A Tuscan town has decided to reclaim their famous landscape by passing a resolution to trademark the cypress trees that are a part of the region’s identity.
San Quirico d’Orcia is a small comune in Siena that borders the UNESCO-protected Val d’Orcia. Frustrated by the use of its famous cypresses on advertisements for everything from mattresses to insurance policies, the town now has the power to deny requests to use the landscape for commercial purposes.
The hills of Podere Belvedere and the church of Madonna di Vitaleta will be protected by copyright to ensure that their images are not used for products that are completely unrelated to the territory.
The initiative is the newest way of protecting the land from misuse that tends to devalue the heritage that has been a part of the region for countless generations.
