I visited this cultural landscape at least three-times during last ten years. As usually for cultural landscapes, it is quite difficult to recognize its OUV - actually, I need to read the ICOMOS evaluation report three-times to understand at least partly... The weirdest point is that the OUV of Val d`Orcia is expressed by another separate WHS - Pienza and by TWHS via Francigena. If I ingnore these political and rather artificial issues, I must say that I really enjoyed all my contacts with this site. Mostly, I simply crossed it by car or bus. I think that in this case it is OK, and one can recognize the qualities of the site even during the car tourism. The landscape is picturesque and different if compared with the neighbours such as Lazio. Hovewer, it has similar aspects as other landscapes in Tuscany and Umbria (La Crete between Siena and Asciano, Chianty etc.)

The sites that I explored by "getting out of the car" were Pienza (separate WHS with my review), Abbey of S Antimo with beautiful romanesque church and wonderful landscape around (PHOTO), and Bagni San Filippo (outdoor thermal baths!!!). I also enjoyed views towards Val d`Orcia from Montepulciano.

Even if it requires some effort to recognize and understand its qualities, it deserves the WHS status.