Archive for 'Orcia Valley'

Tuscany is home to imposing forts, impossibly pretty medieval hilltop towns, dreamy country villas, staggering cathedrals, architectural curiosities, and much more besides. It is a place where centuries of wealth and artistic innovation resulted in a architectural language, landscape, and heritage that is matched by few other places in the world. If you're an enthusiast or if you're simply just a casual observer, then you're likely to find yourself impressed and often lost for words at the incredible buildings that you will encounter while travelling in Tuscany. While travel is yet a good way off for most of us, we can dream and look ahead to a time in which it is possible once more. And, in the meantime, we can take a look at just five of the most unique architectural gems in Tuscany and start adding the ones that most take our fancy to bucket lists that are, no doubt, growing by the day in this time of social-distancing. Here are our picks of just five of the most incredible architectural feats that you can find in Tuscany, as we see it:

1. Cappella Della Madonna Vitaleta

Nestled among the iconic winding roads and perfect rolling hills of the Val D’Orcia the Chapel of the Madonna di Vitaleta, or La Cappella della Madonna Vitaleta, emerges like an image too picturesque, too symmetrical, too perfect for real life. This evocative scene has been the subject of endless photographs and postcards and for good reason, it is like an image plucked from the pages of a story book and is an example of a building and setting coexisting in perfect harmony.

The incredible natural beauty of the area is reason enough for anyone interested in a holiday in Tuscany to immediately go browse our listings and find a vacation rental in the Val D’Orcia. This is the picture-perfect Tuscany of your dreams; the lush rolling hills punctuated by medieval hilltop towns, winding roads, lines of cypresses, olive groves, vineyards, and pretty stone farmhouses. It is a place where every vista is picturesque and worth framing, though some particular spots have become especially famous and sought out to be photographed among savvy travellers who are after the perfect shot. One such spot is the Oak delle Checche, a very famous and protect oak tree.

One of the most famously beautiful parts of Tuscany is the UNESCO-awarded Val D’Orcia. This part of the region that extends from the hills south of Siena to Monte Amiata and is home to the towns of Pienza, Radicofani, and Montalcino. It is the place from which our perfect postcard pictures of Tuscany, the very first images of the region that come to mind when you think of Tuscany, come from. These are the undulating green hills broken only by roads winding throughout and the odd tree, old farmhouse, or beautiful hilltop medieval town or village that have made the countryside of Tuscany so iconic and famously stunning worldwide. If you have found a vacation rental in the Val D’Orcia, however, and are exploring the region, there is one particular spot to head to in order to take in perhaps the most famous and most beautiful panorama in all over Italy: the Podere Belvedere.

There are certain pictures of the lovely Tuscan countryside and landscape that get shared time and time again: the iconic winding roads and perfect rolling hills of the Val D’Orcia, Cypress Avenue in Bolgheri, and walled towns like Siena, as seen from a distance and with lush green surroundings. Amongst these “generic” images of the evocative Tuscan countryside, you are likely to spot one particular little chapel popping up time and time again, the Chapel of the Madonna di Vitaleta, or La Cappella della Madonna Vitaleta.

Located in the province of Siena, next to the village of Vitaleta, on the road between San Quirico d’Orcia and Pienza, this pretty little house of worship is one of the most photographed churches in Tuscany and is a picture-perfect gem. Framed by cypress trees either side of the single bay, white stone-clad gem, and surrounded by rolling green hills, it looks almost too idyllic for real life. But real it is, and it is also free to visit whenever you please. Just find a holiday rental in Siena and come see it for yourself.

Tuscany is one of the great wine regions of the world, as beautiful as it is prolific, an ideal place to holiday, sip, sit back, relax, and enjoy. Throughout the year, there are all sorts of wine-lead events and festivals as well and there are several great times to choose to plan a wine-based vacation in Tuscany but, if we were to recommend one in the coming months, during the lovely springtime in the region, it would be the Orcia Wine Festival in April. Just browse our vacation rentals in the Val d'Orcia and plan to attend this amazing festival and try some delicious Tuscan wines for yourself in the stunning surroundings of this gorgeous part of the region.

Taking place each year during the last weekend in April, in the town of San Quirico d'Orcia, the Orcia Wine Festival is an event that was created in order to promote and celebrate the excellence of the wine production of the Val d’Orcia. Conceived and organised by the Municipality of San Quirico d'Orcia, the fair takes place in the beautiful eighteenth century rooms of the Palazzo Chigi and involves technical tasting sessions, food and wine tastings, specialist talks and the organising of visits to the wineries in which the excellent local wines that are showcased over the course of the festival are actually produced.