Val D'Orcia

The Val d’Orcia is a synthesis of the essential qualities of Siena’s countryside. With the last glow of dusk, the cypress trees paint the horizon with their tips. For centuries the area around Siena provided the wheat, and the isolated farmhouses were the centre of the activity where the families worked together in the fields, cultivating grape vines and olive trees. Here winding roads spell out poetry and delineate an incomparable landscape where nature and man coexist in harmony. The countryside is a symphony as wild and unpredictable as a race horse: hills and sky, space and geometry all vibrate on the edge of equilibrium to create an unforgettable natural work of art. In this setting, country roads unfurl in search of cypress trees, which are also typical of the Tuscan landscape. One sees lone farmhouses, woodlands, ancient vines and endless wheat fields. What might seem a static environment is actually one in constant evolution. The seasons transform the landscape with each passing day. With the demise of sharecropping in the 1960s there was a large scale emigration from the countryside, while the arrival of sheepherders from Sardinia to this area brought their tradition of Pecorino, or sheep’s cheese.

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