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Discover Tuscany
Villa La Valiana is ideally located to visit this wonderful corner of Tuscany. Our villa is just a few kilometers from Montepulciano, Cortona, Trasimeno Lake, the Val d’Orcia and the Val di Chiana. Here you can find some good tips for you unique experience in Tuscany.
Montepulciano
Located a stone’s throw from Villa La Valiana, Montepulciano is really a feast for the senses. The heart of the town lies in the Piazza Grande, where you can enjoy a glass of local Nobile wine and admire the rough brick exterior of the Duomo.
Visiting Montepulciano will make you fall in love: a unique village overlooking the Val d’Orcia on one side and the Valdichiana on the other. Breathtaking views, splendid Renaissance buildings, the beautiful Piazza Grande and the very fine Nobile di Montepulciano wine that will accompany you anywhere during the your visit. There are a myriad of cellars and tastings to experience around the square.
Cortona
Cortona is a traditional walled Etruscan town. Standing on a hill at about 600 metres above sea level, Cortona offers spectacular views over Trasimeno Lake and the surrounding valley. Although the town is small, plenty of interesting sites to visit. For example the Diocesan Museum, where you’ll find beautiful masterpieces and the MAEC, with fascinating artifacts found in surrounding archaeological sites. In Cortona you will find beautiful churches, like the Santa Margherita Sanctuary are strewn around the town and well worth an explore. Maybe you’ve already seen it in the famous movie, Under the Tuscan Sun.
Val d’Orcia
In the Val d’Orcia, landscape is so pure, characteristic and imprinted on our minds as the quintessential image of Tuscany that it’s part of UNESCO World Heritage site list.
Hills, cypress trees, medieval hilltop hamlets, wheat fields as far as the eyes can see. And then olive groves and vineyards that produce Brunello and other fine Tuscan wines.
Italy’s oldest extinct volcano in Italy, Monte Amiata, hems in the landscape to the west.
Here are some of the most beautiful villages you must visit: the the romantic Pienza, the ideal city on Renaissance, Radicofani and its Fortress, the cypresses of San Quirico d’Orcia. Furthermore Castiglione d’Orcia and Montalcino with its fine Brunello. San Giovanni d’Asso where you can taste the white truffle, Bagno Vignoni, famous for its striking thermal water baths in the town square, and Bagni San Filippo, where water rises from the heart of the volcano.
Valdichiana
Everything here speaks of charm and harmony: from the history rooted in legend and Etruscan mystery to the pleasure of treating yourself to an afternoon of well-being at the hot springs in Chianciano Terme, Montepulciano and San Casciano dei Bagni and excellent food and wine, like for example the extra-virgin olive oil made in Trequanda or and the renowned Chianina meat. Not to mention the harmony of the landscape and architecture in Sarteano, Torrita di Siena and the aristocratic and graceful Cetona and the beauty of fine living, a distinctive trait of this ancient territory.
Trasimeno Lake
Trasimeno Lake is located in the green heart of Umbria, amidst beds of charming white water lilies and reeds. Beyond the downward slope, gentle hills framed the lake, along with sporadic woods, corn and sunflower fields, vineyards and olive groves. Several town are located on Lake Trasimeno: some of them directly face the lake while others are nearby and are affected by the charm and attraction of this sheet of water.
The main town, Castiglione del Lago, is located on a limestone promontory, above the ruins of several Etruscan tombs.