MAPPING TUSCANY

Design hotels in Tuscany - they do exist! The Argentario Golf Resort & Spa excels with something not many hotels in Tuscany's countryside have managed to pull off - tasteful contemporary design.  Tuscan hotels are usually located in centuries-old villas, castles or farmhouses. In the best-case scenario, they will have been painstakingly restored and the interior design is a sophisticated mix of aristocratic joie-de-vivre or a romanticized version of Tuscan  peasant life.  In the worst case, the interpretation has gone awry with lots of velvet curtains, fake antique furniture and heavy-set four-poster beds in an international baroque style that has little to do with Tuscany but lots with a type of interior design invented to pimp up international hotel cha ins. It's a relief that the five-star Argentario resort de cided for a different approach . No more fake Renaissance architecture, but at last a well thought-through contemporary approach to ...

Ochre, terracotta and any existing shade of burnt sienna are the colours that come to mind when thinking of the famous rolling hills. However, for a few months each year, the Tuscan landscape doesn't look like something coming out of a pottery workshop, but like Ireland in summer. Minus the rain. And the Guinness.  TUSCANY IN SPRING It won't last though. Unless Tuscany's warm season is unusally wet like the  incredibly rainy summer 2014 , the landscape will look like this by the end of spring.

I'm no friend of nativity scenes, but there i s no Christmas in Italy without a presepe (I could also do without Christmas, but that's a different story). Tuscany's creches  come in all shapes and materials and whilst the manger scene at my in -laws is made of plastic other households show off  elaborately carved artisan figures under their Christmas tree. However, th e  most exciting cribs are  found outdoors  or in former barns and pigsties, where  real people freeze off their sandal wearing feet for their method acting performance of Mary or Joseph (the newborn is mostly fake though).  Perhaps my Christmas crib aversion has to do with being a mother and knowing that the last thing you need right  after having given birth is an incessant stream of strangers popping in to say hello. All the jolly men and  rejoicing  animals jamming it around the crib and everything Maria probably hoped for was a female friend to help her get up - u nl...

It was the sea - not wine, food, a man or the rolling hills - that made me move to Tuscany in 1999. Having grown-up in a landlocked country,  from day one at work I pestered everybody in Montalcino for advice on  the best beach town and the perfect sea view on the Tuscan coast. It turned out to be an easy  mission since the locals sent me unanimously to Castiglione della Pescaia. The preferred seaside destination for people from Siena and Arezzo, Castiglione della Pescaia is also loved by the Swiss and Swedish, hence all the h oliday resorts and camping villages along some of its best beaches.  But unlike Marina di Grosseto or Principina a Mare, Castiglione della Pescaia has been a proper town way before the tourist boom took hold of the Tuscan coast. To  this day the  former fishing village has managed to keep its historic town center, clean beaches and even a handful of fishermen.  WHAT TO DO IN CASTIGLIONE DELLA PESCAIA  Swim and s...

The Cala Violina cove keeps being voted one of Italy's best beaches. Not for its beach bars and deck chair rentals (there are none), but for its clean waters and beautiful location with views towards the isle of Elba. The main reason why the Cala Violina cove remains a natural paradise lies in the difficult access to it. The beach can be reached only via a footpath through the Mediterranean shrub. However, this doesn't mean the beach is exactly off the beaten path. A paid parking area has been set up, due to the growing fame of the bay in recent years. The hike doesn't seem to put people off. The tiny bay is called the violin cove because of the sound its fine sand makes when you walk on it. There is indeed a special sound to walking on it, but in summer you'll only be able to hear it if you tell my kids or the other Italians around to stop shouting around. HOW TO GET TO CALA VIOLINA BAY From Castiglione della Pescaia take the coastal road towards S...

The isle of Elba is a beach paradise, Mediterranean at its best with a hint of the Caribbean thanks to its crystal clear waters - a s long as you don't come in July or August. Elba in high season is obviously still beautiful, but the time spent enjoying the beach will be amazingly short. Most of the day you'll be looking for parking, a free parasol or an unoccupied square meter of sand to lay down your towel before you join the queue for ice cream.  Elba may be the biggest of the seven isles in the Tuscan archipelago and after Sicily and Sardinia already the third largest island of Italy, but it's still... small. In any case too small to absorb the huge amount of tourists scouting for the best beach on Elba from mid June to the first week of September (Italian school holiday time). Hence, the most important advice in regard to beach hunting on Elba is timing. Napoleon's isle is paradise on earth from the second week of September to the second week of June, a...

Ever wanted to swim or walk from Tuscany to Lazio? That's exactly what I did during our week at  La Dogana beach. My kids jumped waves in the Tuscan sea and I kept fishing them out in the northernmost corner of Lazio (the Italian region Rome belongs to).  Dogana means customs in Italian, and what is now a stylish brolly and deck chair rental, was once a checkpoint on the border of Papal State and Gran Duchy of Tuscany (and entirely free of sunburnt Swiss moms running from one side to the other).  But La Dogana beach has more to  offer than borderline swims and history lessons. Every summer, the team of  Grosseto's restaurant Rosso e Vino  moves pots, pans and ladles to the shore for the season and turns La Dogana beach into the perfect location for a meal with a view. 

Restaurant La Pineta at Marina di Bibbona beach  One of Italy's best seafood restaurants can be found on Tuscany's central coast, at the beach of Marina di Bibbona. Walking past La Pineta  it's easy to mistake the restaurant for a lovely but simple beach bar and deck chair rental place. A nd whilst you can still just visit La Pineta to rent an umbrella for your day at the beach, it would be foolish to miss out on the seafood treasures that are prepared in the restaurant's kitchen. We happened to be in the area for other reasons, but once we realized that we were standing in front of La Pineta we couldn't resist having a look. Timing was perfect, we opened the door shortly before 7pm. No clients around yet and the Michelin starred cook, who - judging from the frenzy in the kitchen - would have had better to do, generously took the time to show us around.  Luciano Zazzeri Proud owner and chef of Michelin starred restaurant  La Pineta

I always avoid Sundays at the beach:  no parking, too many beach towels, too much noise, too much queuing up for ice-cream - basically too many people.  Unless you talk winter in Tuscany. At that point Sundays at the beach mean c lear skies, warm and sunny afternoons, long walks on empty beaches and... queue-free ice-cream.  Winter walk on Castiglione della Pescaia's north beach

The island of Giglio seen from the Maremma National Park beach After a weekend of tension and prayers for the unaccounted passengers and crew members and the relentless hope that as many as possible will still be found alive, the focus is starting to shift. The Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster in front of the Tuscan Island of Giglio has asked 6 human lives so far (16 are still unaccounted for). But the human tragedy may also turn into an ecological nightmare for the Tuscan coastline and its nature reserves. 

Never heard of my favorite bar in the beautiful Tuscan coastal town Castiglione della Pescaia? Understandably. Even though the bar is in prime position in front of the small harbor, there's not much else to be seen than the odd Fishermen having a quick drink before unloading his boat and a few holiday-makers strolling up and down the harbor front. And that's exactly where the charm of this bar lies. Perfectly unspectacular - bar il Porto, in Castiglione della Pescaia Why bother with crowded bars in Portofino or Capri if you can sit in front of the much more authentic  Circolo Marinai? With the elderly couple who runs the bar service can a bit slow and the interior design hasn't been changed for ages. So what? Sit down, have your Campari (or an alcohol free Crodino) and you'll finally understand what the concept of Dolce Vita is all about. Where : Castiglione della Pescaia, in my opinion the most beautiful town on the Tuscan shore.  When : The bar is normal...

Starting the day with caffè shakerato (ice coffee) at Fiumara Beach No doubt, my favorite time to hang out at Fiumara is the early evening. Grab your Prosecco and wait for the delicious fish to arrive whilst everybody else is swearing under their holiday apartment's lousy shower.  Fiumara's beach can get busy with locals and tourists during the day, but it is an oas is of calmness at aperitivo time (happy hour). Kite-surfers leave once the wind drops in the early evening, and everybody else seems to desert the beach once it's not sizzling hot anymore (I'll never understand it). Perfection really: with the wind gone you'll have the ideal te mperature for an early evening swim and once dried off a marvelous view and sunset  all to yourself.  Even the shower has style Should you not be able to get a table for dinner try for lunch, which is a simpler DIY affair from the counter, but food tastes still great and nobody worries if you look a bit dishevel...