A New Path in Tuscany Offers Rest, Beauty and an Escape from the Crowds

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A New Path in Tuscany Offers Rest, Beauty and an Escape from the Crowds

This summer, a new path leads visitors from the town’s main piazza to the countryside, a journey of a little less than two miles. Along its length they’ll find 28 benches made of travertine marble created by well-known artists. Each bench is both a place to rest and take in the sweeping views of the Italian countryside, and a work of art shaped by the maker’s hand: One suggests a throne, another carries an image of a face, another has the tactile surface of a beach stone.

The benches are a gift from

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the foundation created by the Swiss art collector Urs Rechsteiner, who has had a second home in the area for 30 years, the Villa Santa Maria. There, Mr. Rechsteiner created a garden for art works, and in the process “fell in love” with a bench from the artist Riccardo Grazzi. “It ignited a vision of a series of benches from various international artists to lead through the landscape providing places to meditate and take stock,” he said.

In an almost ******-tale twist, 20 years ago, Mr. Grazzi, along with the artists

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and Pietro Cascella had a similar vision, and had commissioned a series of benches, but had never been able to install them. They had been sitting in a warehouse. “Mauro Berrettini brought them to my attention,” said Mr. Rechsteiner. “But they seemed specifically created for this area.”

Travertine benches have long been built into Pienza. They sit in the main square where families can chat while their kids play, and along the path that leads to the town’s ********* where older residents sit in the sun and rest on their daily walks.

“It took us about two years to formulate the route and get the permissions,” said Giampietro Colombini, the former vice mayor of Pienza. “The foundation reached out with the idea and I instantly thought that instead of envisioning it as an exhibition, to conceive it as a walk that would lead from the Duomo to a farmhouse that’s in almost an unvisited spot.”

The path gives the town’s residents a dose of contemporary art and encourages visitors to explore outside the confines of the city walls, relieving some of the crowding.

The route leads out of Piazza Pio II, named for the 15th-century Pope who was born in Pienza. Here, a bench by Giò Pomodoro provides the opportunity to look back into the square or through the Porta al Santo, one of Pienza’s main archways, toward the countryside. The path then passes into the newly reopened Orti Piccolomini garden (once the orchards of Pio II’s family) before leading down the Via dell’ Addobbo and then the Via delle Fonti where women used to wash clothes in a huge marble communal basin.

From there it leads down to the

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the town’s first ******* and a more secluded refuge than the more visited cathedral; the pagan carvings inside include a mermaid with a split tail and a wolf licking the ear of a fiddler.

Finally, there’s a beautiful climb from the Pieve, around private vineyards and the woods of Porciano, past a former watchtower, and onto a small trail which passes two farmhouses, Il Pino and Il Sasso.

The placement of the 28 benches was a massive undertaking because of their weight and volume — some weigh more than 6,600 pounds — with special vehicles necessary for their transport.

One of the most striking features of the Sentiero is the “Guardiano della Valle,” or “Guardian of the Valley, “a 13-foot-tall sculptural figure conceived by Lorenzo Nisi and realized by Antonio Borrelli and the studio of Corto Circuito. The “Guardian” overlooks the countryside near the end of the path, and is “meant to transmit strength, courage and protection,” said Maria Cava the curator of the installation.

Ondine Cohane is a frequent writer for Travel and the co-author of Frances Mayes’ s “Always Italy.” She lives in the Val d’Orcia and is currently working on a memoir.

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#Path #Tuscany #Offers #Rest #Beauty #Escape #Crowds

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