For those who watched the Gladiator movie, one of the most iconic and meaningful historical films out in theatres back at the beginning of this new century, it is impossible not to remember the scene of Maximus walking back home across the Elysian Fields after his death, eventually joining his beloved family in the afterlife.
An emotional landscape, in a magical, dreaming, both rarefied and intense atmosphere, with a long path bordered by high cypresses, worming its way across the hills around in a breathtaking panorama.
Ridley Scott, filmmaker of Gladiator, fell completely in love with this landscape and did choose it as the background of one of the most iconic scenes of his movie, because of the sensation of immensity given by this one and only unique vista. It is the Val d’Orcia.
Part of the UNESCO heritage since 2004, in the Val d’Orcia valley nature and tradition are combined together with the amazing taste and quality of local wine and food products.
Among these there is the Pecorino di Pienza (Pienza’s Pecorino Cheese), celebrated every year in September with the famous Fiera del Cacio (The Cheese Fair), where typical local dairy products can be tasted and people can attend to the traditional Palio del Cacio Fuso (The Melted Cheese Race), where contestants need to force round-shaped cheese wheels to roll around a wooden rod placed in the middle of the town’s main square.
Renowned all over the world, the Brunello di Montalcino wine is a DOCG wine (Italian acronym for PDO, i.e. Protected Designation of Origin). Its ruby red colour, with maroon nuances, makes the Brunello wine exceptionally intense and persistent both when smelling and tasting it. A true delicacy among the wines, celebrated all over the world even because of the limited extension of the areas where its grapes are grown.
From the landscape point of view, a true signature of the Val d’Orcia is undoubtedly the presence of cypresses. These evergreen trees glorify the area, such as in the two little woods of San Quirico d’Orcia. The first one is placed in a lower position, and the second one is on a hill, where the famous cypress circle can be found. This is a round clearing bordered by cypresses that really looks like a true painting in a majestic, spiritual background, making people feel like the flow of time is frozen and impossible to perceive.
The beautiful compound of Maximus in the Gladiator movie is today a private farm business near San Quirico d’Orcia, standing right at the end of a path bordered by cypresses.
In the Val d’Orcia there are a lot of similar locations, such as hamlets and castles, that are a true suggestive signature of the area.
Hamlets and Castles
Castiglione d’Orcia and the Rocca di Tentennano
On the Via Francigena (the Francigena Road, a well-known pilgrimage route) stands the little hamlet of Castiglione d’Orcia, of medieval origin. It is one of the most beautiful places of the whole valley, with its original triangle-shaped central square, named after the painter Lorenzo di Pietro, also known as The Vecchietta, with a flooring made both of cobblestones and bricks.
The Rocca di Tentennano (the Tentennano Fortress), in the surroundings of the hamlet, once belonged to the Salimbenis, one of the most influential families in Sienna, and is now the venue of shows and cultural exhibitions. From its top a complete vista of the whole valley can be enjoyed, with the area of the Parco Artistico Naturale Culturale della Val d’Orcia (Artistic, Natural and Cultural Val d’Orcia’s Park) included.
In the San Giovanni Museum, once a church and nowadays turned into an art space, it is possible to admire paintings by artists who belonged to the School of Sienna, such as Simone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti and Lorenzo di Pietro.
Quite near the museum, a thermal area can be visited and enjoyed in the nearby hamlet of Bagni San Filippo.
Among the little hamlets around Castiglione d’Orcia, Campiglia d’Orcia is worth mentioning in particular. It belonged to the famous Visconti family in the Middle Ages and then became part of the Republic of Sienna. It is a calm and quiet hamlet, where the peaceful landscape of the valley can be enjoyed at best when approaching the foot of the Torre della Campigliola (the Campigliola Tower) ruins, once part of a big fortress meant to defend the hamlet from invaders.
This location is famous for the Festa del Marrone (The Chestnut Feast) too, a spectacular Medieval-themed festival where tasty traditional roast chestnuts can be savoured.
Pienza
Founded as Corsignano, Pienza was “re-invented” anew during the 15th century by Enea Silvio Piccolinini, who was later elected as Pope Pius II, who choose it as his personal summer residence aiming at making it become the perfect ideal town meant to epitomise the principles and values promoted by the Italian Renaissance.
It is today one of the most characteristic locations of the whole Val d’Orcia.
Among the most relevant buildings there are Palazzo Piccolomini, right next to the Cattedrale dell’Assunta (the Assunta Cathedral), named right after his patron, built on three floors and with a suggestive loggia overlooking a suspended garden.
This suggestive unique location had a great impact on the great filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli, who completely fell in love with it, choosing it as the movie set for the first encounter between Romeo and Juliet in his famous film.
The architect Bernardo Rossellino, according to the teachings of his master Leon Battista Alberti, well-known for his humanist knowledge, had numerous other Renaissance-style buildings built at that time, in perfect harmony with some gothic shapes and elements, as in the Piazza Pio II (Pius II square), the local guildhall and the Palazzo Borgia and Jouffroy, also known as Palazzo Episcopale, that today holds a museum with a lot of artworks from the Middle Ages.
Strolling along Corso Rossellino, the main boulevard of the hamlet, it is possible to visit several shops and boutiques selling local handmade foodstuffs, like dairy products and cold cuts.
Radicofani
The Radicofani hamlet is famous for its namesake fortress built on a 900-metre-high cliff by the Carolingians during the 9th century. It was a strategic point on the Francigena route, used as a defensive fortress both by the State of The Church and then by the Republic of Sienna. Quite curiously however, this fortress is not linked to one of the remarkable political or religious characters of that time, but rather to a both historical and mysterious, legendary figure, whose deeds were celebrated by important authors such as Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio too. It is Ghino di Tacco, some kind of a Tuscan counterpart of Robin Hood, an outlaw with noble intentions, a so-called gentlemen thief, who took control of the fortress back in 1297, using it as a base for his raids.
To strengthen his fame, the sculptor Aldo Fantini made a statue of him in 1978, placed on the fortress walls in the lovely Giardino pubblico del Maccione.
The Chiesa di San Pietro (the San Pietro Church), built in Romanesque style back in the 11th century, stands in the main square of the hamlet, holding numerous artworks such as glass baked-clay statues portraying religious characters.
As in Pienza, a traditional Palio takes place in Radicofani too, the so-called Palio del Bigonzo, a Medieval-themed festival including the famous race of the bigonzi (ancient egg holders commonly used in the past) where the contestants challenge themselves in a speed race among the streets of the hamlet.
Near Radicofani it is advisable to visit the Bosco Isabella, a park built at the end of the 19th century by the Lucchini family, one of the most prominent families of the area.
It has a huge variety of plant life and paths worming themselves in complete harmony in the woods. A curious stone pyramid can be found too, built as the esoteric symbol par excellence of the Freemasonry, which the Lucchinis were members of.
Montalcino
South of Sienna, this little hamlet is inseparably bound to the production of the famous Brunello di Montalcino wine, whose tradition reaches back to 1888, when the traditional grapes used to produce it were limited to a more exclusive selection compared to the grape types used beforehand.The result was an excellent product, that quickly became renowned all over the world.
Before being put on the market, the Brunello wine is aged for five years, two of which in oak barrels.
Montalcino has a lovely vista of the landscape, thanks to the colourful hills and paths around it. Its castle, built in the 14th century, is now a venue of cultural events and musical festivals. Along the historical alleys of the hamlet it is possible to enjoy an idyllic atmosphere of peace and tranquillity, visiting local shops and tasting typical food and drink products.
“What we do in life echoes in eternity” quoting from Maximus in Gladiator. An eternity echoing in every single step taken in the whole Val d’Orcia, a dreaming location where history and tradition intertwine with the quiet, immense fields, making this place unique in the world.
