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It takes some effort to visit the Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore , but the rewards are clear: Tuscany's grandest monastery is sited twenty six kilometres southeast of Siena in one of the most beautiful tracts of Sienese countryside, and houses one of the most absorbing Renaissance frescoes you'll find anywhere. By car, you can approach from the crossroads town of Buonconvento, climbing quickly into forests of pine, oak and cypress, and then into the olive groves that enclose the monastery. One afternoon bus daily from Siena's train station goes to the village of Chiusure, 2km east of the abbey. When Pius II visited in 1463, it was the overall scene that impressed him: the architecture, in honey-coloured Sienese brick, merging into the woods and gardens that the monks had created from the eroded hills of the crete . A wealthy Sienese noble, who had been struck blind and had experienced visions of the Virgin, came to this remote wilderness in 1313 and lived the life of a hermit, soon drawing a following. Within six years, the pope recognized his order - the Olivetans , or White Benedictines - and over the following two centuries this, their principal house, was transformed into one of the most powerful monasteries in the land. It was only in 1810, when the monastery was suppressed by Napoleon, that it fell from influence. It is today maintained by a small group of Olivetan monks, who supplement their state income with a hi-tech centre for the restoration of ancient books. At the gatehouse , there's a good cafe-restaurant, La Torre (tel 0577.707.022, closed Tues), from where an avenue of cypresses leads down the hill to the abbey. Signs at the bottom of the slope direct you along a walk to Blessed Bernardo's grotto - a chapel built on the site where the founder lived as a hermit - and there's also a shop , selling herbal cures and liquors (Mon-Sat 10am-noon & 3.45-6pm, Sun 9.30-10.45am & 3.45-6pm). The abbey (daily 9.15am-noon & 3.15-6pm; winter closes 5pm) is a huge complex, though much of it remains off-limits to visitors. The entrance leads to the Chiostro Grande , covered by a series of frescoes depicting the Life of St Benedict , the man traditionally regarded as the founder of Christian monasticism. The cycle begins on the east wall, just on the right of the door into the church, and was begun in 1497 by Luca Signorelli who painted nine panels in the middle of the series that start with the depiction of a collapsing house. The colourful Antonio Bazzi, known as Il Sodoma, painted the remaining 27 scenes between 1505 and 1508; he was by all accounts a lively presence, bringing with him part of his menagerie of pets, which included badgers, depicted at his feet in a self-portrait in the third panel. There's a sensuality in many of the secular figures - the young men especially, as befits his nickname, and also the "evil women" (originally nudes, until protests from the abbot). The church (entered off the Chiostro Grande) was given a Baroque remodelling in the eighteenth century and some superb stained glass in the twentieth. Its main treasure is the choir stalls, inlaid by Giovanni di Verona and others with architectural, landscape and domestic scenes (including a nod to Sodoma's pets with a cat in a window). Stairs lead from the cloister up to the library , again with carving by Giovanni; sadly, it has had to be viewed from the door since the theft of sixteen of its twenty codices in 1975. BUONCONVENTO , 9km southwest, has unappealing outskirts but a perfectly preserved medieval village at its heart, sheltering the hotel-restaurant Roma (tel 0577.806.021, fax 0577.807.284; L90,000-120,000/?46.48-61.98; restaurant closed Mon). Regular buses from Siena's train station to Buonconvento head on to Montalcino, or to Pienza and Montepulciano.
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