e-borghi travel 5, Landscapes and villages: The Orcia Valley, the landscape that becomes art

Hills covered in vineyards, olive and chestnut trees, cultivated fields perfectly framed by the cypresses, tiny Medieval villages, farmhouses, castles, abbeys and parish churches as the eye can see. This is the landscape of the Orcia Valley which has become an ideal balance between the human beings and the nature since the Renaissance also thanks to the works by the painters of the school from Siena. The natural landscape of this valley crossed by the river Orcia is overlooked by the Mount Amiata in the background and it has been redesigned in order to fulfil the ideals of the good government and the natural armony that featured the Renaissance. To better understand this point you can admire the fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti “Allegory of the Good Government” (1338-1339) that are kept in the Public Palace of Siena. The matching of the natural landscape with the human works gave an untouched unique historical identity to these places that have been entered into the Unesco’s heritage.