What is Castiglione d'Orcia known for?

One of three communes that share the 2004 UNESCO listing of the Val d'Orcia cultural landscape between Siena and Monte Amiata. Twelfth-century Salimbeni stronghold in the frazione of Rocca d'Orcia, where Catherine of Siena retired and learned to write in 1377. Painter, sculptor and architect Lorenzo di Pietro, born here around 1410, central figure of fifteenth-century Sienese art.

When is the best time to visit Castiglione d'Orcia?

Apr–Oct. April through June and September into October are the months the Val d'Orcia photographers come for, the green hills and the gold stubble depending on the half. The borgo at 540 meters stays cool when the valley floor heats up. July and August push the lower fields into the mid thirties; afternoons thin out the centro storico but the ridge keeps a breeze. November through March is quiet, several restaurants close, and the Val d'Orcia under fog from the Pienza viewpoint is the photograph that justifies the cold. Cypresses on the lower farms hold their shape against the bare clay year round.

Where is Castiglione d'Orcia?

Castiglione d'Orcia is a comune in the province of Siena, Tuscany region of Italy, about 87 kilometers from Perugia.

How do I get to Castiglione d'Orcia?

From Perugia, Castiglione d'Orcia is roughly 87 km by road.

Tuscany · Siena

Castiglione d'Orcia

A stone borgo at 540 meters in the UNESCO Val d'Orcia, first recorded in 714, with two fortresses guarding the road from Amiata to the Via Francigena.

Known for

VAL D'ORCIA UNESCO
One of three communes that share the 2004 UNESCO listing of the Val d'Orcia cultural landscape between Siena and Monte Amiata.
ROCCA A TENTENNANO
Twelfth-century Salimbeni stronghold in the frazione of Rocca d'Orcia, where Catherine of Siena retired and learned to write in 1377.
IL VECCHIETTA
Painter, sculptor and architect Lorenzo di Pietro, born here around 1410, central figure of fifteenth-century Sienese art.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

Why come

Castiglione d'Orcia sits at 540 meters on a ridge above the Val d'Orcia, the agricultural landscape between Siena and Monte Amiata that UNESCO listed in 2004 as a cultural site shaped by Sienese painters and Renaissance estate managers. The settlement was first documented in 714, when it was a possession of the Aldobrandeschi. The Rocca Aldobrandesca above the village and the Rocca a Tentennano on the neighboring outcrop, in the frazione of Rocca d'Orcia, controlled the medieval road between Mount Amiata and the Via Francigena.

Siena took the town in 1251 and entrusted it to the Salimbeni and Piccolomini. Saint Catherine of Siena retired to Rocca a Tentennano in 1377 and learned to write there. Piazza Vecchietta, the small civic space in the centro storico, is named for the painter and architect Lorenzo di Pietro known as il Vecchietta, born here around 1410. The territory is one of three communes in the comprensorio that share the UNESCO inscription.

We've been

Feature from our free newsletter

Val d'Orcia | The Postcard Is Constructed

When the film industry needed a picture of heaven, of the fields a dead hero walks home to, they came and shot it here, and that is the truest thing anyone has ever said about the Val d'Orcia. It is not a place. It is the afterlife as imagined by people who lived in cities. It is how the country looks to men who never spent an hour in it, dreamed up by Florentine bankers five hundred years ago and maintained, beautifully, ever since.

From the Castiglione d'Orcia letter, July 2026

Read the full feature on anywhereitaly.com

What to see

Rocca Aldobrandesca
Aldobrandeschi fortress above the village, documented from the eighth century, walls and keep open as an archaeological site.
Rocca a Tentennano
Twelfth-century Salimbeni stronghold on a basalt outcrop in the frazione of Rocca d'Orcia, where Catherine of Siena learned to write in 1377.
Piazza Vecchietta
Small triangular civic square in the centro storico, named for the painter Lorenzo di Pietro known as il Vecchietta, born here around 1410.
Pieve dei Santi Stefano e Degna
Romanesque parish church on the main square, holding a fourteenth-century panel of the Madonna by Pietro Lorenzetti.
Val d'Orcia panorama
Continuous view from the ridge over the UNESCO-listed agricultural landscape, with Pienza, Montalcino and Monte Amiata visible on a clear day.

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Living here

Population 2,144
Off the beaten pathi
Pharmacy in town
Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
Nearest airport Florence / Pisa, 3 h 45 min drive
Regional capital Firenze, 2 h 50 min drive

Thermal baths in town: La Balena Bianca, Il Bollore, Terme San Filippo.

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

The numbers

Elevation: 540 m
Population: 2,144
Surface area: 141.66 km²

On the map

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These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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