood of
five-hundred inhabitants was analysed and had the identical DNA as
the bones found in the Etruscan tombs. So, without turning back time,
we can say that you find real Etruscans walking the streets of Murlo.
In the marvellous Palazzo Vescovile you find the Museo Civico Archeologico,
where there are remains from the nearby necropolises of Poggio Civitate.
Of course there are interesting medieval buildings in Murlo, as the
village features a centre from the 14th century located in a dominating
position over the valley of Crevole. The feud of the bishop of Siena
in the 12th century, Murlo passed to Siena in 1387.
Another deviation from the itinerary to San Galgano, leads
you to Orgia, a pleasant village in the forests of Val di Merse.
You find a big marsh under the village, which today is reclaimed and
covered with wheat fields. At Orgia you can visit the Museo del Bosco,
which features tools and material for the working of the forest and
the métayage. Torri is a medieval village perched on
a hill. It is surrounded by a boundary wall and developed around a
Vallombrosian abbey in the 13th century. The Romanesque-gothic church
can still be visited. It features a big portal decorated with sculptured
lion-heads. The remains of the ancient medieval castle dominate the
modern village of Rosìa, where you can visit the Romanesque
church San Giovanni Battista from the 13th century. Inside you find
an elegant baptismal font in marble and a Madonna con Bambini e Santi
by Guidoccio Cozzarelli from the 16th century. Continuing the road
towards San Galgano, you pass the Ponte della Pia, built in the Early
Middle Ages and the remains of the Castello di Montarrenti, close
to the fork to Colle Val d'Elsa. Fròsini preserves the
remains of the castle which belonged to the Counts of Gherardesca
in the 11th century and is the entrance to the San Galgano Abbey,
one of the most suggestive sites of the Tuscan countryside, where
the magic of the legend and the fascination of the breath-taking landscape
go hand in hand. |
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