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Siena, Tuscany © Rasto SK

Siena Cathedral, early-19th-century engraving.

Val D’Orcia and the Sienese Hills - lesser-known delights of Southern Tuscany

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Overview Itinerary Practicalities Map

Section:

Tour highlights

Hilltop towns and villages, spectacular countryside.
Based in the charming towns of Bagno Vignoni and Colle di Val d’Elsa.
A good mix of architecture and art with a day spent in Siena.

This tour is representative of a category in which there is a shift of emphasis away from the major masterpieces of a region towards the lesser delights, from a concentrated diet of cultural achievement familiar from text books towards a mélange of landscape, less accessible art and a sense of the continuity of life and community amidst ancient masonry.

There are two bases for this tour, both utterly lovely and characteristic. The first three nights are spent in the charming village of Bagno Vignoni, with its central square occupied by an arcaded Renaissance piscina. The thermal baths of Bagno Vignoni have been visited by Pope Pius II, Saint Catherine of Siena, and Lorenzo the Magnificent. The last three nights are spent in Colle di Val d’Elsa, between Siena and San Gimignano, it is one of the many beautiful hilltop towns in the countryside around Siena, which contains perhaps the most extensive spread of medieval townscape in Europe.

If you delight in places which lie off the beaten track, in tiny hill towns where vineyards clamber up to the 14th-century walls, in majestic landscapes of storm-tossed hills punctuated by cypresses, in the discovery of great architecture and exquisite paintings in unexpected places, in tracing a maze of alleys scarcely changed for 500 years, this tour is likely to please.

Itinerary

Practicalities

Two sharing: £3,690 or £3,410 without flights. Single occupancy: £4,060 or £3,780 without flights.

Travel by private coach; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts; 3 lunches and 3 dinners with wine, water and coffee; all admissions; all tips for restaurant staff and drivers; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.

Hotel La Posta, Bagno Vignoni: 5-star hotel with thermal pool overlooking the rolling Tuscan hills. San Lorenzo Hotel & Spa, Colle di Val d’Elsa: 4-star hotel set in a XVII-century palace. Single rooms are doubles for sole use throughout.

The tour involves a lot of walking in town centres, where coach access is restricted, and a lot of standing in museums and churches. Due to the nature of the landscape you will visit many Hill towns and therefore will need to be able to walk up into them as coaches are unable to do so. A high level of fitness is essential. You will be on your feet for lengthy stretches of time. Average distance by coach per day: 76 miles.

Are you fit enough to join the tour?

Between 10 and 22 participants.

Before booking, please refer to the FCDO website and Travel Health Pro to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting.

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