VISITING SANT'ANTIMO ABBEY WITH KIDS?

The Terre di Siena tourist office has put up a nice little activity for people travelling with kids. Bring along some felt colored pencils and have your youngsters fill in the silhouette of Sant'Antimo whilst you enjoy the Gregorian chants (or do it the other way round).

Sant'Antimo abbey with bell tower and cypress tree

Your kids' version of Sant'Antimo will look much more interesting than this

You can find the monastery's silhouette on the Facebook page of Siena's tourist office. Once colored in, scan your kids' take on the famous Romanesque abbey and share it on their page. But what do I say? Forget the scanning. They probably know how to do all of it straight on your iPad.

There are more silhouettes to download for the rest of your trip through the province of Siena: the skyline of Siena during sunset, a lonesome farm in the hills of the Crete Senesi (or maybe it's already the Val d'Orcia - not sure), a Maremma shepherd dog and his flock of sheep, the famous group of cypress trees near San Quirico d'Orcia, a medieval stone bridge (no idea where it is, but looks great) and the silhouette of San Galgano abbey, the famous roofless church. You can find all of them here. Just click on scarica to download the pdf file on your computer.

WHAT ELSE?
Before coming out, you may also want to check out my post about Sant'Antimo and Castelnuovo dell'Abate. No coloring in, but find other great stuff to do when visiting Tuscany with children in tow on Map It Out's Siena for Kids and Fun in Southern Tuscany with kids pages. Or just take them for a walk. That normally works with mine.

SANT'ANTIMO ABBEY - TUSCANY'S ROMANESQUE TREASURE

Sant'Antimo abbey near Montalcino You don't have to be a catholic to remain spellbound by the eternal beauty of the Sant'Antimo abbey. The Tuscan church and monastery can turn a stubborn skeptic into a reborn spiritual. At least for the time of the visit.

SWIMMING, READING AND DINING IN BAGNO VIGNONI

Whilst the sell-out of tourist destination is a well known plague all through Italy, t here exists a tiny town in UNESCO Heritage Val d'Orcia which forgoes made in China souvenirs and just opened a bookshop instead. Bagno Vignoni is one of Tuscany's oldest tourist destinations. In fact the historic spa town has never been anything else than a tourist destination, and the ratio of inhabitants to visitors must always have been at least 1 to 10. Having looked after medieval pilgrims, ailing popes and saints ( St. Catherine of Siena used to live here for a while), Bagno Vignoni isn't tempted at all to put out plastic chairs or pizza takeaways for present day travelers. I used to live close to Bagno Vignoni and have fond memories of chasing my first -born around the town's main square which consists of a steaming hot water pool (a must-see sight for urban architects!). Our healthy m...

VAL D'ORCIA: A MAP OF THE UNESCO HERITAGE SITE

About 40 minutes south of Siena and a bit over an hour from the Tuscan coast, Val d'Orcia lies to the east of the Maremma and to the west of Montepulciano and Umbria. The UNESCO world heritage site is made up by the territories of Montalcino, San Quirico d'Orcia (with historic spa town Bagno Vignoni ) , Pienza, Castiglione d'Orcia and Radicofani. The Orcia river crosses two more municipalities (Castel del Piano and my hometown Cinigiano ), where it divides the province of Siena from the province of Grosseto (Tuscany's two southernmost areas) before flowing into the Ombrone river. View VAL D'ORCIA MAP in a larger map

Mapping MONTALCINO

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