MAPPING TUSCANY

Tuscan olive trees waiting for adoption... Dreaming of an olive grove in Tuscany?  Forget the grove, it's going to break your back - I speak from first-hand experience  - but adopt a tree instead. Or twenty. Or more.  Olive trees in the park nearly ready for the harvest in October and November  A group of farmers in southern Tuscany are reclaiming 30'000 abandoned olive trees (yes, that's a lot of trees). These are all located in beautiful groves close to or right in Maremma's nature park . Also known as Parco dell'Uccellina, the nature reserve is a wonderful place to visit in person.  As an adoptive parent, you'll be taken for a private tour to the groves. However, you won't have to learn how to properly position a ladder to harvest or prune the trees. Instead, you can hug your adoptee and then spend the rest of the day hiking or swimming at my favourite Tuscan beach .  Souvenir shop in Marina di Alberese The project is under the h...

All of Tuscany seems off-the-beaten path in winter and not even the Uffizi will boast the usual crowds and queues. So imagine how quiet things get in my Tuscan village, where American and Japanese tourists don't even come through in high season. But one night every February, a barbecue is installed on Cinigiano's town square and the line in front of it will be longer than the one at the Vatican. Winter being cold in southern Tuscany too, lots of red wine will have to be drunk to warm up whilst watching the locals prepare the rivolti , an incredibly basic flour and water only pancake totally appropriate for the start of lent. But Cinigiano being Tuscan - and hence communist at heart - lent isn't taken too seriously, so expect plenty of wine, polenta and fried sausages. CINIGIANO - NOTTE DEI RIVOLTI, WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 17, 2015  Dress warm and arrive early (before 7.30 pm) to avoid the polenta queue. Not here in winter? Visit Cinigiano and its Montecucco wines  during t...

Roman ruins are all over the place in Italy and locals normally stifle a yawn when zealous archaeologists lecture about the discovery of yet another Roman villa or thermal bath. Science  has managed to puzzle together every minute detail of the modus vivendi of the Roman upper class, b ut things are very different when it comes to the majority of the population, since surprisingly little is known about the living conditions of the Roman farmer.      During the last years groups of Brits and Americans hailing from the universities of Cambridge and Pennsylvania have tried to fill this enormous gap in a joint venture called the Roman Peasant Project together with the universities of  Siena and Grosseto  ( I've written about the strange sudden influx of young attractive foreigners the project brought to our Tuscan backwater  before). The team under scientific director Kim Bowes has been digging through the fields around Cinigiano summer after summer with...

Over a decade ag o a group of Italian tourists  from the Veneto quickly s topped at one of Cinigiano's two small bars to ask for directions to famous Montalcino.  They left three days later.  The historic center of my Tuscan town  may not be much of a sight ,  but the  village bars have a certain reputation. In fact the aforementioned group has  been coming back every year. And rumo rs have it that they still haven't gotten around to make the drive to Brunello town .    WHAT TO  SEE A stroll through Cinigiano's tiny town center will make it obvious - the views towards Mount Amiata and over the  Maremma countryside  are the main attraction.  For more of them h op into your car and drive to one of the hamlets and villages which belong to Cinigiano's territory. Medieval looking Monticello Amiata is up on 734 meters and with that perfect for a cool  breeze on a hot summer day (and for freezing winds in ...

A quick round up of my favorite wild hot springs and historic bath towns in Tuscany (more detailed information on spas and rock pool bathing can be found in the single articles the links will lead you to).  WILDERNESS POOLS   PETRIOLO  half an hour to the south of Siena. With its steaming hot water in the upper row of pools a favorite of mine on icy cold winter mornings. The Farma river passes right next to the hot springs. So be courageous and have a splash to try the benefits of kneipping.   SATURNIA  the biggest, most southern and also Italy's best known (and loved!) wilderness pools. The closest option for a soak if you arrive from Rome. To be avoided on weekends.  FOSSO BIANCO  in the Val d'Orcia is a spectacular sight hidden away in the woods below Bagni San Filippo. The shady surroundings make of these natural springs a nice location in the summer.  BAGNO VIGNONI  has a lovely pool below the small waterfall. ...

Tuscany in November is a mixed bag of emotions. At least considering the weather. In regard to sightseeing, museum visits and foodie pleasures I couldn't think of a better month to visit. You may need to bring an umbrella, but you'll feel like art galleries opened just for you. And you're adventurous spirit will be generously awarded with freshly picked porcini mushrooms,  mouthwatering  truffles and the region's famous extra virgin olive oil straight from the press.  PEOPLE UP ON TREES ON EVERY HILL MELANCHOLIC AFTERNOONS ù PERFECT SKIES

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...

With the last days of June, the summer festival season is taking off and the sound of violins and drums will shake up the lay-back Tuscan hilltop towns. Classic, pop and jazz festivals will be hold in Siena, the Val d'Orcia, the Maremma and even in the remote villages around Mount Amiata. It's a summer of beat until September, when the festival season closes with the final concerts on the isle of Elba.   Getting ready for the opera season in Massa Marittima CLASSICAL MUSIC FESTIVALS DOWN SOUTH MELODIA DEL VINO , from June 27 to July 6 at various wineries in Tuscany.  The young festival brings Mozart & co. to the world of wine. The concerts will take place in famous Tuscany vineyards (some of them designed by the world's archistars like the  Petra winery by Mario Botta or Renzo Piano's Rocca di Frassinello).  AMIATA PIANO FESTIVAL , from June 27 to September 1 in Poggi del Sasso near Cinigiano. The three cycles of classical music (wi...

On top of a green hill Campagnatico seen from the South - East When approaching Campagnatico during stormy weather, one isn't surprised that the Tuscan village got a mention in the book of books: Dante's Divine Comedy . 700 years later, Campagnatico doesn't look too different from what Dante must have imagined - but probably never saw in person - as the ideal backdrop for a scene in the purgatory: a Maremma nobleman's repentance over the errors he committed during his life (too much haughtiness was already an issue in Dante's time!).  Campagnatico seen from Villa Bellaria Picture perfect (probably more so now than in the Middle Ages), the hill town in the Maremma has a lay-back atmosphere. Cats and the elderly sit on benches and the town's only bar tender is busy making Cappuccino, preparing Campari or selling newspapers. Population is low, but still high enough to allow for the survival of two  alimentari (small food stores), a post office, a p...

Renaissance art, famous wine and perfect beaches are the first things that come to mind when talking about Tuscany. Lesser known is the region's Etruscan and Roman legacy. A shame if you consider that many of Tuscany's archaeology digs lie adjacent to beautiful hilltop towns and quite a few of the Etruscan museums are state of the art (at least for Italian standards). Less grand but also much lesser known than the Colosseum, these sites make for great off-the-beaten-path sightseeing all through Tuscany.  If anything  the problem is knowing where to start. Which is why I've pressed  British archaeologist Lucy Shipley for some expert advice on the matter.    Where in Tuscany are you digging? I dig at the site of Poggio Civitate, which is near the town of Vescovado di Murlo, about 20km south of Siena. Why on that particular hill? The Etruscan presence in the area was re-discovered by the Italian archaeologist Ranuccio Bianchi-Bandinelli in the 1920...

In its third year the Maremma Wine and Food Shire has changed approach and moved the fair from Braccagni into Grosseto's historic town center. Originally designed for trade, Maremma's wine and food fair is also a great place for any foodies hooked on Southern Tuscany's locally produces delicacies. Taste your way through sheep cheese from the Tuscan hills, organically produced wine, salami and prosciutto, saffron, pickled vegetables and fish egg (bottarga) from the coast.  All of it in the lay-back center of one of Tuscany's lesser known cities. Grosseto may not be able to compete with Siena, Pisa or Florence when it comes to art and culture. But the city makes up for it with a car and tourist free town center,  historic city walls, friendly inhabitants and noteworthy architectural details if you only care to look out for them.  Maoist China? A Tuscan cyclist on Grosseto's main shopping road 

Church lovers have endless selection in Tuscany. Roofless  San Galgano , Romanesque Sant'Antimo  near Montalcino or the Monte Olivieto abbey  in the Crete Senesi are some of the most famous cathedrals and monasteries in the South of the region. But if you cruise the Tuscan hills, always keep an eye out for the small Pievi, the fascinating and often very beautiful countryside churches.  La pieve di Lamula with Mount Amiata in the background The pieve di Lamola is one of them. Hidden away between Arcidosso and Casteldelpiano the small church was an outlet of the famous San Salvatore abbey on the slopes of Mount Amiata.  Even though the facade dates back to the first half of the 20th century, the pieve managed to keep many of the pagan symbols and the calm ambiance so typical of Tuscany's countryside churches.  Inscription on a pillar inside the church 

No news from the boot. We're still in the midst of an economic crisis and the political tohubohu is as reckless as ever. Thank god not only the bad things stay the same. The good stuff doesn't change either. Like Italian coffee. Every time I stop in one of the bars of a Tuscan off-the-beaten-path town, I know that even though pensions are higher in Sweden, child-care better in France and public toilets cleaner in Switzerland - I couldn't live anywhere else. Because... a good old Italian sign is just so endlessly more attractive than all the neon in the world red fly curtains make me smile the winter sun never fails to put me in a good mood (and she just isn't around too much further up north) washinglines (so simple and so ecological) will always remain one of my must have items life at the bar is yes, about good coffee, but above all about having a common ground and meeting place for young and old alike I like to ditch the crowd. And you can in...

Mount Amiata - Tuscany's extinct volcano. Worth a detour even for non skiers 2 chairlifts, 6 ski lifts, 10  km of slopes,  and  depending on amount of snowfall 5 to 10 km of cross-country skiing ... only the first time skier could possibly be impressed by these numbers. In fact, people visit  Tuscany for its Renaissance heritage and wine making fame, and NOT for its winter resorts. Which is wrong. At least for people who like to travel adventurously. Skiing in Southern Tuscany is as surreal and  off-the-beaten-path  as it gets.  In regard to winter sport Mont'Amiata's content may be basic, but  ambiance is king. N ever would I have thought, that I'd be wearing my skiing boots (and not my bikini) whilst making out Corsica's mountain peaks on the other side of the Mediterranean.  The two chairlifts on the mountain are not the most recent or fastest models, but a ride on them opens up fabulous views over the hills of Maremma and ...

America's Indian Summer is what we call Estate di San Martino in Italy. But not just surprisingly warm autumn temperatures are related to St. Martin's day on the 11th of November. This is also the time of the year the fermentation of new wines has come to an end, a process described by another Italian proverb related to St. Martin: A San Martino ogni mosto diventa vino (by St. Martin every must has turned into wine).  And with the beach and festival season long gone and the weather forecast for Sunday looking wet and unfriendly, what better time to visit some of Tuscany's finest wineries . San Martino in Cantina is one of five national winery visit days the Italian Wine Tourism Movement organizes every year. Three dozens of wineries in the provinces of Siena and Grosseto adhere to the initiative and welcome visitors for a free autumn tasting in their wine cellars. On my quest to discover Tuscany's  vineyards with a calling for architecture , I'll be tasting...

It's that time of the year again. I still try to hang on to summer, but latest with Monticello's chestnut festival on the horizon I know I have to let it go. It's autumn, and it's time to grab a jacket and drive up the road to see what our neighbors in Monticello are up to.  Monticello and mount Amiata (to the left) seen from Cinigiano Once I pass the first chestnut groves on the way up, I'm at peace with the changing season. Just the idea of all those roasted chestnuts waiting for us. No need saying it, the inside of the prickly fruits are the perfect match for countless glasses of Tuscany's Montecucco wine (the DOCG of this area). And how nice that I'll have a whole winter to try myself at  making Necci   (a chestnut flour pancake) or baking   Castagnaccio  (a sweet chestnut flour cake). In the last 13 years in Tuscany, I haven't been able to get the recipe right once. 

Wondering what kind of place my Tuscan village is? The best time to find out is during the Festa dell'Uva, the wine harvest festival, which takes place every year on the first October weekend. Thinking of a wine festival you're probably expecting to find a bunch of people discussing tannins and barrel aging time. Forget it. You'll be seeing this.

They come in all sizes. They make for great threesomes.

Maremma horses inspecting the cycling path leading to the Maremma national park beach Thank you Maremma horse fair! At last an opportunity to post some of the countless photos I keep taking of the beautiful Maremma horses grazing in Southern Tuscany's national park. 

 Paganico - off-the-beaten-path in Southern Tuscany Towards the end of summer, Tuscany is getting ready for an endless parade of village festivals (often called SAGRE). With it being still early days for autumn's wine and chestnut festivals, Paganico starts the season with something quite different. The  Sagra della Grannocchia is a festival dedicated to frogs, with the main event being a race in which participants push a type of wheel-barrow loaded with frogs - the difficulty of the race being that the frogs keep jumping off their carriage (and have then to be put back in). Therefore it's not just about speed but also about who arrives with the most frogs. I know what you think - these people are weird. But surprisingly Paganico is quite a lovely village, off the tourist trail and with a fantastic gelateria  producing some of Italy's best ice-cream .  The town will sport a pageantry parade, live music and special activities for kids over the weekend...