Tuscany 2019


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Day 2 - Monday 14th October 2019

Rocca d'Orcia to Il Rigo via San Quirico d'Orcia

Distance	Time		Elevation in meters
Km	Elapsed Hrs-Mins	Moving Hrs-Mins	Gain	Loss	Min	Max
18.2	6H57	3H46	421	610	229	534

The eager mob awaiting the start of Day 2........ sitting down of course!

After a shorty mini-bus ride, we started at Rocca d'Orcia

Superb views

Looking back to Rocca d'Orcia

Castello di Ripa d'Orcia

The Castle of Ripa D'Orcia, in earlier times, Ripa al Cotone, is documented as having been sold between 1250 and 1258 by the Consorteria dei Tinniosi, a political association of related aristocratic families, to the Republic of Sienna, which valued it for its strategic and military importance during their many bitter struggles with various powerful families. In 1274, the Ripa d’Orcia Castle, and much other property, was once more owned by the Salimbeni family who had taken over the Val d’Orcia and ruled it, in effect, as an independent state. The Ripa al Cotone di Valdorcia, though less valued than other property owned by the Consorteria, assumed such military significance that it appeared in the 1316 List of Property as “Roccham et fortilitiam de Ripa Cotone” owned by Niccolò and Stricca di Giovanni di Salimbene. The Consorteria consolidated its position in Val d’Orcia after having obtained the Emperor Charles IV’s recognition of their rule and in 1355 Giovanni d’Agnolino obtained “recognition and confirmation of the fiefs of Ripa with the related territory and districts and with all the rights of jurisdiction transmissible to his legitimate heirs”.

The 1410 the peace agreement between the Republic and the Salimbeni family conferred Ripa al Cotone on Antonia de’ Salimbene, yet by 1417 it was Niccolò di Cione di Sandro who, through intervention of the Santa Maria della Scala Hospital, sold the fortress and territory of Ripa del Cotone and Bagno Vignoni “with towers, tenants, houses and fulling mill” to the Siennese for 5,000 gold florins. Subsequently, in 1437, the Hospital Chapter passed a resolution for the sale to Compagno di Bartolomeo della Agazzara whose descendants, in 1484, conveyed the estate, with “its boundary on one side the Asso and on the other the Orcia, on the other the court of Sancto Quirico and on the other the court of Vignone” to Francesca, widow of Pietro di Bartolomeo Piccolomini. Thus from 1484 the castle, together with the fortified village and surrounding land, became the property of the Piccolomini family.

By this time, the invention of artillery had initiated the decline of the military importance of castles which were thus reduced to strictly productive use. Typically, only the profitable parts of the castle estates were retained and everything else was sold or rented. Unusually, this was not the case for the Ripa d’Orcia castle properties. Though its cultivable land, like much of the Val d'Orcia, was not easily worked and had been neglected during the long periods of war, the will of Emilio Piccolomini Carli in 1605 rendered it inalienable and part of the inheritance of the family’s firstborn son.

At the end of the 19 C, Count Pietro Piccolomini Clementini initiated restoration work under the supervision of the engineer Savino Cresti, and this was continued by his widow, Countess Marianna. As a result, the Ripa d’Orcia Castle today retains many of its original features.

Though it had long lost its military significance, the Castello Ripa d’Orcia continued to be the centre of production and administration for the vast properties belonging to it. This ended with the agrarian reforms following WW II and the subsequent disappearance of sharecropping. The estate was partitioned and the village was abandoned. Since that time, agriculture has resumed on the remaining property and the restored castle itself now offers tourist accommodation.

Fiume Orcia

Aileen

Jim and Aileen

San Savino

We sat down at this small building opposite Azienda Agricola San Savino to eat our lunch. Gabriela, the owner of San Savino, appeared like a siren in ancient Greek mythology to lure unsuspecting Strollers on to the rocks..... the rocks being a wine tasting session at her establishment. I think that she thought that Christmas had come early to have a group of walkers suddenly appear!

Gabriela, with the tempting offer of a wine tasting!

L to R: Lesley, Johanna, Steve, Charlie, Frankie and Paul

Lesley and Jim

Approaching San Quirico d'Orcia

Statue of Tazio Nuvolari, Italian racing driver

San Quirico d'Orcia is a village of Etruscan origins but its earliest written record dates back to 712 A.D. From the 11th century the village grew in importance thanks to its particular geographical position and also its situation on the Via Francigena. In 1155 Frederick I known as Barbarossa camped at San Quirico to meet representatives of Pope Adrian IV. In 1559 after the fall of the Siennese Republic the village swore allegiance to Cosmo I dei Medici. In 1667 Cardinal Flavio Chigi was nominated Marquis of San Quirico by the Grand Duke Cosimo III dei Medici.

San Quirico is one of the most noteworthy examples of medieval architecture in the province of Siena. The Collegiate Church or Collegiata has three doorways, the first is a magnificent example of Romanesque style. The Romanesque taste is still evident in the southern doorway attributed to Giovanni Pisano while the third doorway is an admiral balance between Romanesque and Gothic styles. Inside, as well as a triptych dating from the 1400s by Sano di Pietro, there are some Baroque elements and a fine wooden choir inlaid by Antonio Barili between 1482 and 1502.

Next to the Collegiate is Palazzo Chigi, now home to the Town Hall. Cardinal Flavio Chigi had the building constructed in the second half of the 17th century, and it was designed by the architect Carlo Fontana.

In the centre of the village are the splendid Horti Leonini, gardens created around 1575 by Diomede Leoni. From here we reach the "giardino delle rose", which is next to the church of Santa Maria Assunta, also in Romanesque style and mentioned in records dating from 1014

The church dedicated to San Francesco faces on to the main square, and it is also known as the Chiesa della Madonna. Inside is the beautiful Madonna by Andrea della Robbia, moved to this location from the Chapel of Vitaleta.