The tenth stop: My Tuscan sunshine.
Tuscany is famous for its picturesque natural scenery and rich artistic heritage, and is known as the most beautiful region in Italy🇮🇹. Six places have been listed as World Heritage Sites: Florence, Pisa Cathedral Square, San Gimignano, Siena, Pienza and Val d'Orcia. The film "Under the Tuscan Sun", adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name, brought the dreamy pastoral scenery of Val d'Orcia to the public's mind and yearning. Val d'Orcia is the beautiful "Val d'Orcia", which extends from the hills south of Siena to Mount Amiata. In 2004, the World Heritage Committee commented: "Val d'Orcia reflects an idealized model of good governance and creates a pleasing landscape. The landscape of Val d'Orcia is a testament to the well-managed beauty of Renaissance agriculture." In addition to the distant mountains, rolling hills, ancient towns, neat vineyards and olive trees, the towering Italian cypress trees are the absolute protagonists here. They may be in pairs, rows, or clusters. Under the beautiful light and shadow, the artistic landscape of Val d'Orcia is fully displayed. Following the endless cypress trees and basking in the Tuscan sunshine, you will soon reach Pienza. Pienza: A town in the province of Siena, known as the "touchstone of Renaissance urban life". Originally just one of the many small towns in Tuscany, until the 15th century Pope Pius II decided to design his birthplace as a perfectly planned "utopia", thus the "ideal city" was born. The Piazza Pio II, the center of the town, is an ideal place for residents to communicate. Pienza Cathedral, Piccolomini Palace, Cathedral of the Assumption and the Old Well are cleverly designed around the square. The second season of "Medici" was filmed in the Piccolomini Palace as the Medici family mansion. The town is elegant and warm, with yellow attics, arched doorways with red-brown wooden doors with凹凸纹路, rectangular double windows painted in dark green or natural wood, and flower pots and plants in front of the courtyard gate, all maintaining the appearance of five hundred years ago, like an ideal planet running independently in a parallel world. The town can be walked in half an hour, and the path on the southwest side is the best place to overlook Val d'Orcia. After passing a gift shop, I picked a pair of cypress trees that I liked and was reluctant to leave. Last stop: Siena Old Town Siena, the capital of Siena Province, is a medieval city nestled in the embrace of the beautiful Tuscan countryside. After thousands of years of baptism, it still maintains its vigorous vitality. It embodies the infinite love of the Sienese people for their hometown, who adhere to the Gothic dream. Its ingenious and harmonious urban architecture and layout are a model of medieval urban planning. Its artistic level was comparable to Florence in the 13th and 14th centuries. The entire ancient city is a masterpiece of medieval art. Siena has one of the largest medieval squares, the "Campo Square", and the world's oldest surviving "Siena Monte dei Paschi", established in 1472 and still in operation today. Surrounding the central "Campo Square" are the City Hall, the Mangia Tower and various aristocratic mansions. All buildings have a harmonious roofline, which is derived from the city's decree: "...to correspond to the beauty of Siena, to satisfy almost everyone, all newly built buildings along the street...to be consistent with existing buildings, buildings under construction not to protrude from other buildings, but to be arranged accordingly, so as to achieve the most beautiful effect of the city"; Walking on any uneven street or narrow alley in the city, you can reach Campo Square, which is not only the center of life for local citizens, but also the venue for the famous Palio twice a year. The "Siena Cathedral" is well worth a visit, combining the strong Gothic exterior and Romanesque interior. Its interior is luxuriously decorated, with exquisite marble mosaics on the floor of the cathedral, a unique polygonal dome, and continuous black and white marble columns similar to the exterior of the church... Siena is also the birthplace of the world-famous🇮🇹Tiramisu. Sitting in a cafe by the square, savoring the delicious Tiramisu, while letting your thoughts fly, I already look forward to my next Tuscan sunshine!