Montepulciano Val d'Orcia E-Bike Tour to Pienza and Monticchiello

The temple was born in 1518 around a Marian fresco considered miraculous. Antonio da Sangallo the Elder designed it in Greek cross, condensing here the Renaissance ideal of the perfect central-plan building. The project provided for two towers: only one was completed.

In 1459 Pope Pius II entrusted Bernardo Rossellino with the transformation of his native village of Corsignano into an ideal city. In just three years, the heart of Pienza was born: a space designed like a perspective scene, where civil, religious, and family power dialogue according to Renaissance humanism.

This Romanesque church from the 12th century preserves an even older cylindrical tower and a small crypt. In its baptismal font received baptism Enea Silvio Piccolomini, future Pius II, and his nephew Pius III: a surprising link between the rural church and two popes.

The walls of Monticchiello were started in 1259 and the tower in 1260, when the village guarded the Sienese border. In 1944 about seventy partisans resisted much superior forces. Since 1967, Teatro Povero transforms inhabitants into authors and actors of their own collective memory.