MAPPING TUSCANY

Every year on a Sunday in May countless private Tuscan villas open the gates of their immaculately kept Renaissance gardens to the general public.  Organized by the Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane (the association of historic mansions in Italy) some of Tuscany's most beautiful gardens in historical estates, medieval castles and Renaissance villas can be visited for free on the day. Many of these are not accessible through the rest of the year, or if so only on payment.  Near Siena visits to the sublimely trimmed gardens of the recently restored Villa Cetinale in Sovicille and to the park of Villa Geggiano in the Chianti will be two of the highlights. Further south in the Maremma you'll be conceded access to the castle in Marsiliana, which consists of an entire hamlet which has been the property of the Corsini family since the 18th century (a partments on the  Marsiliana estate  can be rented in  case you're not here on the day or you'd rather have ...

Close to the border of Lazio, Tuscany's southernmost town resembles a Roman colony during July and August. Albeit not one with gladiators and soldiers, but with Rome's left-wing intelligentsia populating hillside bars and restaurants as much as the deck-chairs along Capalbio's endless beaches.  To balance things out, the seaside town Ansedonia a few kilometers up the Tuscan coast has been for decades the holiday destination of choice for the eternal city's right-wing fraction. These days it's hard to say whether this geo-political line  of division is still in place - with all the party hopping of Italian politicians it's impossible to discern which side they presently belong to. But whatever the current opinion of political visitors (a class of people also derisively called la casta - the caste),  Capalbio's own views have stubbornly stayed the same for centuries. 

Pitigliano isn't just another Tuscan hilltop town. It's the  Tuscan hilltop town. No other of them manages to balance so elegantly on top of a rocky cliff. In fact Pitigliano is also called suicide town (at least by my Tuscan native). You'll get the idea once you look down from one of the buildings located right on the edge; but don't do it if you're having a difficult moment in  life.  Pitigliano's skyline

When they say a Tuscan hilltop town... Saturday morning chat at the barber