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Pienza, Tuscany
Coat of arms of Pienza

Tuscany · Siena

Pienza

The first Renaissance ideal city, built from 1459 on the Val d'Orcia ridge.

By Peter Benei

Written about. No. 44.

Our take

Val d'Orcia | The Postcard Is Constructed

Now, the postcard itself, the towns, and here I have less to say than you would expect, because Pienza and Montepulciano have become, and I mean this precisely, the canteens of a theme park. They are where you go to park, walk a pretty street, use the toilet, refill the water, eat a plate of something, and buy a thing to take home. They are the food court between the rides.

From the letter, July 2026

Read the full letter, for members

Pienza is in our free Tuscan Mainland guide

Visiting

Best time
Apr–Oct
By car
1 h 16 min from Siena
Population
1,928

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

  • J10°
  • F12°
  • M14°
  • A17°
  • M22°
  • J28°
  • J32°
  • A31°
  • S25°
  • O20°
  • N14°
  • D11°
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

Why come

Pienza sits on a long ridge in the Val d'Orcia, an hour and a half south of Siena. The village was called Corsignano until 1462. Enea Silvio Piccolomini was born here in 1405 and became Pope Pius II in 1458; the following year he ordered the Florentine architect Bernardo Rossellino to rebuild his birthplace as a Renaissance ideal city.

The work took three years. The square at the center, the cathedral on the cliff side, the palace built for the pope's family, the cardinal's palace facing it, and the town hall opposite the cathedral were all designed and built as a single composition rather than assembled piece by piece over time. Pius consecrated the cathedral on 29 August 1462, two years before his death, and the whole arrangement has survived almost unchanged since. What stands in Pienza today is less a collection of monuments than the physical record of one commission carried out in one stretch of years.

How to get there

From Bologna (BLQ), about 2 h 39 min by car.

Rome Fiumicino (FCO) is about 2 h 41 min away.

By car from the center of Siena 1 h 16 min, Perugia 1 h 35 min or Florence 1 h 39 min.

First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.

Pienza, Tuscany
Pienza, Tuscany

What to see

  • Piazza Pio II

    Trapezoidal Renaissance square laid out by Bernardo Rossellino, with the Duomo, Palazzo Piccolomini, Palazzo Borgia and Palazzo Comunale facing each other.

  • Duomo di Pienza

    Latin-cross cathedral with three apsidal chapels, built on the cliff edge, its Renaissance façade also by Rossellino.

  • Palazzo Piccolomini

    Renaissance palace for the pope's family, begun 1459, with an internal courtyard and a hanging garden overlooking the Val d'Orcia.

  • Palazzo Borgia

    Cardinal Borgia's palace opposite Palazzo Piccolomini, now the diocesan museum with works from Pienza and the surrounding villages.

  • Corso il Rossellino

    The main street of the centro storico, pedestrian, running between Piazza Pio II and the medieval gate, lined with pecorino shops and wine bars.

Fairs and festivals

We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the organizer before you plan a journey around one.

  • Fiera del Cacio

    Usually held in September

    The climax is a game played with cheese: throwers from the town's six districts roll whole wheels of pecorino by hand at a wooden spindle set up in the main square, Piazza Pio II, and score by the ring where the wheel stops. On the final weekend, stalls through the center sell Pienza pecorino and offer tastes.

    The official page

More autumn fairs and festivals in Italy

From the guides

Where to eat and stay

Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.

2 more places the guides name in Pienza

Before you sit down: how to order at a restaurant, how to spot a tourist trap, what aperitivo is and how the Italian bar works.

Living here

Could you live here?

Pienza is at the end of the road.

  • A village of 1,928. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Montepulciano, is 43 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
  • Arezzo, a city of 96,479, is 1 h 8 min by car. Further than our 30 to 60 minutes, a long way for the hospital visit or the monthly shopping.

The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.

How we choose a town, and every town by these rules.

  • Population 1,928, down 9.7% since 2015
  • Nearest city Arezzo, 1 h 8 min drive
  • Nearest national health service hospital Montepulciano, 14 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
  • Homes in the center: €1,350 to €1,950 per m² to buy, €4.00 to €6.00 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.

More about living here

  • Remote
  • Pharmacy in town
  • Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
  • Full fibre reaches 88% of homes
  • Primary school in the comune
  • Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
  • Perugia airport (PEG), 1 h 32 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
  • Regional capital Florence, 1 h 39 min drive

If you are moving here

Pienza

Who lives here

10% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Poland and the United Kingdom, against 9% across Italy. 36 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the Netherlands. There are 368 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 43% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Siena province ranks 21st of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.

Health and schools

The nearest emergency room is in Montepulciano, 14 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Siena, 38 km away. The nearest IB school is International School of Siena, 42 km as the crow flies.

Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.

Taxes

A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds between 0.72% and 0.8% to your income tax, depending on your income, with nothing due on income under €15,000. 7% pensioner tax: this town is not in a qualifying area.

Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.

What it costs

The average household in Tuscany spends about €2,410 a month, €540 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €770 a year for water, on the Tuscany average. In Siena, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.28, a meal in a pizzeria €17.81 and a man's haircut €25.49.

What it costs to live in Italy.

Climate and risk

It is in climate zone E, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from October 15 to April 15, up to 14 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. Under 1% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 2% in a high or medium one. 31% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.

These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.

Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.

Known for

  • RENAISSANCE IDEAL CITY

    Rebuilt from 1459 for Pope Pius II as a single architectural composition, the first applied example of Alberti's urban theory.

  • UNESCO

    Historic center inscribed in 1996, the surrounding Val d'Orcia landscape inscribed in 2004, two World Heritage listings side by side.

  • PECORINO

    Sheep's milk cheese aged in straw, hay or walnut leaves, the contemporary export of the Pienza ridge and its surrounding flocks.

Common questions

What is Pienza known for?
Pienza is the first Renaissance ideal city, built from 1459 on the Val d'Orcia ridge.
Where is Pienza?
Pienza is a comune in the province of Siena, in Tuscany, at 491 meters above sea level.
What is the nearest airport to Pienza?
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Perugia (PEG), about 1 h 32 min by car.
How long is the drive from Siena to Pienza?
About 1 h 16 min by car.
When is the best time to visit Pienza?
Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 32 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 12 rain days.
Which other towns are like Pienza?
San Quirico d'Orcia, Cetona and Trequanda.
How many people live in Pienza?
1,928 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
Is Pienza a good place to live?
By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Pienza is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Montepulciano, is 43 min away. The nearest city, Arezzo, is 1 h 8 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Montepulciano, 14 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 88% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources

The numbers

  • Elevation: 491 m
  • Population: 1,928
  • Surface area: 122.96 km²

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

The ranked lists

Lists Pienza appears in

All the ranked lists ›

Instead of the Val d'Orcia: hill towns within 75 minutes

Near here, with a letter

Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.