In the hilltop village of Pienza, Tuscany, Italy

 "Every renaissance comes to the world with a cry, the cry of the human spirit to be free." -- Anne Sullivan

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(in Italy's province of Siena, Tuscany, in the historical region of Val d'Orcia) The hilltop village of Pienza in the midst of the magnificent Val d’ Orcia (which extends from the hills south of Siena to Monte Amiata) in central Italy. is widely considered yo be the "Ideal city of the Renaissance." It was the brainchild of the great humanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini and architect Bernardo il Rossellino -- and was meant to exemplify the principles and philosophy of the Italian Renaissance. In 1996, UNESCO declared the town a World Heritage Site (citing the revolutionary vision of urban space) and in 2004 the entire valley, the Val d'Orcia, was included on the list of UNESCO’s World Cultural Landscapes. (Pienza was the birthplace of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, who would become Pope Pius II.) Once a sleepy hamlet, lovely Pienza was transformed when, in 1459, Pope Pius II began turning his home village into an ideal Renaissance town. The result is magnificent – the church, papal palace, town hall and accompanying buildings in and around Piazza Pio II were completed in a period of just three years and haven’t been remodeled since.