A valley of stories and adventures

A land lives from the stories that it preserves: events that happened long ago and more recently, so important and extraordinary that they need to be narrated and handed down over the years. Some stories are so ancient that they turned into legends over the centuries.

Val d'Orcia, with the large quantity of imposing castles and fortresses, is a captivating land, where it is easy to imagine the battles and love stories that came to life among the stones of ancient towers and noble palaces.
From the ramparts and the fortresses, the lookouts have watched the surrounding valley waiting for the enemy. Under the walls of the fortified villages meetings and sieges took place. Visiting these places is like a leap into the past, when the Middle Ages was the present and life went on accompanied by the clangour of swords and the rhythm of the galloping hooves.

The strategic position of this land has given it a double face: border land on the one hand and welcoming land on the other, Val d'Orcia has seen armies and pilgrims, archbishops and brigands, saints and kings passing through from all over Europe. The tradesmen have brought rare and beautiful objects to the villas of the aristocracy, while exceptional artists have left their signature in frescoes and paintings that still enrich churches and museums.
Today, the villages and nature - protected under the designation of World Heritage Site - disclose themselves to whoever wants to listen to their tales and start discovering the places where history unfolded, looking for adventure.

On foot along the ancient Via Francigena or riding a bike on the Eroica track, Val d'Orcia stretches out in front of the ‘slow’ travellers and shows the majestic silhouettes of the Medieval fortresses and the rows of vineyards where excellent wine is made, the cutting edge of a captivating land, that generously extends its array of tasty flavours to all.