San Quirico d'Orcia is a small walled town in the Val d'Orcia, the stretch of southern Tuscany that appears on every other postcard of Italy — rolling hills, lone cypress trees, golden light. The town sits on the old Via Francigena pilgrimage route and has an elegant Romanesque collegiate church, the Collegiata dei Santi Quirico e Giulitta, with three ornate carved portals that are worth a stop on their own.
The Horti Leonini, a formal Italian garden laid out in the 16th century, sits within the town walls and is a peaceful spot with clipped box hedges and views over the valley. San Quirico is a good base for exploring the Val d'Orcia: Pienza and Montalcino are both a short drive away, and Bagno Vignoni — with its extraordinary thermal pool for a town square — is just 4 kilometres south. The landscape between them — the famous winding road lined with cypresses near Monticchiello — is one of the most photographed in Italy.