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HILLS
>> VAL
D'ORCIA
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INTRODUCTION
Sweet rolling hills with different colours depending on the
season, valleys divided by the river Orcia, churches and restructured
cottages plotted everywhere, often hidden by cypress forests.
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These
are the characteristics which make the charm of the valley Val d’Orcia
matchless. An extraordinary mix of nature, art and deep-rooted traditions.
The Parco artistico, naturale e culturale della Val d’Orcia protects
this limb of Tuscany, and was created in order to preserve and give
recognition to this landscape of Val d’Orcia and to promote the
local products. The fertile countryside of Val d’Orcia , cultivated
with respecting and wise hands, return excellent wines, high-quality
extra virgin olive oil and genuine cereals. This is a landscape which
have been transformed with respect by man, without destroying it,
but embellishing it with sober masterpieces of civil and religious
art.
It is hard to explain with words the serene charm of the land
around Val d’Orcia in springtime, when the hills are green, in
the summer when the warm yellow colour of the sunflowers and the cut
wheat dominates. And then the perfume of the land, so different depending
where you are, full of the smell of the flowers and plants which grow
wildly. The olive trees, the vineyards and the cultivated lands leave
place for the Mediterranean bush in the south of Bagno Vignoni, while
towards the slopes of the mountain Amiata are covered by beeches and
chestnut forests. The nature, which has been very kind to the inhabitants
of Val d’Orcia, has not forgot to create thermal springs in order
to rest and cure sicknesses. The Via Francigena went through Val d’Orcia
and reached the spas of Bagno Vignoni, which hosted important persons
and pilgrims.
A good alternative in order to leave the car at home is to
visit Val d’Orcia with the train called Treno Natura which crosses
the Crete and the Orcia valley and reaches the slopes of Monte Amiata.
The C.A.I. has carried out a program with several trekking paths along
the itinerary of the train. Already populated during the Etruscan
period, Val d’Orcia preserves architectonic traces, most of them
from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Visit the Collegiata, the
Palazzo Chigi Zondadari and the Horti Leonini at San Quirico and stop
at Castiglione d’Orcia to visit the Rocca degli Aldobrandeschi.
But the whole district of Val d’Orcia can be considered an open-air
museum as man has lived here since ancient times and that there are
charming architectonic and artistic buildings around the countryside
that surrounds the towns. Fortified towns, churches and rural settlements
in a breathtaking landscape are the main attractions that Val d’Orcia
offers the visitor. Do not miss Monticchiello with walls from the
13th century, Corsignano and Castelluccio which are located close
to two Renaissance villas, built by the noble families of the towns
for their summer holidays. |
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