Montalcino is a hill town and comune in the province of Siena, Tuscany, central Italy.
The Via Francigena is an ancient road and pilgrimage route running from the cathedral city of Canterbury in England, through France and Switzerland, to Rome and then to Apulia, Italy, where there were ports of embarkation for the Holy Land. It was known in Italy as the "Via Francigena" or the "Via Romea Francigena". In medieval times it was an important road and pilgrimage route for those wishing to visit the Holy See and the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul.
The province of Siena is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Siena.
Laurie Olin is an American landscape architect. He has worked on landscape design projects at diverse scales, from private residential gardens to public parks and corporate/museum campus plans.
Greve in Chianti is a town and comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy. It is located about 31 kilometres (19 mi) south of Florence and 42 kilometres (26 mi) north of Siena.
Monteriggioni is a comune in the province of Siena in the Italian region of Tuscany. It borders on the communes of Casole d'Elsa, Castellina in Chianti, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Colle di Val d'Elsa, Poggibonsi, Siena, and Sovicille. The town is architecturally and culturally significant; it hosts several piazzas, and is referenced in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.
Castiglione d'Orcia is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Siena in the Italian region of Tuscany, located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) southeast of Florence and about 40 kilometres (25 mi) southeast of Siena, in the Val d'Orcia, not far from the Via Cassia.
Chianciano Terme is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Siena in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) southeast of Florence and about 50 kilometres (31 mi) southeast of Siena. It is located between the Valdichiana and the Val d'Orcia.
San Quirico d'Orcia is a comune (municipality) of about 2,500 inhabitants in the Province of Siena in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 80 kilometres (50 mi) southeast of Florence and about 35 kilometres (22 mi) southeast of Siena inside the Valdorcia landscape. It is named in honor of Saint Quiricus.
Seggiano is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Grosseto in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of Florence and about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Grosseto.
The Val d'Orcia or Valdorcia is a region of Tuscany, central Italy, which extends from the hills south of Siena to Monte Amiata. Its gentle, cultivated hills are occasionally broken by gullies and by picturesque towns and villages such as Pienza, Radicofani and Montalcino. Its landscape has been depicted in works of art from Renaissance painting to modern photography.
The Abbey of Sant'Antimo is a former Benedictine monastery located in Castelnuovo dell'Abate, in the comune of Montalcino, Tuscany, central Italy. It is approximately 10 km from Montalcino about 9 km from the Via Francigena, the pilgrim route to Rome. After many years of disuse, the abbey was reoccupied in 1992 by a small community of Premonstratensian Canons Regular. Since January 2016, the occupants are a community of monks of the Olivetan Benedictine order.
Dame Iris Margaret Origo, Marchesa Origo, DBE was an English-born biographer and writer. She lived in Italy and devoted much of her life to improving the Tuscan estate at La Foce, near Montepulciano, which she bought with her husband in the 1920s. During the Second World War, she persistently sheltered refugee children and helped many escaped Allied prisoners of war and partisans, in defiance of Italy's fascist regime and Nazi occupation forces.
War in Val d'Orcia is a civilian Second World War memoir in diary form, set in Tuscany. The author was the Anglo-Irish writer and philanthropist Iris Origo.
Tuscany is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (Firenze).
Bagno Vignoni is an Italian village and hamlet (frazione) of San Quirico d'Orcia, situated on a hill above the Val d'Orcia in Tuscany. It is a popular tourist destination and well known for its hot springs.
Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies is a center for advanced research in the humanities located in Florence, Italy, and belongs to Harvard University. It houses a collection of Italian primitives, and of Chinese and Islamic art, as well as a research library of 140,000 volumes and a collection of 250,000 photographs. It is the site of Italian and English gardens. Villa I Tatti is located on an estate of olive groves, vineyards, and gardens on the border of Florence, Fiesole and Settignano.
Cecil Ross Pinsent FRIBA was a British garden designer and architect, noted for the innovative gardens which he designed in Tuscany between 1909 and 1939. These imaginatively re-visited the concepts of Italian 16th-century designers.
Montegiovi is a village in Tuscany, central Italy, administratively a frazione of the comune of Castel del Piano, province of Grosseto, in the area of Mount Amiata. At the time of the 2001 census its population amounted to 168.
Images and Shadows: Part of a Life is a book by Iris Origo, the Irish-American writer who spent most of her life in Italy. She owned and lived in the Tuscan estate of La Foce. It was first published by John Murray in 1970.
