Pienza, Siena surroundings

The Pope Pius II wanted Leon Battista Alberti to build this town, it rose on a more ancient village called Corsignano. Pienza was destined to represent all the renaissance ideas of town, that’s why it is called “the ideal city” or the “utopian town”. It was built in three years, it is an example of beauty and harmony and it is symbol of the will of Pius II to build a town destined to be different and more beautiful of Siena, from which him and his family were chased away. As in the greatest part of this kind of medieval villages the town has one big principal street (Corso Rossellino) that cross all the town and arrives in the big place. In Pienza there’s Pius II Place with its particular trapezoidal place and the characteristic herringbone paving. In a few meters there are placed side by side the Cathedral, Piccolomini’s Palace and the Town Hall, at the centre of the place there’s a well. The three monuments deserve a visit and all along the street you’ll be tempted by all the typical product, like the pecorino of Pienza, sell in the workshops.