Pienza City of Light

A Journey to the 'Ideal City' UNESCO World Heritage Site

The guide Pienza City of Light is not only a historical-artistic survey of the city, but a real guide that will accompany the visitor in the discovery of a fascinating place rich in art and unforgettable landscapes.

Pienza, the city desired by Enea Silvio Piccolomini, the future Pope Pius II, who modelled it according to the noble ideals of Humanism, is not only a series of monuments to visit, some of which are among the earliest and greatest examples of Renaissance architecture, but a place to live, where beauty and cultural innovation reach the perfect synthesis of humanistic thought in an urban vision that harmoniously combines architecture and landscape. 

Pienza has many souls that make it alive even today: a city of cinema, often chosen by great directors as a natural film set; a city of poetry, where a poet such as Mario Luzi found inspiration and lived for a long time; a city of art, not only Renaissance but also contemporary, as witnessed by the works scattered along the 'Path of Art and Soul'.

Pienza, with its World Heritage landscape, with its numerous palaces and its network of streets, with its unmistakable 'light' continues to give every visitor the same awe and astonishment with which Pius II celebrated the birth of his 'ideal city'.