This site is not well known even by locals, and therefore absolutely outside the usual tourist routes of the Pienza area. To visit the hermitage, you can only access it with guided tours, so you must contact the owner Carlo Moricciani to arrange a visit.
These rooms dug into the sandstone are located near the center of Pienza: near the eighteenth-century church of Santa Caterina there is the ancient Romitorio, with magnificent views over the Val d’Orcia and the Amiata. Here monks and hermits who lived from the eleventh to the eighteenth century have excavated various representations and high-reliefs. One of these representations represents a Madonna and child, once visited by women as a symbol of fertility. The interior consists of several fairly large rooms in communication with each other, equipped with multiple entrances and windows; there are human figures carved into the sandstone walls. Outside, other relief figures are visible, as well as an accurate rainwater collection system.