Is Tuscany full?
I'm sometimes asked this by prospective guests as they book a villa, worried that Tuscany has become a region of crowds and queues. It's an understandable worry if you've ever seen some of the queues for the Uffizi in Florence, but Tuscany is a large region and there are enormous empty areas, dotted with beautiful hill villages, ancient churches, hidden spots to explore and amazing views.
Hidden Places to see in Tuscany
I grew up in Tuscany and started exploring as soon as I could, first walking out into a national park from our farmhouse, then cycling and driving further afield. I found abandoned mines once used by the Romans, whole villages emptied in the fourteenth-century, churches stripped of their rooves when the monks sold the lead. Here are some of my favourites, including some towns that are often and unjustly overlooked.
1. San Galgano
The Abbey of San Galgano is a magical place in the hills south-west of Siena, a thirteenth-century roofless church where classical concerts are often held during the summer. There's something otherworldly about sitting in this ancient building with nothing but the stars above while classical music weaves its way round the columns.
A knight called Galgano originally established a hermitage here at the end of the 12th century: after repenting of his dissolute lifestyle he planted his sword into a rock to show that his previous life was over. After his death he was beatified (San Galgano) and in 1181 a circular chapel was built over the sword in the rock, with a beautiful ceiling of concentric alternating brick colours. Next door a smaller chapel has beautiful frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, the same artist that painted the "Allegoria del Buon Governo" in the Town Hall in Siena.
A Cistercian abbey was founded on the site and the construction of the church was started in 1220. The abbey was an important and influential site in Sienese political life but suffered at the hands of roving 'knights of fortune' in the late fourteenth-century. Interestingly, many of these roving knights were english mercenaries at a loose end during a pause in the neverending '100 year war' between England and France. In this case the Abbey was looted by John Hawkwood, an English mercenary who crossed into Italy in 1361 at the head of the White Company, an infamous band of mercenaries.
After the looting, the abbey stayed impoverished and kept decaying for nearly four centuries. At the end of the eighteenth-century the bell-tower collapsed and took the roof down with it. After this disaster the ruins were looted for building material, notably the lead from the roof.
I have a soft spot for this place because of the magic of the sword in the stone - I remember visiting it when I was about eight and the sword was still un-caged so I was allowed to hold it. Its place in my heart was cemented by Tarkovskji, who shows the Abbey in his beautiful film Nostalghia (more about this here: Best films about Tuscany
Where is San Galgano?
This is a what3words link to the Abbey: ///ignite.arisen.outpost
Where can I stay near San Galgano?
Our advice would be to stay in one of the beautiful apartments and villas on the Montestigliano Estate, between San Galgano and Siena.
2. Sasso Pisano
About four or five million years ago and giant bubble of magma rose close to the surface underneath the area of Sasso Pisano, providing an endless supply of heat to the land and springs above. Since then humans have enjoyed the hot springs and marvelled at the bubbling and smoking landscape, often with vibrant colours given by the minerals in the earth.
The village of Sasso Pisano has been recorded on this site since 896, though I've also heard that the stone bathing pool is Etruscan, so at least another 1000 years earlier. From the village you can walk up the hill on a marked path into a smoking and steaming landscape, with bubbling springs and patches of coloured minerals that are radiating heat. It's otherworldly and amazing to think that Etruscans, Romans, medieval knights will have wandered over this hill with your same sense of awe and curiosity.
If you follow the path it will lead you to another village, nearby Monterotondo, where there is a recently established museum of the fumarole, with geological explanations and more.
How to find Sasso Pisano
This is the what3words location marker for the path through the smoking landscape of Sasso Pisano. ///blotched.lacquered.alarmed Sasso Pisano
3. Tunnels under Siena
Siena is a beautiful city, a medieval brick labirinth built on a high tripartite ridge in the Elsa valley. But the very height that so favours the city's defence makes access to water difficult. Medieval sienese engineers solved this with an ingenious set of tunnels that gather water for the city through a combination of springs and rainwater collection, and then redistribute it to the wells spread across the city, as well as to the "Fonti", communal springs and washing baths.
Today you can visit these tunnels - though getting tickets can sometimes be trickier than one might imagine.
When I first visited the tunnels nearly thirty years ago, access was limited but I was working for the Siena Town hall so was in a lucky early group allowed a tour. I took my mother with me as I knew she'd love it too. As we entered the tunnel system the guide gave us all a stern warning about not taking photogrpahs and we all nodded dutifully, including my mother. I knew she had a camera on her and sure enough, soon after entering the tunnels, a flash went off and the guide turned round angrily. "I told you all! No photos!". We all nodded, and my mother turned round, as if looking for the culprit - very Mr Bean. This continued to happen and the guide was getting iincreasingly irate but could never spot who the culprit was, until finally (and this was in the days of film cameras, pre-digital) my mother reached the end of her film and after a last flash, she had instantly secreted the camera in her bag again where it started noisily re-winding the film, buzzing away and finally revealing the identity of the photo-taker to our guide. "Signora!" he exclaimed "ma un po' di vergogna!?" - 'Are you not just a little embarassed'.
Booking a tour of I Bottini
For more information on booking and times, have a look at our page on Bottini in Siena - the town's underground river
Where to stay near Siena
Have a look at all our villas near Siena but Fienile is an excellent option, close to the city but still in the Chianti countryside, with a private pool, hot-tub, AC and wonderful views.
4. Castelvecchio
I love ruins, and these are great. Castelvecchio is an entire abandoned village close to San Gimignano, and the story goes that it was abandoned after the Black Death in the fourteenth century. The story of the village is a little more complicated than that, but there is a delight in the fact that, while all the houses are now reduced to little more than knee-height walls, the church is still intact and masses are still occasionally held here.
The settlement has Etruscan origins but was strongly fortified by the Lombards, in the ninth-century, and then again in 1208. It was a fortified village with natural defenses given by two canyon-like valleys, Botro di Castelvecchio and Botro della Libaia, strengthened by a circle of walls enclosing the village. The conflict between Volterra and San Gimignano in the thirteenth-century made it strategically important and its defense and maintenance were well-funded. As Volterra lost power, the village lost its crucial role so that when the Black Death visited the village in 1348 it was left largely empty. The remaining inhabitants left after an earthquake in 1452 and the village was abandoned, left to be occasionally used by the inhabitants of nearby San Gimignano to raid for quarried stone for the their towers.
The whole area surrounding Castelvecchio is a national park, home to the Peregrine Falcon and a delight to explore. After the crowds of San Gimignano it can feel magical to walk through a forest of holm-oaks and arrive at the this old village.
How to visit Castelvecchio
This is the what3words location marker for the Riserva di Castelvecchio ///sacking.glazes.urging Castelvecchio
Where to stay near Castelvecchio
Casa Andrea is a lovely cottage for four very close to San Gimignano, and also very close to Castelvecchio.
5. Murlo and the Etruscan cowboys
The Etruscans were the original inhabitants of Tuscany, a population with an alphabet we're still struggling to decipher and an origin myth that tells of them being originally Phoenicians. Recent DNA evidence shows that they were actually autochtonous to central Italy, a much less evocative story and I'm still struggling to let go of the poetry of the 'lost Phoenicians' story.
The Etruscans has a lot of influence over the early days of Rome, including giving them some of their earliest Kings. The last of these, and the one who's bad behaviour lead to the founding of the Roman Republic, was the fabulously named 'Tarquin the Superb'.
Most of what we know of the Etruscans has been gathered from their funerary arrangements; they built elaborate and beautifully decorated tombs, often with frescoed scenes of everyday life. But we have very little left of their houses and cities.
Murlo is a tiny little village south of Siena which was once an important mining centre for the Etruscans. They left behind a necropolis, on Poggio Aguzzo, and more importantly, a princely residence in Poggio Civitate, one of the few archeological sites Etruscan dwellings. There is a museum in the heart of the tiny village with a lot of the findings, including a wonderful fellow with a cowboy hat on that sparks echoes of an Etruscan everyday life that continued into the Maremma today, where the Butteri still work, and then out to the wild west, where the cowboy hat is still the headwear of choice.
Visit Murlo, have a look around the Museum amd then go for a walk up to the excavations site of Poggio Civitate, it's around a 5km round walk.
More information on Poggio Civitate.
Where is Murlo?
This is the what3words link to Murlo: ///impressed.unhooks.essay Murlo
This is the what3words link to Poggio Civitate: ///grits.intelligence.looker] Poggio Civitate
A link to the Plotaroute GPS track of the walk: Circular walk from Murlo to Poggio Civitate
6. Golfo di Baratti and Populonia
More Etruscans, this time by the sea. The Etruscans loved to find the most beautiful spots in the landscape for themselves and for their ancestors, and this is no exception. The Etrusco-Roman city of Populonia sits on a small hill above a beautiful bay called "Golfo di Baratti".
You can explore the city's remains, mostly Roman, and visit the old Etruscan burial grounds, with tombs carved into sheer walls of soft tufa rock.
Where is the Bay of Baratti
The Bay and Populonia are south of Livorno on the Tuscan coast. This is the what3words link to the entrance to the Park: ///pleaser.bonfire.mellows Golfo di Baratti
Where to stay near Populonia.
Set in the hills above the bay, with beautiful views out across it, is the old Tuscan house of Casa dei Fichi, a villa for up to 9 guests, with a private pool and within walking distance of Campiglia Marittima.
Author: Dan Wrightson
Dan Wrightson grew up in Tuscany, Italy and has been writing about, sketching and exploring Tuscany and Italy since 1983.
28th Dec 2024 28th Dec 2024