Tuscany Hills. Pienza I

We decided to stay for two days to see the famous Orcia valley and we ended up staying double. And how we would have stayed to experience the simple life of a small town perched on the hills of Tuscany! Apparently a small urban center with a few streets, where you have all the chances to get bored, Pienza kept us "captive" without much effort.
How exactly? See!
I left Florence and the magnificent sunsets seen from Fort or Piazzale Michelangelo to go to the country. Here in the country, we heard, it's really like in the movies! Especially since we headed to one of the most beautiful areas in Tuscany: Val d’Orcia. In short, hills, in detail, in a dedicated article, because it's too smoky!

Public transport was essential to get from Florence, via Siena, to Pienza. We weren't even convinced that we were right when the driver told us, after about an hour and a half, that we had arrived! On the right, Carabinieri, on the left, a three-storey hotel, in the middle a common street. And the city? Once I passed the typical gate of a medieval fortress-town and stepped on the only main street - Corso Rossellino, in search of the villa where I was staying, any trace of doubt about this place evaporated. Flower baskets, attached to the wall of houses, cobbled streets, chic balconies and a promenade with the most beautiful view in Tuscany. This is how I could briefly describe Pienza, without missing too many.

A perfect example of Renaissance urbanism, the town of Pienza became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, thanks to a man who lived a few centuries ago. Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, one of the members of the Sienese Piccolomini family, who in 1459, a year after the arrival of the pope (Pope Pius II), testified that the town where he was born - Corsignano was then called - to be redone.
What he wanted seemed like a utopia. An ideal city, where buildings and surroundings are carefully thought out and planned according to some of the Renaissance ideas: returning to the classic (Greece and ancient Rome), putting man at the center - as a being endowed with great potential, the existence of a patron to support and finance the works. This city was called Pienza and not only became a reality, but it was the inspiration for many other medieval cities in the region and then throughout Western Europe.

In one hour we could have walked all the streets and in one day we would have seen all the museums, plus we ate in three different places and did some shopping. Therefore, Pienza is usually a one-day stop, an optional trip from Siena or the surrounding towns. Precisely because we wanted to feel less tourists, we chose to stay longer. Let's feel like living in such a small town. The fact that the region is famous for wines and an ideal place to try them all, I assure you, had nothing to do with it. I intuited the answer to our questions from the first day, shortly after we took a small step to visit the old city. All the beautiful images from the views of Tuscany were laid before our eyes with naturalness and charm. If there is no floral arrangement in the door, it is a bicycle with a net full of flowers. If it is not a terrace with wrought iron furniture and a colorful and tempting ice cream parlor, with dozens of assortments, it is a workshop that creates the most delicate ceramic objects. This is a habit of the locals: to have small dogs, with Alpha wolf personalities.

And here we reached one of the strengths of the area. The food. In Tuscany you either live in the village, or you live with 3-4 kilograms deliberately lost, in order to have a place to put them back. What is certain is that Tuscany in general and Pienza in particular have not passed without consequences! How could he, when our daily schedule included breakfast in bed - the host insisted and we did not object, an espresso and a semi-fredo before lunch, pici (homemade pasta) with mushrooms or pizza at lunch and in the evening a feast with their famous sheep's cheese that leaves its scent on all the streets - Pecorino de Pienza, in the opening of the main dish that I am also slightly ashamed to describe.