What is Peccioli known for?

Won the RAI contest for the most beautiful village in Italy in April 2024, the first Pisa-province winner of the program. Fondazione Peccioliper has commissioned contemporary-art interventions throughout the borgo since 2004, funded by landfill revenue. Municipal waste plant on the slope below the village, run as a public-private joint, whose revenue funds the cultural foundation and the open-air theaters.

When is the best time to visit Peccioli?

Apr–Oct. April through June and September into October are the months when the Valdera hills are at their best and the open-air program at Fonte Mazzola and the Triangolo Verde runs without the heat. July and August push past thirty-three degrees and the centro storico empties between two and six. The summer festival, 11Lune, runs July with concerts, theater and contemporary-art openings in the public spaces of the borgo. November through March is quiet; many trattorie close, the contemporary-art interventions stay visible in the streets, and the bell tower of San Verano against a flat winter sky is the postcard the borgo was selling long before the foundation existed.

Peccioli is a comune in the province of Pisa, Tuscany region of Italy, about 48 kilometers from Pisa.

How do I get to Peccioli?

From Pisa, Peccioli is roughly 48 km by road.

Tuscany · Pisa

Peccioli

Borgo dei Borghi 2024 in the Valdera hills, a medieval village that funded a public contemporary-art program with revenue from its landfill plant.

Known for

BORGO DEI BORGHI 2024
Won the RAI contest for the most beautiful village in Italy in April 2024, the first Pisa-province winner of the program.
PUBLIC ART
Fondazione Peccioliper has commissioned contemporary-art interventions throughout the borgo since 2004, funded by landfill revenue.
THE LANDFILL
Municipal waste plant on the slope below the village, run as a public-private joint, whose revenue funds the cultural foundation and the open-air theaters.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

The festa: Verano di Cavaillon, 27 October

Why come

Peccioli sits in the Valdera, thirty kilometers southeast of Pisa, on a hill above the Era river. The historic center is medieval: the Pieve di San Verano is documented in 1171 in a papal bull of Alexander III, the layout standing today is twelfth and thirteenth century, and the bell tower beside it climbs forty-two meters above the rooftops. What sets Peccioli apart is what happened after.

In the 1990s the comune partnered with a private operator to build a waste treatment plant on the slope below town. The Triangolo Verde, the green amphitheater built into the landfill site, hosts open-air concerts and contemporary-art installations. Revenue from the plant funds the Fondazione Peccioliper, a cultural foundation that since 2004 has commissioned sculptural and painted interventions throughout the borgo by international artists. The village won the RAI Borgo dei Borghi contest in 2024 on that combination: medieval bones, open-air contemporary art, and a landfill that paid for it.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Peccioli’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

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What to see

Pieve di San Verano
Romanesque parish church documented in 1171, twelfth-century layout, with a forty-two meter bell tower beside it.
Anfiteatro Fonte Mazzola
Open-air theater built in the shape of an ancient Greek amphitheater, two thousand seats, used for the Peccioli summer festival.
Museo di Palazzo Pretorio
Civic museum on the main square, part of the Museum Complex that includes the archaeological collection and the Sacred Art museum.
Campanile di San Verano
Forty-two meter bell tower beside the parish church, a nineteenth-century work by architect Bellincioni, the visual anchor of the skyline.
Triangolo Verde
Green amphitheater built into the landfill site below the village, a balcony overlooking the waste treatment plant, with eco-compatible art installations.
Centro storico
Medieval village with contemporary-art interventions throughout, commissioned by the Fondazione Peccioliper since 2004.

The slow-trip planner

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Living here

Population 4,662
Commuter belti
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Nearest airport Florence / Pisa, 58 min drive
Regional capital Firenze, 1 h 20 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

The numbers

Elevation: 144 m
Population: 4,662
Surface area: 92.52 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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