The village of Torniella, in the municipality of Roccastrada, owes its name to the lathe, or tornio in Italian, the town’s symbol, and was documented as early as the 11th century as a junction on the road that led from Siena to Grosseto.
The northern edge of the plain where the small village is located, which indicatively bears a circular shape, is dominated by the castle complex, which sits around a central courtyard and juxtaposed over the centuries by a series of buildings, while in the other part of the town, you’ll find the Church of San Giovanni Battista, bluntly built upward to adapt to the uneven terrain that it’s found on, and built according to tradition, with its stones coming from the older Parish Church of Santa Maria.