When you think of Tuscany, you immediately picture its rolling hills with that lone cypress interrupting the horizon, like a paintbrush ready to paint a different picture for each season, well that's the Val d'Orcia!

Crossed by the Orcia River, from which it takes its name, this beautiful valley in southern Tuscany stretches between the provinces of Siena and Grosseto. The Val d'Orcia is a protected natural and cultural park, and was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.

It is dotted with castles, small villages, rural farmhouses, abbeys and ancient parish churches, each with its own fascinating story to tell. Rows and rows of endless vineyards or cypress trees with golden fields where the wheat seems to sway silently following the rhythm of nature.

Crossed along its entire length by the Via Francigena, the Val d'Orcia was traveled in the Middle Ages, by the many pilgrims from northern Europe who had to reach Rome and Jerusalem.

Montalcino, San Quirico, Pienza, Bagno Vignoni, Radicofani, Montepulciano, are just a few of these places where time, still seems to flow at a slow and leisurely pace and enjoy the eternity contained in each and every moment.

Numerous painters and filmmakers have been inspired by these landscapes for their works. To spend a vacation in Val d'Orcia, is to experience each one's own film or draw an indelible picture in one's mind. Walking, biking and riding on the white roads of Val d'Orcia has a unique and ancient flavor. You can relive the exploits of noble knights, pilgrims guided by faith, not to mention the racecar drivers who in the 1950s raced to win the 1000 miles or that cycling of yesteryear, where fatigue mixed with dust, from making it heroic and legendary.

Spending a vacation in the Val d'Orcia can also be relaxation and psycho-physical well-being, where we can recharge and indulge in moments just for us. Reading a book while sitting on a lawn or soaking in the thermal waters that have been gushing from the bowels of this land for millennia will be a perfect cure.

The Val d'Orcia offers us an infinity of food and wine excellences to delight our palate, genuine products of the highest quality, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Rosso d'Orcia are some of the best known and most famous wines in the world, but also Pecorino di Pienza, a sheep's milk cheese made only from the milk of animals raised and bred in the surrounding hills, extra virgin olive oil, mushrooms, chestnuts, truffles, wild boar and pici.