Pienza

Pienza: The Pope’s Utopian City and Its Actual Good Cheese

In 1459, Pope Pius II decided to rebuild his birthplace as a model Renaissance city. He hired the Florentine architect Bernardo Rossellino, gave him three years and unlimited budget, and got Pienza: a small town with a coherent central piazza, a cathedral, a bishop’s palace, and the pope’s own palazzo, all constructed to a consistent plan. UNESCO listed it in 1996. It has a permanent population of around 2,000 and a very large number of tour buses between May and October.

The Town

Piazza Pio II is the centrepiece and genuinely one of the better pieces of Renaissance urban planning you’ll see anywhere. The buildings around it (the Duomo, Palazzo Piccolomini, Palazzo Vescovile, and the communal palace) were all built simultaneously to relate to each other. The effect is unified in a way that most Italian piazzas, assembled over centuries, are not.

Palazzo Piccolomini is now a museum. The rooms retain period furniture, tapestries, and papal vestments. The hanging garden at the back of the palazzo, which the pope designed to look out over the Val d’Orcia, is the detail most worth seeking out.

The Duomo has a Gothic-style interior in a Romanesque exterior, a combination that caused structural problems almost immediately. The facade is already showing stress after 560 years. Worth going inside for the five altarpieces by Sienese masters commissioned for the original completion.

The Pecorino Situation

Pienza has a genuine claim to making the best pecorino in Tuscany. Pecorino di Pienza DOP comes in several styles: fresh (fresco, 2-3 weeks aged), semi-aged (about 3 months), and fully aged (stagionato, 6 months or more, sometimes pressed in oak barrels or wrapped in tomato paste, walnut leaves, or ash). The stagionato in walnut leaves is the most interesting.

Buon Umore and La Bottega del Naturista on Corso il Rossellino both sell good ranges. Taste before buying; the wheels vary significantly. Budget around €15-25 per kg depending on ageing.

Eating

Latte di Luna on Via San Carlo is the restaurant worth booking ahead. Traditional Sienese cooking, the pici (thick hand-rolled pasta) with wild boar ragù is the right choice, and the wine list pulls from the local Val d’Orcia producers at reasonable markups.

Trattoria Latte di Luna adjacent is the simpler version with shorter queues and nearly as good food.

The Val d’Orcia

The real reason to spend more than a few hours here is the landscape. The Val d’Orcia around Pienza has been so comprehensively photographed (particularly the cypress-lined ridge roads and the wheat field compositions) that it can feel like visiting a photograph. It’s still beautiful. Drive or cycle in May (green hills, poppies) or late August (golden harvested fields) for the best light.

Montalcino, 25km west, produces Brunello di Montalcino, consistently one of the finest Italian reds. The Fortezza at the top of town has a wine bar pouring local producers by the glass.

Montepulciano, 14km east, produces Vino Nobile, another significant red and the town is steeper and more dramatically positioned than Montalcino. Both are worth an afternoon.

Staying

Agriturismo La Bandita is 5km outside town in a converted farmhouse with a pool and views across the valley. Rates from around €250/night in season.

Hotel Il Chiostro di Pienza occupies a 15th-century convent in the centre. Quieter than it looks on the exterior. Rates around €150-200.

Day-tripping from Siena (50km) or Montepulciano works if you want to keep moving.