The Valdichiana is a lovely area blessed by a mild climate and its varied and interesting countryside is completely unspoiled.
The region is marvellously compact and is characterised by a thermal basin which is among the most important in Italy. It is far from large urban centres, and its large forests create a healthy atmosphere which helps make the area one of the most pollution-free in Europe. It is also famous for its wonderful bread, wine and olive oil.
The Valdichiana is the perfect place for visitors not only because of the beauty of the natural countryside and the gentleness of the climate but also for its well-preserved cultural heritage. This is still alive and present in the museums, the archaeological ruins, the monuments, the historic centres, and the countryside itself, all of which testify to an uninterrupted succession of cultures : Palaeolithic, Etruscan, Roman, Medieval and Renaissance.
In addition to this there is the traditional hospitality of a people who know how to welcome visitors to this beautiful, green and fascinating area of Tuscany.
Tuscany is the center of Italy -- its culture, its food and wine, and its major attractions. While you're our guests, we'll help you see and do the things that are high on your priority list.

Lucignano

At a height of 400 metres, the town dominates the valley below, on the borders of the provinces of Siena and Arezzo. Etruscan and Roman archaeological remains illustrate the importance of Lucignano as a strategic point of connection between the two cities. Its urban structure, composed of concentric elliptical rings, is one of the most singular of the entire Arezzo territory.
We enter the old town centre through the San Giusto gate. We can then choose whether to visit the village starting from the left, proceeding along the "poor street", or Via Roma, lined with simple constructions of a mediaeval stamp, or from the right, along the "rich street" or Via Marconi, embellished by Sienese style Renaissance mansions.
In Via Roma, on the left we can see the Cassero with its high Tower (fourteenth-century), built to a design by the Sienese Bartolo di Bartolo, opposite a loggia of Renaissance style, but actually built in the eighteenth century to a design by Andrea Pozzo. From here, we ascend slightly to reach the Collegiate church of San Michele Arcangelo, (late sixteenth-century) designed by Orazio Porta, with elliptical steps in front which complete the urban layout of the town. The interior houses interesting sixteenth-century works.

Bio Cafè Free Tuscany is located in Via Roma 2/c, in the historical centre of the town. Tel. + 39 0575 1786577 fax + 39 0575 1946428 e-mail: info@biocafe.it

A little beyond the Collegiate church we come to the Piazza del Tribunale with the Palazzo of the same name which later became the Palazzo Comunale (thirteenth-fourteenth century). From here we enter the Museo Civico which houses an interesting collection of paintings from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries (Bartolo di Fredi, Lippo Vanni, Luca Signorelli) and a magnificent reliquary in gold, silver and gilded copper in the form of a tree, known as the golden tree of Lucignano, and attributed to Sienese goldsmiths, Sienese and Florentine illuminators and Gabriello d’Antonio (fourteenth-fifteenth century).
Next to the Palazzo del Comune is the Romanesque church of San Francesco, (thirteenth-century), with a facade adorned with a Gothic portal and rose window. The interior houses frescoes by Taddeo di Bartolo and Bartolo di Fredi (Scenes from the Life of St. Francis, The Triumph of Death, fifteenth-century).
The itinerary can continue with a visit to the Torre delle Monache, (eleventh-twelfth century), the characteristic lanes, the walled gate (reopened after lengthy restoration), and outside the old town centre, the Medici Fortress, built for Cosimo I and never completed, the Renaissance Sanctuary of the Madonna della Querce, built to a design by Giorgio Vasari, and all the surrounding countryside which provides a scenographic backdrop to the walled town.