Pieve di Corsignano

A small, perfectly preserved twelfth-century Romanesque parish church a kilometre west of Pienza, down a quiet country lane lined with cypresses. The interior is plain pale stone with a few worn Romanesque capitals — sirens, lions, an Adoration of the Magi — and a small font in the corner.

Worth the fifteen-minute walk from the town centre, both for the building itself and for the half-mile of strada bianca through olive groves that gets you there. The church is occasionally closed; the surrounding hillside and the views back toward Pienza are open at any hour.

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A story
Pope Pius II — the future Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini — was baptised in the font of this church on 18 October 1405. He returned for a private visit in 1462 and ordered it preserved exactly as it was, refusing to incorporate it into his grand reconstruction. The font is still there.

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