Autumn in Tuscany: Val d’Orcia landscape

“…the pause in this crossing that I hold dearest, the stop that my spirit desires with fits of impatience and greediness - is that in the high Orcia valley, beyond San Quirico, in the lands reaching to Montepulciano and Pienza. Its vision appears as the seabed of the memory or a land of dreams where some mysterious exalted sense perceives the chill of an unexplainable wind. Up there, in fact, the wind turns into the planet's enigmatic breathing. The morning breeze blows out toward the sea and returns warmer in the evening toward land. In that oasis which welcomes my exodus I sense the idleness of old men, I listen to the dull, mounting din of birds breaking into song, to silence, to the cry of joy that greets the day, to the sounds of life in the valley that are deflected, with the clinking of artisans meeting the moans of plows furrowing the land. Then there is that silence which is "not silent", being the language of nature and the universe…”

Mario Luzi

From “Terre di vento e di deserto”

“A land of wind and desert”

In the heart of the Sienese countryside dwells an essential, yet perfect landscape. It Is made up of hills, ravines, a winding riverbed and cypress trees that crown hilltops in perfect isolation or run along country roads with geometrical precision. Oak woods, olive groves and vineyards where Brunnello di Montalcino and other great Tuscan wines are born watch over enchanting hillsides, villages and historical monuments. To the west the view takes in Monte Amiata, Italy's highest extinct volcano. But it is the hills that impress you first. Val d'Orcia is now protected as an artistic, natural and cultural park. Trails, guides, brochures and museums all offer different means for exploring its treasures, although this most beautiful of Tuscany's valleys is first and foremost an emotion in itself. You’ll feel it in Radicofani if arriving from Viterbo or Rome, while crossing the Foce pass if arriving from Chianciano or Chiusi or at the Rocca a Tentennano after passing through Monte Amiata's dark forests. Wide-open, rolling and welcoming, Val d’ Orcia unfurls for travellers like one great, embracing smile.

If arriving from Siena or Florence to the north, the transition from the Crete area to Val d'Orcia is more sublte. The landscape remains arid as the hills rise and predominate and the wide Ombrone riverbed makes way for a narrower, winding valley. Clay outcroppings and ravines become fewer and farther between. The hamlets crowning the hilltops suddenly become splendid villages steeped with history and monuments. This is the most forbidding approach, described by poet Mario Luzi and by numerous other travellers. This is the route to Val d'Orcia taken in the past by pilgrims, Popes, mercenaries and merchants. Of these we may mention Charlemagne, the 11thcentury Archbishop Sigeric and members of the Medici family on their way to the curative waters at Bagno Vignoni.

Val d'Orcia leaves its mark on all those who pass this way. Those born here are fiercely bound to their land, and can scarcely live anywhere else. Even today, travellers who spend just a few hours passing through are instantly struck and seduced. They suddenly realise they must come back. The director Anthony Minghella was similarly struck and set his masterpiece film The English Patient, a saga about travelling, love, life and pain in Pienza and the monastery at Sant’ Anna in Camprena. More than anything else, Val d’ 0rcia means nature. The river this valley is named after is little more than a stream for most of the year. in the summer heat it practically dries up, but the autumn rains transform it into a raging river that seems to consume all it encounters. It springs forth in the hills between Radicofani and Sarteano, descends into a wide cultivated valley and then heads west toward Pienza, San Quirico, Montalcino and Castiglione. It skirts Monte Amiata and delves into a deep canyon, then passes through the hills of Maremma and finally feeds into the Ombrone river. The Orcia river is not the valley's only source of water. In Bagno Vignoni and Bagni San Filippo, thermal waters heated in the heart of the volcano bubble to the surface and form mineral outcroppings of rare beauty while offering well-being and pleasure to those who arrive from near and afar, as they have done for centuries.

Paestum the most beautiful city in Magna Grecia!

“….We still feel (in a Greek temple like the one at Paestum, for example) almost as if a god, playing one morning, had built his residence out of these enormous masses; at other times as if a soul had all of a sudden magically entered into a stone and now wished to use it to speak.” 

Friedrich Nietzsche

Paestum is in the Italian region of Campania and a sub-region called the Cilento located just south of the Amalfi coast. Here the majestic Doric temples, illuminated by sunlight and the long coastal strip, brushed by a sparkling sea, are the elements which make this place a charming place in which you can spend your holidays. The old city is located in a strategic position, a few km  South of the Amalfi Coast and on the north of the Cilento Coast, it is the door to the National Park of Cilento. Considered by the U.N.E.S.C.O. as a world heritage, Paestum remains, for its art, nature, tastes and events which characterize it, one of the most important beautiful cities of Magna Grecia, which must be visited and discovered. 

History and Archeology

Greece started to expand in the 8th century B.C. into southern Italy and Sicily, where they founded colonies among the small, agrarian settlements that were not organized well enough to be able to defend themselves from the arrival of Greeks in this case Achaeans coming from Sybaris. Around 600 B.C. the Greeks settled in "Poseidonia," named in honor of the god of the Sea.

After the Romans conquered the south they founded a Latin colony called Paestum here. The Paestum Plain is outlined by the river Sele to the north, by the Calpazio, Soltano and Soprano Mountains to the east, by the hills of Agropoli to the south and to the west it extends in to the sea. But, as in many of the coastal areas, population declined seriously in the Late Empire some fleeing to the hills to avoid malaria, others falling in Saracen raids. Paestum was lost to the world by the 12th century, discovered by road crews in 1752 and "re-discovered" in the 18th centuries when poets like Goethe, Shelley, Canova, and Piranesi visited and wrote about the ruins while on the "Grand Tour." Paestum has three of the best preserved doric temples in Italy: the Basilica of Hera, the Temple of Ceres, and, on the southern end of the site, the Temple of Neptune, built in 450 BC, the oldest and best preserved of the Greek temples in Italy.

The National Archeological Museum of Paestum is one of the best museums in Italy. It consists of various sections which allow the visitor to retrace the Geek, Lucan and Roman history of the city. It was built in 1952, using a project planned by the architect M.De Vita, and it is situated inside the walls of the town. The first section was built in order to hold the archaic Metopes which were found at the Sele. Another room, designed by the architect E. De Felice, was added to the first one. The latest set up of the Museum dates back to 1999, when a Roman Room and a Didactic room were added.Entering the Museum the visitor will find the Archaic Metopes, which are the most important and interesting findings of the ancient world; bronze vases, which were found inside the "sacello ipogeico" , the famous Diver's Tomb and the painted slabs of the tombs, which belong to the Lucan Age.Moreover, in the Roman Room, sculptures and many silver coins are also visible.The National Museum of Paestum possesses photographic, printmaking and restoration laboratories and a big archive.

The coast and The National Park of Cilento

On the Paestum shores , very thin sand is lined by a little stream. It sketches out a scenery which is characterized by a white beach which extends for about 14 km. At night it is possible to experience a unique sunset on an iridescent horizon. In the background you can see the uncontaminated beauty of the maquis near a dense pinewood. It is a place full of colours, fragrances , lights and shadows where  a sensitive soul could experience moments of intense emotion.

The National Park of Cilento is one of the biggest in Italy. It is the final result of the combination between man's work and nature. Cilento is an interesting place to visit because of its fusion between sea and mountains and because it possesses natural and cultural resources. That's why the National Park of Cilento meets the requirements demanded by Unesco. It is an outstanding example of the ecological and biological process of the Mediterranean ecosystem and in the Park you can find numerous plants and animals (marine and terrestial). The Park comprises a lot of buildings which represent the Greeks' colonization period , all the buildings remain undamaged. The National Park of Cilento keeps wonderful traces of the past cultural origins.

Paestum's flavours

 A place where it is possible to discover genuine flavours and, high quality products which hedge in the producers' experience and wisdom. Anthropologist, doctors and nutritionists think that the genuine and good quality food is a very helpful medicine to prevent malfunction, illness, etc., but it is also a means of enjoying good food, above all the food which can be found in this wonderful area - the Mediterranean diet – the Mediterranean diet  has its origins in  Greek eating habits. Indeed this wonderful diet, although it has been  slightly changed through the ages thanks to better economic and hygienic conditions, has always been used and integrated with resources and typical products which are cultivated on a fertile and rich soil: the Paestum and Cilento soil. Actually, this diet was studied by the American nutritionist Keys, when he was in the army and he came to Paestum in 1944. His study allowed the Mediterranean diet to be included worldwide in books which speak about a good diet, thanks to the excellent nutritional values,  such as cereals, legumes, vegetables, fruit, milk and olive oil, present in the Mediterranean diet, which protect the body from chronically illness.