Val di Chiana senese - Val di Chiana senese

Val di Chiana senese is an area of ​​the Tuscany.

To know

There Val di Chiana (or Valdichiana) is a valley of alluvial origin that in an extended sense includes territories that fall both in the provinces Tuscan of Arezzo and of Siena than in those Umbrian of Perugia and of Terni.

Geographical notes

Val di Chiana Senese extends west to the slopes of the Val d'Orcia and on the slopes of mount Cetona, the highest peak in the area, which reaches 1,148 m.

The landscape is mainly hilly, with a long flat strip near the Canale Maestro, which was born in Chiusi lake and flows into the Arno della Val di Chiana Arezzo.

Formerly crossed by the river Clanis, from Clarus (Chiaro), the Chiaro River, as the basins of the Montepulciano Lake and the Chiusi (the "chiari"), an ancient tributary of the Paglia, in turn a tributary of the Tiber.

When to go

The climate of the Val di Chiana has winters that are not excessively cold (an average of 5.4 ° C in January) and moderately humid and summers characterized by high but not torrid temperatures. Spring and autumn are generally mild. Autumn is the wettest season of the year. Snowfall is rare: snow usually falls in the months of December-January, but only covers the valley for a few days.

Background

The municipalities of the Sienese Val di Chiana are, with the exception of Montepulciano, those that until 1554 belonged to the Republic of Siena.

Except for San Casciano dei Bagni is Sarteano, all the municipalities of today's Sienese Val di Chiana were included in the Aretino Compartment of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. In 1860, with the unification of Italy, they were annexed to the Province of Siena.

Territories and tourist destinations

Urban centers

Other destinations

How to get

By car

The Sienese Val di Chiana is crossed from north to south by the A1 Autostrada del Sole motorway in the eastern portion of its territory.

How to get around

What see

• 43.05614211.9654971 Chiusi Lake. Lake Chiusi is a protected natural area of ​​local interest. It is home to numerous species of ardeidae, such as, for example, the little egret, the purple heron and, since 1999, the very rare glossy dog. The area is also a stopping point for migratory birds such as osprey or black-winged stilt. Other breeding species are the great grebe, the pendulum and the rare sideburn.  

• 43.02289411.9597332 Catacomb of Santa Mustiola, Provincial Road 49, 36 (north-east of Chiusi, on the road to Lake Chiusi). 1 Jun 16 Oct 15: 00-16: 30, 17 Oct 31 May 11: 00-16: 00. Access to be booked at the Chiusi Cathedral Museum office. Discovered in 1634 or, according to other sources in 1643, it dates back to the third century. The catacomb is divided into a series of galleries overlooking two main arteries, with the walls marked by inscriptions, symbols and signs. The tombs are mainly arcosolium and niches, arranged in irregular vertical rows. Particular is the presence of a polysome arcosolium, that is destined to contain several bodies, covered by tiles. There is the original sepulcher of Santa Mustiola, buried here in 274 and then transferred to the Cathedral of San Secondiano. His cult is attested from the fourth century and a basilica was built over his tomb in the fifth century, then rebuilt in 728, and demolished in the nineteenth century.

The crypt, with interesting archaic furnishings, is the heart of the structure: it was probably an ancient tomb of a family that later became Christian; the tunnels, supported by brick arch structures, branch off from it. At the bottom of the crypt is an altar, behind is the ancient cathedra and on the right a marble inscription from the tomb of the first bishop of Chiusi, Lucio Petronio Destro, who died in 322. The oldest inscription is that of Redenta, who died in 290.  

• 43.020111.96113 Tomb of Colle Casuccini (east of the town, near the current cemetery). This Etruscan tomb has frescoes similar to those of the Tomb of the Monkey and has an articulated plan on the access dromos, with three rooms that open to it and two cells for cinerary urns. The walls of the atrium are decorated with a continuous frieze with funeral games (athlete with weights, pyrrichist, crotalist, boxer, wrestlers, chariot race) and a banquet scene. On the walls of the back room there are scenes of dance (fourteen dancers) among laurel bushes. These themes are linked to the period of early archaism (early 6th century BC), even in the more cosmopolitan Tarquinia. The scenes can be compared with the bas-reliefs of funerary stones in fetid stone of the area.  
• 43.033911.95974 Tomb of the Grand Duke. It is an Etruscan tomb with a sepulchral chamber only, made up of dry-walled travertine blocks (also on the vault), with a bench that runs along the entire perimeter and where seven cinerary urns are placed, with the names of the deceased engraved on the lids, all belonging to the Pulfna peris family. The dating is later than other tombs in Chiusi, in fact it dates back to the 2nd century BC.  

• 43.024211.94555 Tomb of the Inscription (about 2 km from the town on the road to Lake Chiusi, in the necropolis of Poggio Renzo). The tomb, which is not open to the public, owes its name to the inscription in large letters placed on a niche carved into the left wall of the back room. It says ein thun ara enan, which could mean "don't do or put anything here". The tomb is entirely excavated in the sandstone and is surmounted by a small mound. A long trapezoidal dromos leads to the chambers which are arranged in a cross around a central rectangular atrium. The compartment of the inscription has a funeral platform and another funeral bed is located in the left chamber, on the right wall.  

• 43.025311.94776 Tomb of the Lion (about 2 km from the town on the road to Lake Chiusi, in the necropolis of Poggio Renzo. Near the Tomb of the Pilgrim). With the Etruscan museum ticket you can also visit the tomb of the pilgrim and, upon reservation, the tomb of the monkey. Known at least since 1883, it was rediscovered in 1911 to reproduce the paintings, now invisible. It is dated to the 5th century BC. The tomb, which is open to the public, owes its name to the fresco of two lionesses (or panthers) on the entrance pediment, which has now disappeared; other frescoes adorned the walls. The plan is cross-shaped, with three rooms opening onto the central atrium and an entrance dromos, along whose walls there are three niches and two small rectangular rooms. On the wall opposite the entrance to the bottom chamber there is a narrow passage leading to a cylindrical well, which emerges on the top of the hill. This passage was perhaps used during the original excavation of the tomb, or perhaps by raiders.  

• Tomb of the Pania (in the locality of Melagrano-La Macchia-Pania, not far from the town). It is one of the sepulchral chambers attributed as the oldest, datable to the 6th century BC, and has a very simple decorative apparatus, while the equipment of the two deceased was richer, one buried and one incinerated: metal furnishings, in bucchero, weapons , vitreous plague and above all the famous pyx of the Pania, a refined jewelery bucket decorated with ivory, now preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence.  

• 43.02411.9477 Tomb of the Pilgrim (about 2 km from the town on the road to Lake Chiusi, in the necropolis of Poggio Renzo. Near the Tomb of the Lion). With the ticket of the Etruscan museum you can also visit the tomb of the Lion and, upon reservation, the tomb of the Monkey. The tomb, which is open to the public, belonged to the Sentinates family and dates from the late 4th-early 3rd century BC. Already sacked in ancient times, today it appears as it was at the time of discovery, with five sarcophagi and twelve urns in alabaster and travertine with the covers upside down or overturned by marauders. It consists of a long entrance dromos, along which there are four niches and three burial chambers. In the central chamber the urn of Larth Sentinates Caesa was found, now in the National Archaeological Museum of Chiusi.  

• 43.03047211.9521948 Tomb of the Monkey (about 2 km from the town on the road to Lake Chiusi, in the necropolis of Poggio Renzo. Next to the Tomb of the Lion). With the ticket of the Etruscan museum you can also visit the tomb of the Lion, the tomb of the Pilgrim and, upon reservation, the tomb of the Monkey. The hypogeum has a cross plan with three rooms opening onto a central atrium, as well as a stepped entrance dromos. It is accessed by a staircase that is not the original, the dromos is in fact buried under the roadway. The doors are with shaped hinges. All rooms, including the central one (atrium), have funeral beds carved into the rock, carved in low relief in the form of klinai (banquet beds). The ceilings are coffered, imitating wooden models and partly painted. In the center of the ceiling in the atrium there is a female head, while in the back room there is a plant motif with four mermaids in the corners. The paintings of the tomb, apart from the figures of two men (servants?) And a bearded snake on the walls of the back room, are concentrated in a band of limited width in the central atrium, above a green plinth. The decorated band is framed at the bottom by a simple meander, and at the top by a kyma with leaflets; funeral games are represented there. A dating to the first decades of the 5th century BC has been proposed.  
• 43.018311.92629 Tomb of Poggio al Moro (west of the town of Chiusi). The tomb, consisting of three rooms, has frescoes with dance scenes and funeral games and is datable to the second quarter of the 5th century BC. According to Dennis, he presented scenes of funerary and athletic games in the first room.  
• 43.043811.948910 Tumulus of Poggio Gaiella. It is a tomb with a pillar chamber, attributed to the first half of the 5th century BC, and is traditionally believed to be the tomb of King Porsenna, who besieged Rome in 506 BC. It is the only mound that has survived from the Chiusi area, and is one of the largest in the whole of Etruria. Half of it is the result of a readjustment of a natural relief, with the upper part of the hill made up of filler earth. The actual tombs are dug at several levels in the lower part, which was accessed via a dromos about 10 m long and on whose walls there were two short tunnels that led to partition tombs, datable to the end of the 7th century BC. from the left one led to a room with at least fourteen small bedrooms in two rows, interspersed with short corridors. The materials found inside date back to the Archaic and Orientalizing era. In part, the decoration of the lacunar ceiling has been preserved, with traces of red coloring, and you can also see the original quays used as funeral beds (first half of the 5th century BC).

In the immediate vicinity of the mound, a recent Bronze Age settlement was discovered, the oldest in the area.  

• Orientalizing style tomb (a short distance from the town and the Tomb of the Monkey). It is one of the tombs attributed as the oldest, datable to around 600 BC, due to the use of the technique of applying the color directly on the tuff walls, with an incision as a preparation. The plan of the tomb had a rectangular shape and the single compartment was divided in two towards the bottom by a partition. The paintings, which were visible in the 19th century, have now disappeared. The ceiling was decorated with a red longitudinal line pattern with black strokes. The paintings on the walls, executed in red and black, represented a series of real and fantastic animals (winged lions, griffin, winged panther, sphinxes, goose) in orientalizing style (hence the name), according to the Greek-Italic eclectic taste of the era.  
• 43.023711.963811 Tomb of the Tassinara (east of the town, near the catacomb of Santa Mustiola). It is a small quadrangular room with a barrel vault, carved into the sandstone. The walls are decorated with paintings applied directly on the rock (not frescoes): on the entrance and the back one you can see two large shields between two festoons, while the side walls are decorated with depictions of the dead with their name and festoons . On the back wall was a terracotta sarcophagus, with a male figure modeled on the lid, holding the "roll of destiny" in his hand, now preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Chiusi.  

What to do

Path of the Reclamation - The Bonifica path is a 62 km cycle path in dirt. It develops on the ancient road for the maintenance of the Canale maestro della Chiana, which runs along its banks, between the cities of Arezzo is Closed.

There Val di Chiana it is a land of ancient traditions and in its inhabited centers there are various folkloristic manifestations and historical re-enactments, which are attended by a large part of the population. The main ones include:

• The Career of San Martino di Sinalunga
• Giostra del Saracino of Sarteano
• Palio of donkeys of Torrita of Siena
• Palio della Rivalsa of Bettolle
• Palio of the fortresses of Guazzino
• Bravìo delle Botti by Montepulciano
• Palio dei Somari of Montepulciano Station
• Palio of carts of Valiano
• Bruscello Poliziano in Montepulciano

At the table

The Val di Chiana is the land of origin of the famous "Chianina", a cattle breed renowned (and now bred) practically all over the world.

Drinks

In addition to the numerous wines produced within the entire territory of the Val di Chiana, here are the specific ones of the Val di Chiana Senese:

• Noble wine of Montepulciano: one of the oldest wines ofItaly today DOCG, vinified from an ancient clonal selection of the Sangiovese grape known as Prugnolo Gentile.
• Montepulciano red wine: a DOC red suitable for the whole meal, particularly suitable for first courses with meat sauce and meat in general. It goes well especially with Florentine steak, Florentine meatloaf, chicken and liver. Definitely suitable also for cheeses with a high seasoning. It should be consumed at a temperature of 16-18 ° C, in balloon glasses.

Safety

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