The 'ideal city' of the Renaissance: pecorino, papal architecture, and Val d'Orcia views from every lane.
Explore → Get Early AccessThe 'ideal city' a pope built in his birth village — perfect Renaissance piazza, pecorino shops perfuming every lane, and a panoramic walk along the walls with the whole Val d'Orcia below. Small, exquisite, and best with cheese in hand.
Pius II hired Rossellino in 1459 to rebuild rustic Corsignano into a model Renaissance city — the first application of humanist urban theory to a real town. The pope died five years in; the perfect little city stayed perfectly little.
Pienza's pecorino is aged in barrels, ash, and walnut leaves — September's Fiera del Cacio rolls cheese wheels down the piazza in competition. Zeffirelli shot Romeo and Juliet's Verona scenes here; Pienza plays other cities better than they play themselves.
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