The area
Halfway between Monte Amiata and the sea.
Deep enough into the Maremma to feel its quiet, close enough to everything not to sit still.
6 kmScansanoThe Morellino village
45′The seaTalamone, La Feniglia, the Maremma Park
45′The Saturnia hot springsFree cascades, sulphur water at 37°
45′Monte ArgentarioAnd Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden
1 hPitigliano, Sovana, SoranoThe tuff-stone villages and Etruscan sunken roads
1h30Siena
2h30Rome, Florence & PisaThe airports
This isn’t the Tuscany of the postcards.
No neatly combed hills and rows of cypresses: here there’s the maquis, the holm oak, the prickly pear, grass that turns to straw by August. It’s a rougher, far less crowded Tuscany, and whoever ends up here by chance usually comes back.
The wine is Morellino, the cheese is pecorino, and the oil we make right here with about a hundred olive trees. And foxes, roe deer, badgers, porcupines and wild boar pass through.
The Saturnia cascades are free and open to everyone: beautiful especially in winter, when it’s cold outside and there’s no one around.
