How to get around Pienza

Pienza is the simplest of these towns to move around, and the only one that does not involve a climb.

In the village: on foot, and it is level

The historic centre runs along the crest of a ridge: one main street with short lanes dropping off it, and Piazza Pio II opening off the middle. Ten minutes covers it. Crucially for anyone comparing these five towns, Pienza is essentially flat along the spine — there is no equivalent of Montepulciano's climb or San Gimignano's stone slopes. It is the accessible choice in this group.

Getting here

By road. There is no station in Pienza. Siena is about an hour north-west, Montepulciano about twenty minutes east and Montalcino about half an hour west across the valley. Buses serve the village for residents; they are not built around a visitor's day.

Parking

Outside the walls, in paid parking, with a short and level walk in. The centre is small and largely pedestrian; driving in achieves nothing.

Into the Val d'Orcia

This is why you need a car. The 61,188 hectares UNESCO inscribed in 2004 are below and around the town, and the roads through them — between Pienza, Montalcino and San Quirico — are the drive people come to Tuscany for. Slow secondary roads, long views, and the cypress avenues everyone photographs. Allow much longer than the distances suggest, because you will stop.

On foot in the landscape

Marked tracks and farm roads leave the village and drop into the valley. Walking out along the southern side and looking back at the ridge is the best free hour here. The land is working farmland: stay on the tracks.

How easily, and at what cost, can you combine the region’s main destinations?

Cost compares the options for each route rather than quoting a fare: inexpensive means the price is not a factor in planning, moderate cost means a real line in the budget, and the expensive option is one worth weighing against the alternative. Fares change from year to year; the ranking between them does not.

The shape of the problem

A village of 2,091 people on a ridge, no station, reached by road, and crossable on foot in ten minutes. The transport question is entirely about the valley rather than the town.

In the village

On foot, and this is the easy one. The centre runs along the crest — a main street with short side lanes and Piazza Pio II off the middle — and it is essentially level. Of the five towns in this group Pienza is by a clear margin the most manageable for anyone with a mobility limitation, a pushchair or a bad knee. Park outside and walk in; the walk is short and flat.

Arriving

• By car — the practical way. About an hour from Siena, through the Val d'Orcia.
• By train and bus — no station in Pienza. Regional services reach Chiusi-Chianciano Terme and Buonconvento for the wider area, with local buses onward; workable but slow, and the timetables serve residents.
• On a day tour — Pienza is a standard stop on Val d'Orcia tours, which is why the village is busiest between late morning and late afternoon.

The drive that is the point

The Val d'Orcia, inscribed across 61,188 hectares in 2004, is best seen from the secondary roads below the town. The loop between Pienza, San Quirico d'Orcia and Montalcino is the classic one; Montepulciano lies the other way, twenty minutes east.

Budget two or three times the driving time the map suggests. The roads are slow, the views are the attraction, and the lay-bys are where people stop to photograph the cypresses. Those cypress avenues and isolated farmhouses are private property on working farms — photograph from the road and do not walk in.

Walking

Tracks and farm roads drop off the ridge into the valley. The southern side gives the view back up at the town, and an hour out and back is enough. Keep to the tracks.

The palace, which needs booking

Palazzo Piccolomini is seen on a guided visit with an audio guide, not wandered. Booking office Monday to Friday 09:00 to 17:00, +39 0577 286300. Arrange it before you arrive rather than at the door.