Val d'Orcia

The Val d'Orcia is a valley in southern Tuscany (Siena province), inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2004 as a cultural landscape: the medieval and Renaissance farming composition (cypress trees, isolated farmhouses, wheat fields, olive groves) is explicitly protected for its visual beauty. Main towns include Pienza (Pope Pius II's humanist ideal city of 1462), Montalcino (Brunello wine), Montepulciano (Vino Nobile), and San Quirico d'Orcia. For travelers, the Val d'Orcia offers a small but excellent set of luxury hotels: Castello di Velona, Castello Banfi Wine Resort, Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco (Massimo Ferragamo's place), and Borgo Pignano. The format is luxury agriturismo, not city palace.