Romantic Tuscany (excuse the redundancy)
makes it sprout love in gushes more than a grandmother's pot, he raises passion more than a dozen oysters and exalts all kinds of affections of different nature and condition, from art to wines, from history to photography.
Don't look for it, there isn't. **There is NO destination more romantic ** or more complete than Tuscany , that's why it never runs out and continues to be that ace in the hole when it comes to non-stop spitting hearts. We put the magnifying glass on Siena and the Val d'Orcia and we blow you the addresses that never fail.
SIENA
Many like it even more than florence (take it now!), because it is more manageable , more collection and still have art to bore and infinite possibilities to die from all kinds of baroque syndromes (and also, much less tourism). In any case, there is no reason to choose.
sienna
In both the one and the other, Park it is hell (it will be the rule of the trip), but walking here also becomes a pleasure because there is no building that does not deserve a foreshortening of the neck or a little corner that does not ask for a photo: the Fonte Gaia Fountain, with sculptures by Jacopo della Quercia; the Chigi Saracini Palace; the Merchandise Loggia ; the Papesse Palace (today a contemporary art center), the Palazzo Tolomei …
Quite an appetizer of height to reach the Piazza del Campo and get the WOOOOOOOW from the depths of your being. It is an impressive esplanade (especially at night) in the shape of an inverted fan where on July 2 and August 16 the very famous party of the canopy , some dizzying horse races of little more than a minute whose objective is that the horsemen, divided by the different neighborhoods of the city (contrade), take control of the flag of the virgin.
able to be in first pit lane (with all its good and bad) is something like going to the failures or see a pamplona chupinazo , so if you can, go for it!
If you go the rest of the year, you will see that the square is a place for walking and meeting the neighbors, as well as essential for any visit.
Enter in the Public Palace , a textbook Sienese Gothic building with travertine stone and brick, double window arches and galleries and columns, which houses inside the civic museum , with large and beautiful halls full of frescoes by the main painters of the Sienese Renaissance such as Simone Martini or Duccio . And go up to its bell tower, mangia tower , 102 meters, to have the best views of Piazza del Campo.
Other yes or yes visits are the National Gallery , in the palace goodsignori (XV century) ; and the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta : with its zebra façade, its red and green doors, its colored tympanum and its bell tower.
Inside it -incomprehensible- you can spend hours and hours, watching art until you get bored: the sculpture of Saint John the Baptist Donatello , pieces of Michelangelo and Bernini and, if you're lucky (it's usually covered by glass panels and only open for a few months of the year), the amazing floor, with 52 marble panels of scenes from the Old Testament. From the ** Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana del Duomo ** you will have the best views.
Public Palace of Siena
Where to eat in Siena
Around the Piazza del Campo itself you will find some of the most interesting places (and legendary ) of the city to give you a tribute, like the Antica Trattoria Papei , a family business that is in its third generation, or the Osteria La Logge , an entire institution. Decorated like an old store groceries , serves Tuscan food (spaghetti al ragu, Fiorentina steak...) and some eggplant parmigiana with “ole, ole, ole” green pesto sauce. Then you can have a good coffee or an ice cream in another Sienese legend, the centenary Nannini .
Where to sleep in Siena
Continental Grand Hotel It is another of those that never fail. The 51 rooms of this five-star boutique, member of Leading Hotels of the World They keep all their fresh on roofs.
Its terracotta walls, floors, draperies and velvet armchairs are what one would expect to find in a building from the XVII century as in the one that is: the Palazzo Gori . In addition, with spectacular views of the Piaza del Campo and the Duomo (the Panoramic Suite has 360º views of the entire center).
Borgo San Felice is for you if the idea is to get away from the center (and you can afford it): a Relais and Châteaux in a medieval Tuscan villa, with a restaurant, Il Poggio Rosso , with star michelin 20 minutes from the city and surrounded by nature. 30 rooms and 30 suites, as well as a swimming pool, gym, tennis courts and spa.
SAN QUIRICO D'ORCIA
South of Siena, the Orcia Valley is the living image of that Idealized Tuscany that we all have in our heads (and that, in this case, does not disappoint a hair).
San Quirico is a tiny and charming town on a mountain surrounded by ramparts that concentrates all its essence in a drop, as if it were a perfume bottle. There is practically only one street, the Via Dante Aligheri , with stone buildings and wooden shutters where houses are housed, some romantic bed and breakfasts and small local shops selling artisan cheeses, a pasticceria, a barber, a wine bar, a couple of antique dealers...
Its monumental legacy is centered on its three churches: the monumental collegiate church of Saints Quirico and Giulitta, a Romanesque temple with Gothic and Baroque additions, opposite the beautiful Palazzo Chigi, which now functions as the town hall, and that of San Francesco, in the Piazza della Liberta, that functions as a main square; and the Orti Leonini, a fifteenth-century garden that is preserved inside the old hostel of St. Maria della Scala.
San Quirico d'Orcia
Where to eat in San Quirico d'Orcia
Al Vecchio Forno. One of the great addresses in San Quirico. It is a pleasant and romantic restaurant with a menu to choose from and a charming fireplace, which in season it serves dishes with white and black truffles (with fried eggs, with pasta, with rice…) and always good grilled meats. If you stay at their hotel, you get a discount.
Where to sleep in San Quirico d'Orcia
Villa San Sansanino , . Lodging in an 18th-century mansion with only four rooms whose owners, Laura, chef, and her husband, who was in charge of renovating the building, run it. They produce their own extra virgin olive oil, which served at breakfast all based on Km0 products: the icing on the cake of a raging romantic stay.
MONTALCINO
From San Quirico, following the road in the direction of Montalcino, you pass through one of the most picturesque (and photographed) spots in the region. , the cypress, a cluster of cypress trees in the middle of a rolling valley that everyone wants to upload to their IG.
Montalcino shares with San Quirico (and with many other towns in the valley) several similarities: the origin of its founders (Etruscans), its location (a hill) and its surrounding walls. It also brings authentic pilgrimages its famous Brunello wine , which can be tried or bought in the thousand and one wine bars and specialized shops that are on its streets.
A walk between cypresses that Gladiator would like
Both can be done in the beautiful ** Café Fiaschetteria Liitaliana ,** a historic modernist cafe with wooden sofas. red velvet quicksilver mirrors and a cantina with a good collection of bottles for sale where to let the hours pass.
At the exit, a road leads to the Benedictine Abbey of Sant Antimo , probably founded by Charlemagne in the 9th century, which is possibly the most important Romanesque vestige in the entire region. You can visit it with an audio guide . There is a small store with products made there, soaps, creams, honey... and a vegetable garden.
Where to eat in Montalcino
Drugstore Franci . All in one: restaurant, accommodation, wine bar and cooking school. The first serves rich Tuscan food **(beef tartare with burrata cream, warm zolfini salad with pepper-crusted tuna…)** with views of the wall; the second, three pretty rooms in the center of the villa; the third sells a selection of local wines and owner's whim champagnes , and the last one guarantees the memory of the trip beyond what it lasts, learning to prepare all its recipes once at home.
Where to sleep in Montalcino
Bosch's Rosewood Castiglion. The crème de la crème, the most of the most, the top of the tops, that is this accommodation, surrounded by olive trees, crop fields and deer with postcard exteriors and decoration magazine interiors that has suites and villas in rehabilitated buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries, all decorated with antiques and ad hoc crafts.
It also has an 18-hole golf course, spa, swimming pool, its own vineyard (51 hectares where its Brunello di Montalcino is grown and manufactured) and all kinds of proposals: guided trekking, truffle harvesting accompanied by experts with their dogs (all year except in May) and a cooking school where they teach tuscan recipes (sauces, pasta, pizzas or vegetarian dishes) with ingredients from their own organic garden. from your restaurant Campo del Drago will have the best view of Montalcino and the Valle d'Orcia.
The kitchen where you will learn authentic Tuscan recipes
Castel Porrona Relais . On top of one of the highest hills in the Orcia Valley and in a medieval village with tons of history and completely renovated, is this 25-room hotel and Arabian-inspired spa just minutes from Montalcino.
THINK
From San Quirico you can also head towards Pienza and, along the way, find another of the most recognized images in all of Tuscany, that of the Chapel of Vitaleta , a tiny and idyllic little church flanked by two cypress trees reproduced ad nauseam on postcards and brochures.
We are sorry to break this news, but in reality it is not so much, and it has a lot of instagram trap, because next door there is a tractor depot (which, by the way, doesn't exactly smell like lavender) .
Chapel of Vitaleta
Pienza has a curious history, because it was built to become the perfect city in the fifteenth century, by Pope Pius II , an egotistical boss who wanted to pay homage to himself and changed the name of his hometown (Corsignano) to Pienza (the city of Pius) and commissioned Bernardo Rossellino to design it.
In Piazza Pio II, trapezoidal in shape with a floor that imitates the spines of a fish, is the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and the Episcopal palace (Palazzio Piccolomini) , which can be visited and see how the Piccolomini family lived until 1962.
History wanted Pio II not to get to see his self-gift, because he passed on to a better life. Today we thank him for his initiative, because Pienza is a beautiful stone town with its monumental part, where you have to go to see art and soak up history and stories... but also to eat in one of its little restaurants and buy that delicious pecorino cheese that they make here (made with sheep's milk and by small Sardinian producers).
Woman in the streets of Pienza
Where to sleep in Pienza
La Bandita Townhouse . It's the dream of a New Yorker, a former music executive, in the form of boutique accommodation in a Renaissance palace, in the center of the city.
Everything is relaxed, its dozen rooms with stone walls and design touches, its common areas, its open kitchen where they serve dishes made with very fresh products... It has a sister property in the country.
** Terre di Nano .** Its motto leaves no room for error: Country life and wine . That is what people come here for, to enjoy the countryside and good wine (which they produce themselves). It has villa, apartments and rooms. They organize walks and cooking classes.
Where to eat (and drink) in Pienza
Idyllium . It is a signature cocktail bar (Flavio Angiolillo and Marco Russo) hidden in a Renaissance palace that serves drinks with local herbs and Nobile wine from Montepulciano and has a kitchen open all day. Suggestive terrace with views of the Orcia Valley.
MONTEPULCIANO
Another village high up between the Chiati Valley and the Orcia Valley, surrounded by walls and full of slopes, so picturesque that even the eyes of Hollywood noticed it to record some scenes for the film. new Moon of the Twilight saga, something that has given him even more fame.
The Piazza Grande is its epicenter, where the Palacio Comunale (from the 14th century) and the Cathedral (from the 17th century) are located, dedicated to Santa María de la Asunción, and where most of the town's festivities are celebrated, including the Bravio delle Botti, a race that consists of pushing large barrels of wine for a kilometer in pairs, representing the different neighbourhoods.
Montepulciano
In addition to being the cradle of Noble wine from Montepulciano, one of the most famous in the whole country of the boot, in Montepulciano, three curiosities should not be missed: the Bucelli Palace, with embedded Etruscan urns and Roman inscriptions; the wooden crucifix in the little church of San Agustín, attributed to Donatello, and the Church of the Madonna di San Biaggio, by Antonio Sangallo the Elder (outside the villa), inspired by St. Peter's in the Vatican.
It is also worth visiting the impressive Reddi cellars, inside a mansion, the house of the poet and humanist Poliziano, protected by the Medici, and the café that honors him, the Cafe Poliziano , of style Liberty (recognizable by its painted sign, its stucco ceilings…), frequented by Fellini and (again) with views of the Val d'Orcia.
Where to eat in Montepulciano
The Grotto . In front of the church of the Madonna of San Biaggio. Traditional food with a more innovative gourmet air served in two 16th century dining rooms or, in the summer season, in its garden. For "the" dinner of the trip. A la carte or tasting menu.
The Logge of Vignola . Tiny restaurant with classic decor on a hillside street in the center of this pretty town that focuses on local recipes but with gourmet twists. Interesting wine list with hard-to-find references and vintages.
Where to sleep in Montepulciano
Locanda San Francesco. This small family hotel with four rooms and views of the valley is housed in a 14th century palace. It has a wine bar in a small square with all the local wines as well as a menu for snacks and live music some nights.