The Cypresses of San Quirico d'Orcia
How do I find it? You can recognise it by the tight copse of cypresses framed against the Val d'Orcia hills exactly where the SS2 curves past it, at kilometre 189. It stands beside a roadside pullout at Podere Casaltina.
A tight, dense copse of cypresses on a Tuscan hillside has become one of the most photographed sights in Italy, and almost nobody who photographs it knows its name. Drivers on the SS2, the old Via Cassia between Siena and Rome, slow for the pullout at kilometre 189 because the copse sits exactly where the road curves past it, framed against the Val d'Orcia's bare clay hills, and stop to take the picture everyone else has already taken. A second grove, arranged in two facing semicircles, stands 200 metres further on; together the two hold a listing on Italy's own monumental-tree register, one of 2,407 trees the state protects nationwide and one of 55 in Tuscany. The tallest reaches 15 metres, the average trunk a modest 64 centimetres round. Nobody has dated them. Cypresses this size in this region are usually reckoned in the low hundreds of years by growth rate alone, but no dendrochronology or planting record exists for this particular stand, so the honest answer is that its age is simply unknown. The land underneath is a working farm, Podere Casaltina, and the trees are not fenced off from it. Nothing stops anyone walking the short dirt track up from the road for a closer look, which is most of what a visit here actually is.
- Species
- Mediterranean Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens)
- Age estimate
- not documented
- Girth
- 1.1 m
- Location
- Podere Casaltina, Via Cassia (SS2) km 189, locality I Triboli, San Quirico d'Orcia, Siena Province, Tuscany, Italy (I Triboli, San Quirico d'Orcia)
- Access
- Free, no ticket. Viewable and photographable from a roadside pullout/small parking area directly on the Via Cassia (SS2) at km 189, or reachable on foot in about 5 minutes up the adjoining dirt track to the smaller circular grove ('i Cipressini'). No gate or private-land restriction reported at the site itself despite standing on farmland (Podere Casaltina); it is one of Tuscany's most visited and photographed roadside spots, open year-round.
- Getting there
- No public transport; the site sits on the SS2/Via Cassia about 6 km northeast of San Quirico d'Orcia's town centre, a short drive or roadside stop
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