Once you’ve arrived, the town stands out against the backdrop of hills with its unmistakable bell tower of the Parish Church of San Verano. The tower was designed by the architect Bellincioni, dating back to the 11th century, and is home to valuable works by the Pisan workshop. Palazzo Pretorio is found in the Piazza del Popolo, with the Podesta’s coat of arms standing out on its façade. The Palazzo is home to the Museum of Russian Icons and is dedicated to the journalist Francesco Bigazzi, the Moscow correspondent who donated his collection of 19th and early 20th century to the Municipality of Peccioli.
Not far from here is the International School and Laboratory for Icon Restoration, which organizes seminars and restoration and painting courses in collaboration with the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
The village also boasts a museum centre, managed by the Fondazione Peccioli, which includes the Archeological Museum (with recent discoveries from the Etruscan sanctuary of Ortaglia), the Collection of Engravings and Lithographs, the Bell Tower and the Museum of Sacred Art.
The Church of the Madonna del Carmine is a must-see, built with bricks and completely restored in the 19th century following the terrible earthquake that devastated the church as well as the wider Valdera area.
The splendid landscape outside the town is characterized by rolling hills covered in vineyards and olive groves and dotted with small hamlets, including the ex-castle and centuries-old Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Fabbrica, Libbiano, with its astronomical observatory, and Legoli, home to a tabernacle by Benozzo Gozzoli inside the Chapel of Santa Caterina.
Contemporary art and design fans can continue their travels in the hamlet of Ghizzano, where the permanent works by Alicja Kwade and Patrick Tuttofuoco are kept; the English artist David Tremlett has also left his mark on the city, with his signature scribbled on the plaster and walls of houses.