(An exquisite mini-cloister.)

About 10 km from Barontoli. Drive through Rosia and turn left at the end of the village. Torri is well signposted from there on. Open 9.00-12.00 on Mondays and Fridays. Free.

Torri is a picturesque hill village with stone-paved streets. It was the site of the Benedictine monastery of St Mustiola, dating from the 11th century and active until 1682 when it was taken over by the state and sold. All that remains of the abbey today is a small basilica-shaped 12th century church of only moderate interest, usually shut, and the tiny but exquisite Romanesque cloister, now part of a private house. The buildings are right at the top of the village, through a low arch. Ring the bell at the door at the end to enter the cloister.

The lower arcade of the cloister is 11th or 12th century with black and white Sienese stripes and interesting capitals, different on each column. Immediately opposite the entrance the biblical scenes represented on the capitals include Adam and Eve and the serpent (note on the side of the capital the angel with a shining sword guarding the way into the Garden of Eden). A neighbouring capital portrays the history of Cain and Abel with on one side the brothers offering their rival sacrifices to God, who shows his preference by pointing at the lamb offered by Abel rather than Cain's sheaves, while on another side Cain is killing Abel. Another capital shows Noah's Ark, with the dove returning empty-beaked on one side and then returning with the olive branch on the other.

Other capitals have allegorical figures. The dove eating grapes alludes to divine grace; the bee-hive is the symbol of orderly human society under the supreme authority of God; the double-tailed mermaid represents the attraction of evil; the axe embedded in a piece of wood is probably the emblem of a local corporation.

The upper arcade of the cloister is of wood and dates from the 14th-15th century. On emerging from the cloister, note the trompe l'oeil painted windows on the building opposite the church - this is a fairly frequent Sienese effect.

Revised 1990s