Chianciano Terme stands on a hilltop overlooking to the west the Chiana valley, between Chiusi and Montepulciano.
Chianciano Vecchia, as is called the ancient town of Chianciano, is very different from the modern quarter that has grown all around the Terme. It is situated on a hill and shows part of its medieval town walls and its medieval urban plan. The gate of the town is at the end of Via Dante, where stands Porta Rivellini with its elegant Renaissance structure.
Chianciano is one of the most important Italian spa centres. Its spas are famous from Etruscan time. Today, Chianciano Terme is considered among the finest health resorts in Europe.

The Church of the Immacolata, restored in 1588 after the Florentine conquest of Siena. It once housed the paintings of Annunciation by Niccolò Betti, a Holy Family by Galgano Perpignani and a fresco of Madonna of the Peace attributed to Luca Signorelli, currently all in the museum of the Collegiata Church of San Giovanni Battista. This is a Romanesque-Gothic building with a notable portal. It houses a Holy Scene fresco (16th century), a 14th century crucifix and a wooden Dead Christ by Giuseppe Paleari (1783). The church of Madonna della Rosa takes its name ("Madonna of the Rose") by a fresco portraying the Virgin giving a Rose to the Child, work of a 15th century Sienese master. Also from a Sienese artist is the Madonna delle Carceri (14th century).

The Etruscan Archeological Museum of Chianciano Terme
The Delle Acque Civic Museum of Archaeology at Chianciano Terme is housed in an elegant late 19th-century building in via Dante. The museum has been arranged in three sections, each containing materials from the different historic phases of Chianciano's territory. The first section of the museum (ground floor) contains items from the graveyard at La Pedata, the most important and widespread necropolis of both territories of Chianciano and Chiusi. It is set on the northern slope of the Astrone valley, along an ancient route that, through the Orcia and the Ombrone valleys, linked the Etruscan town of Chiusi to the Tyrrhenian coast. Other graveyards are located at Morelli, Morellino and Le Piane. The first section also houses also burial furnishings from other tombs.
The second section of the Museum, on the first floor, contains a reconstruction of two rooms of the late-Etruscan farmhouse (3th-2nd centuries B.C.).of Poggio Bacherina, a couple of miles out of Chianciano Terme. The third and last section of the Museum houses finds coming from the Roman monuments in Chianciano, among which there’s the large cistern known as Le Camerelle.

City Map

www.geoplan.it | Map of Chianciano Terme url

Read more | Extract from the Guide to Chianciano Terme and its outskirts by Mrs. S. Orienti and G. Vagaggini Poppi

Between the medieval towns of Pienza, Chianciano and Montichiello, lies Villa La Foce and the equally idyllic located Castelluccio.

Villa La Foce, a Tuscan villa created by the writer Iris Origo and her husband Antonio Origo.
Villa La Foce is located in the crete senesi overlooking the Val d'Orcia. After having bought La Foce in 1924, Antonio and Iria Origo commissioned the English architect Cecil Pinsent, who had previously designed the gardens at Villa Medici in Fiesole, to restructure the main buildings and to create a large formal garden. Pinsent designed the structure of simple, elegant, box-edged beds and green enclosures that give shape to the Origos' shrubs, perennials and vines, and created a garden of soaring cypress walks, native cyclamen, lawns and wildflower meadows. Today the estate is run by the Origo daughters, Benedetta and Donata, and is open to the public every Wednesday afternoon. [read more]

The medieval castle of Castelluccio (literally little castle) lies on the summit of a hill on the La Foce estate. Each summer, the cultural association La Tartaruga organizes art shows at the medieval castle Castelluccio, which is part of the estate. The curator, Plinio de Martiis (known for his important gallery in Rome) has in recent years brought the work of renowned artists such as Kounellis and Manzoni to Castelluccio, as well as promoting young, less famous artists.

The chamber music festival Incontri in Terra di Siena, was founded in 1989 by Benedetta Origo and her son, Antonio Lysy, in memory of Iris and Antonio Origo. The festival is held each year at the end of July / beginning of August.

Incontri in Terra di Siena - 2009 Season

Villa La Foce is located in the Val d'Orcia on the other side of Monte Amiata, and less than an hours drive from Podere Santa Pia.

Riserva Naturale di Pietraporciana

The Pietraporciana Nature Reservecovers the top, the northern side, and part of the southern side of the homonymous hillock (847 m), belonging to the ridge that, between Chianciano Terme and Sarteano, separates Val d’Orcia from Val di Chiana

In the beech tree wood of Pietraporciana | Departure in Sarteano (the road to Castiglioncello), arrival in Sarteano.

In the Rocconi forest, which lies between the magical world of the Crete of the Val d’Orcia and the neatly organized farm land of the Val di Chiana, there is a stand of secular beech trees which is documented and marked by the Italian Botanical Society.
This antique place protects beneath its rock walls, giant beech trees as well as other rare plants, flowers of every kind and lush moss that covers enormous boulders.

Riserva Naturale Lucciola Bella

The Reserve, situated in the south-east of the towns of Pienza and Montichiello, in de Val d’Orcia, includes a small corner of the famous landscape of Crete Senesi, which have here their last eastern branches. The main element of the Nature Reserve is without a doubt the landscape characterized by the gullies and above all by the so-called biancane, typical erosive features of the Crete Senesi landscape, mainly linked to grazing activities: they house important and exclusive vegetational and ornithological aspects.

La Riserva Naturale di Pietraporciana

Riserva Naturale Lucciola Bella