The Essence of Tuscany: San Quirico d'Orcia to Pienza

A bunch of grapes along the strade bianche   

This post covers the final part of the wonderful walking holiday I enjoyed in October, you can read the first part (Buonconvento to Montalcino) here and part two (Montalcino to San Quirico d'Orcia) here.

Dawn sky

After watching the dawn light over San Quirico from our roof terrace, we'd explored the gardens of the hotel and the communal gardens near the gate in the town walls.

As we approached the last building in the old part of San Quirico we saw three men unloading crates of black grapes into a small machine that was crushing them. They were happy for me to take a few pictures then one of the men beckoned me forward and handed me a bunch of the grapes. I wasn't sure that grapes destined for Brunello wine would be tasty but these were wonderfully sweet, really juicy and delicious! No wonder the wine tastes so good. Perfect refreshment for the start of our 14.5 km walk to Pienza today.

San Quirico street with grapes being unloaded

Grapes being crushed

Grape harvest workers

Brunello grapes, sweet and delicious.

Eating the grapes as we walked along the strade bianche, the white gravel roads and paths in this part of Tuscany, seemed the perfect accompaniment to the rolling countryside with its outcrops of clay. This area is known as the Crete Senesi and is a remarkable landscape, very different to other areas of Italy.

The Crete Senesi landscape

Inntravel provide maps and detailed notes for their walking holidays to allow independent travel. These really help, especially when way marking signs are damaged or missing. This occurred during the morning walk where we came to a crossing of paths and had difficulty deciding which to take. Moving further on we realised that we had either missed seeing a sign or that it was actually missing. Another group of walkers came by and were bemused by our indecision. They suggested a different route but we checked our notes and decided to turn downhill rather than up the way they indicated. After a short while we realised that we had taken the correct path after all.

Many of the fields had been recently ploughed and some appeared to have a pattern around the edges, like a border. With the undulating land and these patterns the fields looked really unusual.

Borders around the fields

Landscapes in this part of Tuscany are really lovely, the towns and villages perching on the tops of hills with farmhouses dotted around, many with the tracks to the houses lined with cypress trees.  This is the part of the world where some of the scenes staring Russell Crowe in the film Gladiator were filmed, I must watch it again to see which bits I recognize.

Cypress trees lining the strade bianche

Cypress trees

We were hot and tired by the time we arrived in Pienza, ready for some cool and refreshing Italian ice cream. 

Another hilltop medieval town, Pienza was the birthplace of Pope Pius II who dreamed of transforming it into a utopian city. Our hotel in Pienza is a former 13th century Franciscan convent Relais Il Chiostro di Pienza with cloisters leading to the hotel entrance. Once again we had a room with spectacular views over the valley below and Monte Amiata too on the horizon.

Cloisters at  Il Chiostro di Pienza

Exploring around Pienza we discovered lots of fine looking restaurants, plenty of shops selling local produce, especially the local cheeses, pecorino and ricotta, and a very friendly small bar with an incredible view over the town walls.

Pienza town walls and medieval houses

The view from the town walls

Another fabulous sunset set the scene for a clear night sky and more stargazing was possible later on.

Sunset over Monte Amiata with a half moon in the sky

Our final walking day began with a clear sunrise and a few small patches of mist in the valley. The suggested route for today was to walk to Montepulciano and return by bus, however it was a Sunday and the last bus was due to leave Montepulciano in the early afternoon so wouldn't give us time to do the 4.5 hour walk and have time to explore. Instead we decided to do the first half of the walk, to Monticchiello, have lunch there and then walk back again.  This worked really well as there was a diversion along the way and we were able to vary the return route for a few miles.

Pienza sunrise

As we left Pienza I looked back at the town and saw flocks of birds flying around.  These murmurations were fun to watch as they swirled around making various shapes in the air.

Bird shaped murmuration of birds above Pienza

We got very close to the rocky outcrops as one part of the strade bianche had suffered a small landslip and we had to walk carefully around the edge of a large field to get back onto the track. This was the part we avoided on the return journey.

Landslip

Another medieval hamlet, Monticchielo sits on a hilltop with excellent views over the Val d'Orcia and Pienza. 
As we were admiring the view we watched a ginger cat stalking a grasshopper! Not the same grasshopper as pictured below, it wasn't as big as this, we saw this one a little later on.

Ginger cat stalking a grasshopper

Big green grasshopper

The old part of Monticchielo is very small, it doesn't take long to explore but if you go up to the highest point you'll find gardens (which had an art exhibition on display when we were there) and the old crumbling town walls. There is also a folk museum with a good cafe.

Lunch was eaten at La Guardiola outside under trees in a garden with super views, I ate delicious toasted thick bread with fagioli, cavolo nero and olive oil - a bit like posh beans on toast I suppose!

The return journey afforded a different outlook of the wonderful scenery.

Hilltop town of  Monticchielo

Cypress trees and their shadows making crosses 

After a quick beer stop to quench our thirsts we explored the town of Pienza some more and discovered a small farmers market selling grapes, vegetables, honey, olive oil, tartufo (truffles) and pecorino cheeses. 

The Brunello grapes

Pecorino cheeses

Truffles

Pienza was quiet on a Sunday evening, our last night of the trip. After dinner we walked alongside the town walls and had our final glasses of Montalcino Rosso in a bar called Idyllium which is a bit like a cave below the cathedral. We enjoyed listening to their great playlist as we sipped our red wine and toasted all the highlights of the trip. The fabulous sunrises and sunsets plus the beautiful landscapes will stay in my memory for a very long time.



If this has given you a taste for an independent walking holiday in Tuscany head over to the Inntravel website to find out more. I have had quite a few holidays with them over the years and would highly recommend them.