Pienza is what happens when a pope decides to rebuild the village he was born in. In the fifteenth century the hamlet was called Corsignano, and one of its sons, the humanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini, became Pope Pius II. He commissioned the architect Bernardo Rossellino to turn it into an ideal Renaissance town, and within a few years a cathedral, a papal palace, a bishop's palace and a town hall stood around a single carefully composed square. The village got a new name, after the pope, and became one of the first places where Renaissance ideas of town planning were put into actual stone.
The square, Piazza Pio II, is small and perfectly balanced, a stage set that is also a working town centre. Step into Palazzo Piccolomini and walk through to the loggia at the back, which opens onto a hanging garden and a view straight down over the Val d'Orcia toward Monte Amiata. Pius wanted that view built into his house, and it is easy to see why. The cathedral beside it has a famous flaw: the ground beneath its apse is unstable, and the building has been sinking and cracking almost since the day it was finished.
The town is tiny, barely more than a thousand residents, and its lanes have names that tourists love to photograph, among them Via dell'Amore and Via del Bacio. Walk the path along the southern wall in the late afternoon, when the light rakes across the hills below and the farmhouses glow on their crests.
Pienza's other fame is cheese. Pecorino di Pienza, made from sheep's milk and aged fresh, semi-aged or long, is sold in shops all along the main street, and the smell of it follows you out of town. A wedge in the tank bag is a fine thing to have on a ride.
The road that brought you here is part of the pleasure. The SP146 runs east to Montepulciano and west to San Quirico d'Orcia, a crest road of open bends and constant views, busy with cars and cyclists in summer but magical on a weekday in May. Park outside the walls; the old centre is closed to traffic. For fuel, plan to fill up in Chianciano Terme or another of the larger towns around the valley, as Pienza itself is small.