Peccioli, what to see in the town that won the Village of Villages 2024

A unique place to visit for its mix of contemporary art and environmental projects

In the heart of the Alta Valdera area, where the views run from Pisa in the north to Volterra and San Gimignano further south, among olive groves, orchards and vineyards flanked by ancient Tuscan farmsteads, the town of Peccioli has become a special place to visit for its mix of contemporary art and environmental projects, and also because of the innovative waste recycling plant in the satellite hamlet of Legoli, with its impressive open-air amphitheatre and the ideas of its visionary mayor, Renzo Macelloni.

Patrick Tuttofuoco, Endless Sunset, Peccioli

So much so that until November, the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Bienniale of Architecture is dedicating a special section to this little Tuscan town, entitled Laboratorio Peccioli: an outdoor work of social, artistic, technological and design nature which is a meeting place for artists, international curators, intellectuals, academics and architects.

Chiassi a fil di luce, curated by Alberto Bartalini, Peccioli

Peccioli is in fact a scattered exhibition centre which attracts creative people from all over the world. For almost thirty years, internationally acclaimed artists have been creating site-specific works for the town and its landscape, destined to withstand the passing of time. From Vittorio Corsini’s Sguardo di Peccioli, in which the eyes of the town’s residents were photographed and displayed along the main street, to the more recent, Endless Sunset by Patrick Tuttofuoco, the panoramic walkway that connects the historic centre with the new part of town, and other magnificent site-specific installations by Nagasawa, Dubosarsky-Vinogradov, Garutti, Alicia Kwade and David Tremlett (who has popped up in Peccioli more than once, between shows at London’s Tate Gallery and the MoMA in New York), right up to the ongoing project Palazzo Senza Tempo (the redevelopment of an old building in the town) with its spectacular suspended terrace designed by star architect Mario Cucinella. Peccioli is ultimately a meeting place for languages and visions, not only between art and architecture, but also between art and literature. An example is the Voci project organised by the Fondazione Peccioliper, which combines unpublished short stories by seven leading Italian contemporary writers (Fabio Genovesi, Laura Bosio, Mauro Covacich, Ferruccio Parazzoli, Laura Pugno, Maurizio de Giovanni and Romano De Marco) with the artistic practice of Vittorio Corsini, giving rise to new permanent installations in the town’s churches, oratories, bell towers and historic palaces.

Vittorio Corsini, Sguardo di Peccioli

The landfill site itself, with frescoes by Sergio Staino and huge wall drawings by Tremlett, has become a stunning open-air amphitheatre named Triangolo Verde. Thanks to the work of the Peccioliper Foundation, the amphitheatre has been further embellished with massive sculptures - the Presenze - and, as well as being a venue for fashion shows and photo shoots by global brands, in summer it hosts theatre and music events such as the Festival 11 Lune and the Festivaldera, which are split between the Triangolo Verde, Teatro Era in Pontedera and the Fonte Mazzola amphitheatre in Peccioli.