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Profile
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 Lucignano d'Asso is living history, in the sense that it perfectly embodies the myriad unrecorded events of daily life that quietly shape rural reality over a period of many centuries. An eloquent testimony of the discreet dignity of tradition, this charming hamlet reveals how the past can be lovingly preserved as a source of inspiration for the future. |
 To stay at Lucignanello Bandini, immersed in a landscape of gentle, undulating hills and deep, rich colors, to walk beside wheatfields that ripple in the breeze, to muse among the silver shimmer of olive groves is to enjoy the inner quietude that derives from renewed contact with activities whose rythms reflect those of the changing seasons. Simple but rare pleasures of this sort accompany any sojourn at Lucignanello Bandini. |
 For many visitors, it is an experience that brings new life and depth to the landscapes glimpsed in the Sienese paintings of fourteenth century. For what seemed to be a portrayal of symbols, of abstracted and idealized nature, turns out to be tangible reality. Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti were painting what they saw: a magical landscape that has changed little to this day. |
 Though inhabited since Roman times, it was during the Middle Ages that Lucignano acquired its dinstinctive urban shape and architectural identity. A document drawn up in 1485 reveals that by that date the castle itself and the houses pertaining to it already belonged to the Piccolomini family, whose name is associated with numerous episodes in the social and religious history of Italy.
Despite such august beginnings, a quiet cordiality prevails both in the village itself and indeed in the sorrounding area. This is partly due to the natural courtesy of people whose lives have not lost the human touch; partly to an innate sense of scale, to the Renaissance conviction that man should be the measure of the universe in which he lives. |
 The "Azienda Agrituristica" Lucignanello Bandini is situated in the southernmost tip of Tuscany, in the tiny village of Lucignano d'Asso, an half hour's drive from Siena.
The hamlet consists of two stony roads, two churches, a castle, a quaint little store and a number of smaller houses that look out across rolling fields and patches of woodland towards the reassuring outline of Mount Amiata, a visual point of reference for many miles around. |
 The muted pinks, beiges and pale ochers of Lucignano's ancient walls perfectly harmonize with the palette of the "Crete Senesi", the Sienese Claylands whose rich, pliant soil forms the body of those warm-hued terracotta pots and urns that are a feature of the area. |
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