La Foce - Pietraporciana Nature Reserve on foot
trekking with environmental guide
4,5 km long
450 m difference in altitude
easy difficulty
The trekking routes have a variable price based on the number of people and any additional services requested.
This itinerary is one way, you can book a circular tour with us, or a return trip with our minivan.
VALENTINA
Art historian and environmental guide. Her studies, focused above all on the medieval period, found inspiration precisely in the Val d’Orcia area, a place where the hills worked by man, the rows of cypresses, the medieval bell towers closely recall the splendid visions of Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Simone Martini and Duccio di Boninsegna, the three “greats” of Tuscan pictorial art.
The route begins with a guided tour of Villa La Foce with its wonderful gardens. The villa has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is a historic residence built in the late 15th century and inhabited since 1924 by the marquises Antonio and Iris Origo, those who began the reclamation process of the Val d’Orcia. The dialogue between buildings, garden and nature places La Foce at the center of a historical testimony of the architectural-cultural evolution of Tuscany. The garden was created in four phases, between 1925 and 1939. An Italian garden, divided into geometric shapes by box hedges, extends along an imaginary line that goes from the villa to the Val d’Orcia, the gaze directed towards Mount Amiata. The garden is the work of a famous landscape architect named Cecil Pinsent. We will continue our journey which will lead us from the Villa to the Pietraporciana nature reserve. The path is simple and goes through the woods and segments of cultivated fields that open towards the valley and the Amiata. We will reach the Pietraporciana reserve, we will visit the headquarters which houses the visitor center, a guesthouse, a restaurant and we will come into contact with a particular and very interesting reality. We will cross the splendid beech forest rich in fauna and geological and vegetal specificities and we will discover the numerous caves of limestone origin found along the route. An extremely fascinating place.
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