Pienza

The city of Pienza until 1462 was nothing more than a small village called Corsignano.

The event that changed the fortunes was the birth in 1405 of Enea Silvio Piccolomini who 53 years later became Pope Pius II.

It was precisely a trip of the pontiff to Mantua that led him to cross the place of his birth and the degradation he found led him to decide the construction of a new ideal city above the ancient village, entrusting the renovation project to the architect Bernardo Rossellino: the construction it lasted about four years and brought to light a harmonious town with typically fifteenth-century shapes.

The premature death of Pope Pius II also closed the history of the new city, which has undergone limited changes since then.

Due to the beauty of its Renaissance historic center, Pienza became part of the UNESCO natural, artistic and cultural heritage in 1996, followed in 2004 by the same valley area in which it stands: the Val d'Orcia.