Pienza, tourists want to sleep: mayor silences clock tower at night

Who matters more, the tourist who wants to sleep or a long tradition? In Pienza evidently it is the tourists who dictate the rules, and it so happens that the municipality, accepting the protests of guests of some B&Bs in the historic center annoyed by the nocturnal chimes of the clock of the Civic Tower, has ordered to silence the sounds with which every half hour the Palazzo Pretorio keeps count of the hours. Thus stopping the bells between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The Praetorian Palace (or Palazzo Comunale) is one of the symbols of the Tuscan town, an ideal model of a Renaissance city, born on the ancient Corsignano at the behest of Pope Pius II, born Enea Silvio Piccolomini, after whom it is named. The building, Renaissance (designed perhaps by Bernardo Rossellino) but remodeled in the twentieth century, is situated facing the cathedral, in Piazza Pio II, the main square of the marvelous village. Wonderful yes, but evidently only during the day: at night there is no “beauty” that holds, not even if it is the tower that tourists photograph during the day that marks the hours. After 10 p.m., therefore, absolute silence. This is the decision of Mayor Manolo Garosi, who has collected the voice of tourists through the managers of accommodation facilities (who in turn are protesting because if the foreigner does not have sweet dreams he risks leaving a bad review on Tripadvisor and similar portals) and has arranged to silence the tower.

The inhabitants are divided, between those who do not want to give up the chimes that have accompanied the life of the town for centuries (the most fierce point out that they have been sleeping with the bells for a lifetime, tourists adapt for those few days they are in Pienza), and those who fear that the bells will drive away travelers for whom the nine hours of sleep at night take priority over everything else (it seems, they say in the area, to be mostly Americans). Those who appreciate the mayor’s choice then adduce the fact that giving up the bells is not that it is a serious loss to the so-called identity of the area. Also on the side of the first citizen are other cities that would have done the same in the past, and parishes that, for the same reason, have long since abolished the night peal. But among the citizens there are already those who say that they now have the problem that tourists used to have, because to some of them the bells conciliated their sleep. In short, the clash is open: will Pienza’s civic tower clock return to chime the hours even at night, or is the victory of tourists decisive?

Pictured is the Palazzo Pretorio in Pienza.

Pienza, tourists want to sleep: mayor silences clock tower at night

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