Wandering by the Way How shall I tell the story of a day,
And where to end when there’s so much to say?
Let us set out the Francigena Way.
The Via Francigena is the pilgrim route from Canterbury to Rome, the way of pilgrims, Franks, Crusaders, and merchants over hundreds of years. Perhaps the Via Francigena would have looked like the strade bianche, the white roads of limestone gravel and rough stones that wind their way through Tuscan landscapes.
And where to end when there’s so much to say?
Let us set out the Francigena Way.
The Via Francigena is the pilgrim route from Canterbury to Rome, the way of pilgrims, Franks, Crusaders, and merchants over hundreds of years. Perhaps the Via Francigena would have looked like the strade bianche, the white roads of limestone gravel and rough stones that wind their way through Tuscan landscapes.
There’s a wealth of history along the Via Francigena, through Val D’Orcia to Pienza, our destination on the last day of our Eastertide visit to Tuscany. On a sunny day in April I hope to tread lightly in the footsteps of all who have ventured this way before us. Picture pilgrim feet refreshed at the Terme of Bagno Vignoni with its thermal bath and hot springs.
Pilgrim feet. On Holy Thursday we contemplate Duccio’s Maesta of 1311, his altarpiece for the Duomo of Siena, with a scene of Christ washing his disciples’ feet, dusty from the strade bianche. Then Mass in the cathedral on Easter Sunday. Our pilgrim way.
The queue for the Piccolomino Library in Siena Cathedral is scarcely moving so we choose instead to visit his birthplace of Pienza. The library celebrates his life, his work and his pontificate. Not a man remembered for his humility. He was born in 1405 in the village of Corsignano. When elected Pope he took the name of Pius II and rebuilt Corsignano in Renaissance style between 1459-62, renaming the new city in his own honour, Pienza. It is hard to picture Pius II, the epitome of Renaissance man, as a pilgrim travelling to his birthplace of Corsignano. Did he ask the residents how they felt about the fundamental transformation of their village, and its renaming? Pienza, where the bells ring. For whom do the bells toll? Tourists in 2024 complained their sleep was being disturbed in the early hours. Locals feel the traditional tolling of the Pienza bells helps them sleep, it’s their inheritance. Campanilismo, the bells remind us of our allegiance to our place, to our community. Time was when church bells marked out the rhythm and ritual of our daily lives, the hours of prayer, the Church calendar.
Pilgrim feet. On Holy Thursday we contemplate Duccio’s Maesta of 1311, his altarpiece for the Duomo of Siena, with a scene of Christ washing his disciples’ feet, dusty from the strade bianche. Then Mass in the cathedral on Easter Sunday. Our pilgrim way.
The queue for the Piccolomino Library in Siena Cathedral is scarcely moving so we choose instead to visit his birthplace of Pienza. The library celebrates his life, his work and his pontificate. Not a man remembered for his humility. He was born in 1405 in the village of Corsignano. When elected Pope he took the name of Pius II and rebuilt Corsignano in Renaissance style between 1459-62, renaming the new city in his own honour, Pienza. It is hard to picture Pius II, the epitome of Renaissance man, as a pilgrim travelling to his birthplace of Corsignano. Did he ask the residents how they felt about the fundamental transformation of their village, and its renaming? Pienza, where the bells ring. For whom do the bells toll? Tourists in 2024 complained their sleep was being disturbed in the early hours. Locals feel the traditional tolling of the Pienza bells helps them sleep, it’s their inheritance. Campanilismo, the bells remind us of our allegiance to our place, to our community. Time was when church bells marked out the rhythm and ritual of our daily lives, the hours of prayer, the Church calendar.
Was it the beauty of that April morning or something more, something inherent in the landscape? We leave the wooded hills for a more open agricultural countryside. Sunlit mist lingers in valleys and as we follow the Francigena Way we feel the loveliness of this drive through Val D’Orcia.
That joy in a landscape stays with us as we walk into Pienza. Belvederes from the city walls, out across the Val D’Orcia. It’s April and there are catkins on a tree rising above the wall, and a fig tree. Brimstone and Clouded Yellow butterflies are on the wing and scarlet poppies grow on the rock from which the city rises. Horticulture below the city walls. It’s the theme of Good Government where city and countryside are in harmony, a unifying vision.
Pienza makes a statement of style. A small city on a hilltop, a Renaissance city, spacious and elegant There are many delightful medieval hill-top villages and towns in Tuscany but Pienza is distinct. It’s a new concept in architecture and urban planning, a rethink.
Walking out of Pienza, I find a stone bench for our picnic, by a church whose bells toll loudly. The sun shines, a redstart sings, our risotto is delicious, and I believe I glimpse the elusive swallow-tail butterfly. I believe in jizz. In 1995 swallow-tails came every day to the garden flowers of our Tuscan villa north-east of Siena. It’s the only time I’ve seen this spectacular butterfly. There’s a British race, named Britannicus, which occurs only in the wetland fens of the Norfolk Broads- not a location I’m familiar with.
We walk below Pienza, beside an olive grove where men are pruning the trees. a motif of the season. Borage flowers and there are white flowers I can't identify. Skylark sing throughout our walk. It had rained earlier in the week and the ground ls rough, with churned-up mud and clay that clings, and sticks. The sun shines on Pienza as we wind our way uphill toward the city on one of those chalk tracks that highlights an Italian landscape.
That joy in a landscape stays with us as we walk into Pienza. Belvederes from the city walls, out across the Val D’Orcia. It’s April and there are catkins on a tree rising above the wall, and a fig tree. Brimstone and Clouded Yellow butterflies are on the wing and scarlet poppies grow on the rock from which the city rises. Horticulture below the city walls. It’s the theme of Good Government where city and countryside are in harmony, a unifying vision.
Pienza makes a statement of style. A small city on a hilltop, a Renaissance city, spacious and elegant There are many delightful medieval hill-top villages and towns in Tuscany but Pienza is distinct. It’s a new concept in architecture and urban planning, a rethink.
Walking out of Pienza, I find a stone bench for our picnic, by a church whose bells toll loudly. The sun shines, a redstart sings, our risotto is delicious, and I believe I glimpse the elusive swallow-tail butterfly. I believe in jizz. In 1995 swallow-tails came every day to the garden flowers of our Tuscan villa north-east of Siena. It’s the only time I’ve seen this spectacular butterfly. There’s a British race, named Britannicus, which occurs only in the wetland fens of the Norfolk Broads- not a location I’m familiar with.
We walk below Pienza, beside an olive grove where men are pruning the trees. a motif of the season. Borage flowers and there are white flowers I can't identify. Skylark sing throughout our walk. It had rained earlier in the week and the ground ls rough, with churned-up mud and clay that clings, and sticks. The sun shines on Pienza as we wind our way uphill toward the city on one of those chalk tracks that highlights an Italian landscape.
To Bagno Vignoni. Here Medici Popes and Pius II visited, to bathe in thermal waters perhaps. A loggia surrounds a walled pool where a thermal spring bubbles up in the centre. There are tubs of flowers, of deep blue pansies. A flutter of wings and a large, strong-flying butterfly alights and here’s my swallow tail, nectaring on pansies, lingering on our last afternoon. The longed-for butterfly in a lovely location.
Swallow-tail butterflies seem both bold and subtle. Cryptic colouring and pattern give the dazzle-ship effect to confuse predators who can’t interpret what they’re seeing. Colours blur and smudge and patterns are asymmetric and quirky. Like rippling, break-away wavelets that fade to nothing. This butterfly has ever-watchful 'eyes' on the upper-wing at the tip of its swallow-tail. The eyes of all-seeing Argos.
Nearby there’s a channel through rock where we explore the terme and sit with our feet in warm water. Sunbeams create star-bursts and bubbles cluster about our ankles, as if we’re wearing bubble-socks, translucent and shimmering. A pair of bubble- sunglasses floats downstream. All this, and a swallow-tail too!
Swallow-tail butterflies seem both bold and subtle. Cryptic colouring and pattern give the dazzle-ship effect to confuse predators who can’t interpret what they’re seeing. Colours blur and smudge and patterns are asymmetric and quirky. Like rippling, break-away wavelets that fade to nothing. This butterfly has ever-watchful 'eyes' on the upper-wing at the tip of its swallow-tail. The eyes of all-seeing Argos.
Nearby there’s a channel through rock where we explore the terme and sit with our feet in warm water. Sunbeams create star-bursts and bubbles cluster about our ankles, as if we’re wearing bubble-socks, translucent and shimmering. A pair of bubble- sunglasses floats downstream. All this, and a swallow-tail too!
Where to end when there's so much to say?
Looking-up Duccio's Maesta, I find an Italian Art Society website which tells of that day in June 1311 when all of Siena joined a triumphal procession to accompany the altarpiece from his studio to the Duomo. I wonder how Piccolomino's grand project of Pienza was received by the local people in 1462.
Pienza, Val D'Orcia and the Via Francigena constitute a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE. Thanks to Piccolomio, Pienza has a cathedral. But is it a town or a city? The designation is often used interchangeably.
Looking-up Duccio's Maesta, I find an Italian Art Society website which tells of that day in June 1311 when all of Siena joined a triumphal procession to accompany the altarpiece from his studio to the Duomo. I wonder how Piccolomino's grand project of Pienza was received by the local people in 1462.
Pienza, Val D'Orcia and the Via Francigena constitute a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE. Thanks to Piccolomio, Pienza has a cathedral. But is it a town or a city? The designation is often used interchangeably.
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