The best cycling routes around Trequanda

Monticchiello is an ancient medieval village located in the heart of the Val d'Orcia, in Tuscany. A hamlet of the municipality of Pienza (in the province of Siena), it has about 200 inhabitants and stands at 500 meters above sea level. Unlike nearby Pienza, renowned for its Renaissance architecture, Monticchiello retains an austere and fortified appearance typical of medieval strongholds.

Monticchiello is a charming medieval fortified village located in the heart of the Val d'Orcia, in the province of Siena, and a hamlet of the municipality of Pienza. Unlike the Renaissance architecture of nearby Pienza, this tiny village of about 200 inhabitants retains the austere features and solid defensive walls dating back to the time when it was a bulwark of the Republic of Siena.

To grasp the soul of this place, one must imagine a time when, instead of the current valleys, a 200-meter-deep arm of the sea stretched out. Siena would have been a coastal city, and the rivers flowing down from the Chianti mountains would have poured debris into the water. While the rock blocks remained ashore, the finest and lightest particles, the clays, concentrated in the center of the basin, settling on the bottom. About a million years ago, as the waters retreated, that seabed emerged, giving us the Crete Senesi. Even today, walking among the folds of the terrain, it is not uncommon to come across fossilized oyster shells or remains of ancient marine inhabitants, such as dolphins and sharks, witnesses to a submerged past.

San Quirico d'Orcia, a historic crossroads on the Via Francigena in the heart of the Val d'Orcia, is home to several notable religious buildings that bear witness to the region's rich medieval history.

The Pieve dei Santi Vito e Modesto in Corsignano is a Romanesque church located in the ancient village of Corsignano, today known as Pienza. Its origins date back to the Early Middle Ages and it represents one of the oldest religious buildings in the area.

Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta The church, dating to the twelfth century, has a plain rectangular plan with a wall covering in square stones. Outside the massive portal is embellished with decorations, maybe originating from the Abbazia di Sant'Antimo. The gabled bell tower and the vestry are original, too. The apse is crowned with corbels and decorated with suspended arches. On the left side there is another monumental portal whose arch is supported by two columns and contains a decorated shape. The extremely plain interior is lit up by narrow slits, one in the apse.

Porta Romana is one of the ancient gates in the walls of Siena, located on the route of the ancient Via Cassia. It was built in 1327 - 1328 by Agnolo di Ventura and Agostino di Giovanni, equipped with battlements and a defensive wall. In 1417, Taddeo di Bartolo was commissioned to paint the fresco that was to adorn it with a depiction of the Virgin, like the other city gates, to implore divine protection for the city. In 1978, the frescoes, due to advanced deterioration, were detached and transferred to the Basilica of San Francesco. However, there is a Roman inscription at the Porta Romana!The inscription was written on a travertine tablet and, based on its graphic characters and content, can be dated to the Augustan period (27 BC – 0) saying "Silvanus sacr(um) / C. Victricius / Memor VIvir / [a] ugustalis posuit" = Caio Victricio Memore Seviro augustale dedicated a small temple to Silvanus.

In Siena, as we know, your eye always falls there, on the shell-shaped Campo or the striped marble of the Duomo. And rightly so. But then there are those places that speak to you in a different voice, more raspy and sincere. Porta Romana is one of them. Let's be clear: this isn't a small archway placed there for show. This is a beast of brick and stone, a fortress planted to the south to tell those arriving from Rome: "Be careful, you're entering Siena." It's massive, imposing, it makes you feel small and immediately reminds you that this city was once a serious thing, a power that had to be defended. It has none of the frills of other monuments; it gets straight to the point, and for me, its charm begins right there.