Wheat fields, Val D’ Orcia valley, Tuscany, Italy

We were wandering around the hills, valleys and streams of the Val d’Orcia and managed to get a bit lost. (I highly recommend getting lost at least once when traveling. You never know what you will find!) Kathy suggested we stop and go explore a castle on the valley’s rim. It turned out to be a private residence. Can you imagine walking into someones private castle and ask for a tour? Luckily we were undiscovered, so we quickly got in our van and escaped. When we turned the corner, this scenic landscape filled our horizon.

The Val d’Orcia valley is part of the Province of Sienna in Tuscany, Italy. This landscape is one of the UNESCO’s World Heritage sites. The area has been well protected and remains close to how it looked and functioned as an agricultural area, since the Renaissance. Wandering through this valley is like stepping back in time, the old villas, small castles, stone bridges and farm lands, are beautiful and enchanting.

The image I took here is a ten shot panoramic. A panoramic captures the landscape in the way we encounter the physical space, vast and wide open.