Anywhere Italy
Stemma di San Quirico d'Orcia

Tuscany · Siena

San Quirico d'Orcia

A walled stop on the Via Francigena in the UNESCO Val d'Orcia, where a twelfth-century Collegiata, a Renaissance garden and the Bagno Vignoni thermal pool sit within fifteen kilometers of each other.

Known for

  • VAL D'ORCIA

    UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape inscribed in 2004, the rolling country shaped by Sienese governance in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

  • VIA FRANCIGENA

    Working stop on the pilgrim route from Canterbury to Rome since Sigeric described it in the tenth century, with the medieval hospital still standing.

  • BAGNO VIGNONI

    Thermal frazione where the village piazza is a sixteenth-century pool fed by hot springs at 49 degrees, used since the Etruscans.

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 averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

Why come

San Quirico d'Orcia sits on a low rise in the Val d'Orcia, the rolling clay-and-tufa landscape inscribed by UNESCO in 2004 as a cultural landscape shaped by fourteenth and fifteenth-century Sienese governance. The town was a stage on Sigeric the Serious's tenth-century Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome and has remained a working stop on the route ever since. The Collegiata dei Santi Quirico e Giulitta was built at the end of the twelfth century over an eighth-century baptistery; the lateral portal added in 1288 is attributed to Giovanni Pisano, then working on the Siena cathedral.

The Horti Leonini, the geometric boxwood garden laid out by Diomede Leoni around 1580 inside the town walls, hosts the Forme nel Verde sculpture exhibition every summer since 1971. Bagno Vignoni, the frazione five kilometers down the road, has a thermal pool at the center of its piazza, used since Etruscan times. Few comuni this small carry UNESCO, thermal and Francigena signals at once.

We've been

Feature from our free newsletter

Val d'Orcia | The Postcard Is Constructed

When the film industry needed a picture of heaven, of the fields a dead hero walks home to, they came and shot it here, and that is the truest thing anyone has ever said about the Val d'Orcia. It is not a place. It is the afterlife as imagined by people who lived in cities. It is how the country looks to men who never spent an hour in it, dreamed up by Florentine bankers five hundred years ago and maintained, beautifully, ever since.

From the San Quirico d'Orcia letter, July 2026

Read the full feature on anywhereitaly.com

How to get there

From Bologna (BLQ), about 2h 50m by car.

Florence / Pisa (PSA) is about 3 hours away.

By car from the centre of Siena 1 hour, Perugia 1h 34m or Florence 1h 50m.

Coming by train into Perugia? San Quirico d'Orcia is about 1h 30m away by road.

San Quirico d'Orcia — photo 1
San Quirico d'Orcia — photo 2

What to see

  • Collegiata dei Santi Quirico e Giulitta

    Romanesque parish church built late twelfth century over an eighth-century baptistery, with the 1288 lateral portal attributed to Giovanni Pisano.

  • Horti Leonini

    Italianate boxwood garden laid out by Diomede Leoni around 1580 inside the town walls, hosting the Forme nel Verde sculpture exhibition since 1971.

  • Bagno Vignoni

    Frazione five kilometers south, with a sixteenth-century thermal pool at the center of its piazza, fed by springs used since Etruscan times.

  • Palazzo Chigi

    Late seventeenth-century palace on the main street, built for the Chigi-Zondadari family of Siena, now used for cultural exhibitions and concerts.

  • Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta

    Smaller Romanesque church near Porta Cappuccini, with thirteenth-century fresco fragments and a single nave.

  • Val d'Orcia

    UNESCO cultural landscape of cypress-lined ridges, clay crete and farmland inscribed in 2004, visible from every approach to the town.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where San Quirico d'Orcia fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

We recommend

Where to eat

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.

Through the year

What happens here

Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.

Living here

  • Population 2,572
  • Off the beaten pathi
  • Pharmacy in town
  • High school within a 30-minute drive
  • Nearest airport Bologna, 2 h 50 min drive
  • Regional capital Firenze, 1 h 50 min drive

Thermal baths in town: Piscina Termale Val di Sole, Bagno Vignoni Terme Libere, Bagno Vignoni.

Common questions

What is San Quirico d'Orcia known for?
San Quirico d'Orcia is a walled stop on the Via Francigena at 409 meters in the UNESCO Val d'Orcia, where a twelfth-century Collegiata, a Renaissance garden and the Bagno Vignoni thermal pool sit within fifteen kilometers of each other.
Where is San Quirico d'Orcia?
San Quirico d'Orcia is a comune in the province of Siena, in Tuscany.
What is the nearest airport to San Quirico d'Orcia?
Bologna (BLQ), about 2h 50m by car.
How long is the drive from Siena to San Quirico d'Orcia?
About 1 hour by car.
When is the best time to visit San Quirico d'Orcia?
Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 32 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 12 rain days.
Is there a sagra or a festival in San Quirico d'Orcia?
Yes. Festa del Barbarossa a San Quirico d'Orcia, Festa dell'Olio and Oil Festival. June is when the first of them falls.
Which other towns are like San Quirico d'Orcia?
Cetona, Pienza and Trequanda.
How many people live in San Quirico d'Orcia?
2,572 at the 2023 count.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

  • Elevation: 409 m
  • Population: 2,572
  • Surface area: 42.12 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.

Similar

Towns like San Quirico d'Orcia

🏛️ UNESCO

More UNESCO towns in Tuscany