The Val d’Orcia was our absolute highlight on our Tuscany tour. There is only one thing we would do differently next time … never drive your own car when you are in such a great wine region ☹️🤣
When planning our route, we quickly noticed that we couldn’t cover the whole area in just one day 🙈 Therefore we decided on 3 picturesque villages and were able to enjoy the beautiful landscape on the way 😍
As we started our day trip from Florence and made a few photo stops along the way, we didn’t arrive in the picturesque village of Monticchiello until late in the morning. The village is located on a hill with a fantastic view of the Val d’Orcia. After a short walk through Monticchiello we allowed ourselves a small snack in the restaurant La Porta, which we can recommend not only because of the unique view 😍😋
Photo stop on the way – Palazzo Massaini
Photo stop on the way – Farmhouse I Cipressini
Monticchiello
Osteria La Porta in Monticchiello
fantastic view from Monticchiello to the Val d’Orcia
We continued on the route SP88 and SP18 to Castiglione d’Orcia. Of course, there were also a few photo stops on this route.
In the village Castiglione d’Orcia we felt as if we had landed in a ghost town. Well, we traveled during the corona pandemic, otherwise we would probably have seen a few tourists. In any case, this village is an insider tip if you want to avoid the crowds.
Photo stop on the way from Monticchiello to Castiglione d’Orcia
Castiglione d’Orcia
Castiglione d’Orcia
Castiglione d’Orcia
Last but not least, we made our way to the Renaissance town Pienza. It was a bit more touristy here. Of course there were some good photo opportunities on this route too 😍
Photo stop on the way from Castiglione d’Orcia to Pienza
Photo stop on the way from Castiglione d’Orcia to Pienza
Pienza
View from Pienza to the Val d’Orcia
View from Pienza to the Val d’Orcia
If you haven’t had enough of beautiful landscape shots, you are welcome to watch our YouTube video about the Val d’Orcia 😍
Our personal opinion about Val d’Orcia:
- beautiful landscape
- Paradise for photographers
- great wine region
- idyllic old villages
On the following page you can get a very good overview of Tuscany:
https://www.visittuscany.com/en/
Best travel time:
We recommend spring or autumn, summer would be too hot for us. Please note, however, that the landscape looks completely different in every season. In spring you will find lush green hills. As you can see in our pictures, we visited this region in autumn. The brown tones of the harvested hills are also an attractive photo motif.
Restaurant recommendation:
La Porta in Monticchiello
More tips & recommendations:
One day is definitely not enough for this area. We went on a day trip from Florence, so we lost a lot of time traveling there and back. The towns San Quirico d’Orcia, Pienza, Montalcino or Montepulciano are the perfect starting points for most tourists. Next time we would probably spend the night in a typical agriturismo (at least 2-3 nights) and spend time with hiking, cycling and tasting Tuscan wine 😋
