Val d’Orcia

In the area near Siena the landscape is so pure, characteristic and imprinted on our minds as the quintessential image of Tuscany that it’s part of UNESCO World Heritage site list. Hills and ravines comprise the countryside, but it’s the cypress trees that steal the scene, surrounding isolated hilltop hamlet and marking roads in tidy rows.

The river that gave its name to the valley is little more than a brook, which dries up for most of the year due to the summer heat, but returns with force with the autumn rain. Oak forests, olive groves and vineyards that produce Brunello and other fine Tuscan wines extend across the hillsides, next to characterful monuments and villages. Italy’s oldest extinct volcano in Italy, Monte Amiata, hems in the landscape...