Driving to Pienza: tolls, fuel & road trip guide

Pienza is a small hill town in the Val d'Orcia of southern Tuscany, between Montepulciano and Montalcino, often called the touchstone of Renaissance urbanism. It was once the village of Corsignano, birthplace in 1405 of Enea Silvio Piccolomini; after he became Pope Pius II he had it rebuilt from about 1459 by the Florentine architect Bernardo Rossellino as an ideal Renaissance town and renamed it "city of Pius". UNESCO listed the town in 1996, and the whole Val d'Orcia joined the list as a cultural landscape in 2004. Autumn is a favourite season here, when the rolling hills, cypress avenues and vineyards around the town draw road-trippers and photographers.

On a road trip Pienza sits about 13 km west of Montepulciano, so the two pair naturally on the drive towards Siena. The historic centre is compact and best explored on foot, so leave the car in the car parks outside the walls and walk in to Piazza Pio II. Allow a half day for the town, plus extra time to detour to the Vitaleta chapel and the thermal village of Bagno Vignoni in the valley below.

Top attractions

Piazza Pio II and Pienza Cathedral

The trapezoidal square at the heart of Rossellino's plan, framed by four buildings. The cathedral, consecrated by Pius II in 1462, has one of the earliest Renaissance façades and a bright German-style hall-church interior with altarpieces by Sienese masters such as Sano di Pietro, Matteo di Giovanni, Vecchietta and Giovanni di Paolo.

Palazzo Piccolomini

The pope's own residence on the west side of the square, begun in 1459 and modelled on Alberti's Palazzo Rucellai in Florence. Now a museum, it shows Pius II's study, bedchambers and art collection, and its three-storey garden loggia looks over a hanging Italian garden to the Val d'Orcia and Monte Amiata.

Chapel of the Madonna di Vitaleta

A small privately owned chapel standing among cypresses on a gravel road between Pienza and San Quirico d'Orcia, first recorded in 1590 and redesigned by Giuseppe Partini in 1884. One of the most photographed views in the Val d'Orcia; restored in 2021.

Bagno Vignoni

A tiny thermal village near the Via Francigena whose main square is a 16th-century pool of steaming spring water, used since Roman times and once enjoyed by Pius II, Catherine of Siena and Lorenzo de' Medici. Below it, the water runs past medieval mills carved into the rock in the Parco dei Mulini.

Pecorino di Pienza

The town is famous for its sheep's-milk cheese, sold in shops along the main street. The barrique-aged version, matured in wine barrels for a tannic, grape-must finish, is listed as a traditional Tuscan food product; note that generic "pecorino di Pienza" has no official designation.