Discover beautiful Tuscany

Tuscany it is really an incredible place with a lot of towns and villages to discover like Sorano

The Masso Leopoldino represents one of the most striking features of this incredible town.



The Rocca - as it is called in italian - has been appreciated for its strategical qualities since the Middle Ages and was probably fotified by additional structures before the 9th century.




Taking a drive in the south of Tuscany during your vacation, you will find a special little town. Park your car in the outside parking space and prepare to walk up hill into a fantasy world. You will first follow the path up to the fortress which has stood here for years - get a ticket and visit the underground museum.






The buildings both historic and the modern day rental vacation villas are made from the particular type of material called tuff. It is unique in color, and malability. The Tuscan vacation rentals farmhouses in the southern part of Italy are made of tuff.




Visit the incredible fortress, which is without cars and intervention of modern day activity. You will feel as if you have walked back in time. The large sandy colored blocks are testaments to the local activity.

Reaching for Paradise at the Island of Elba

I reached this paradise by ferry in just one hour from the city of Piombino near follonica in the province of Grosseto, just one hour from Siena and two from Florence.
The Mediterranean breeze was already talking of great promises that were all kept by the great hospitality and warmth of the Elba people.
The entire island is a natural reservation, and here you will find spectacular natural sights, wonderful landscapes, preserved fauna, and cozy seaside villas and apartments.
Sunsets have been unforgettable.
The Elba Island has a moltitude of small beaches and little gulfs that are almost unknown to the majority of people and that you can reach only by private boat. We rented a small boat and loved to spend the whole day at "our private beach".

Each town is a lovely step to simple life, and nightlife is truly enjoyed at towns such as Marina di Campo, Procchio, Porto Azzurro, Capoliveri, Riomarina and many others wichoffer clubbing, dancing, live music, lovely strolls along the beach and plenty of fun for the wee ones.

Waging war and tasting food in Angiari

During the middle Ages, Anghiari was under the dominion of the Lords of Galbino subsequently passing into the Camaldolesi�s power.

Florentine�s State army was conducted by Giampaolo Orsini and Micheletto Attendolo and Milan�s army by Niccol� Piccinino.
The victory of the Florence State was such as decisive as to consent them to stay over the control of central Italy.
According to Machiavelli�s writes, the battle was held in about 20 hours and, nevertheless the hard combating, only one soldier died, felling off his horse, as faithfully represented in the mural �The Battle of Anghiari� which Florence, many years later, entrusted to Leonardo da Vinci to commemorate the epic achievement.
Leonardo started the work on cartoons transferring them to an internal wall of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. While he was working on the mural several main artists were coming to the capital to watch the painting and to learn about Leonardo�s innovative technique.
Peter Paul Rubens made a copy of �The Battle of Anghiari� hosts in the Louvre and Biagio di Antonio, from Paolo Uccello�s school, made another one kept in Dublin, in the National Art Gallery of Ireland.
The mural was unfinished and definitively lost during the drying process in Florence. However, it was substituted in Palazzo Vecchio by a same object Giorgio Vasari�s mural.

What to visit in Anghiano:

- The Fortress: an imposing defensive structure completed in the 14th century, further destroyed and rebuilt in different periods. Together with the ancient castle the fortress is keeping the clock tower coming back from the 17th century.
- Palazzo Marzocco: built up in the 15th century, it was the residence of the aristocratic Angelieri family. Nowadays is hosting �The Battle of Anghiari Documentation Centre�.
- Palazzo Taglieschi: a beautiful Renaissance building with an elaborated fa�ade, houses the National Museum of Arts and Popular Tradition hosting an interesting collection of paintings, frescoes, terracotta, statues, sacred furnishing and instruments coming back from different artistic periods. Its masterpiece is the wooden sculpture by Jacopo della Quercia representing �The Madonna and Child�.
- The Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie: it was built up between the 17th and the 18th century and hosts a wonderful glazed terracotta named �Madonna delle Grazie� by Della Robbia�s family.

The heart of Chianti is Montefioralle

The town was originally called Monteficalle. It is situated on a hilltop facing the Greve valley, surrounded by vineyards, olive groves and cypresses. Parts of the ancient walls are still visible, while the small streets are marked by old homes, a donjon, and several towers.



The ancient village and castle of Montefioralle were an important stronghold during the wars between Florence and Siena. A house in the circular main street of Montefioralle is pointed out as the birth-place of Amerigo Vespucci. The doorway is identified by the wasp ("vespa") and V of the Vespucci family.




In 1250 it became the headquarters of the League of the Greve Valley. The town was once endowed with two sets of walls. It had an octagonal shape with four gates. With the fall of the Sienese Republic, Montefioralle lost its prior importance and most of its inhabitants moved to Greve. We advise you to visit the church of Santo Stefano and the parish church of Montefioralle.




It is an easy 20 minute up-hill walk from Greve and provides you with lots of picture spots, silence and landscape typical of this area. From Montefioralle, there is an interesting hike along the back roads to Panzano. Situated in the hills above Greve in Chianti, it is noted for the one street that completely encircles the church of S. Stefano (inside an interesting 13th century Madonna and 14th and 16th century Florentine paintings): a simple building is traditionally indicated as the house of Amerigo Vespucci. The church of S. Cresci can also be visited close by.

Montefioralle, which originally belonged to the Buondelmonti and Ricasoli families, began life as a fortification that could have hosted a sizable garrison (as well as refugees from the surrounding countryside in times of war), with a central keep and thick walls that now contain houses.

Lovely accommodation near Lucca

Warm atmosphere, old time charm and all kinds of modern comforts characterize this Villa near Lucca, restored with personal touch. For sure one of the best places to spend few days if you wish to visit Lucca and the north of Tuscany. The foundations of this ancient Villa date back to the 18th century
The Villa belonged to Mr. Bonuccelli that bought it from Washington since his family had emigrated to America, and the villa would allow his family left back in Italy, to live in it. In fact they lived in it, as it was, until 1945. Thankfully the bombings of WWII did not destroy this villa.

The Villa is located near Camaiore that is a town which extends from the fascinating summits of the Apuanian Alps to the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the heart of Versilia.

We really enjoyed our stay at the villa. A relaxing and refreshing experience in a lovely restructured and authentic Tuscan villa near Lucca.

Castagneto Carducci and Bolgheri

The Castle of Bolgheri has been known of since the 8th century, and it too belonged to the family of the Counts della Gherardesca. The original structure had a different location: the castle we can admire today is the result of a reconstruction after the arrival in Bolgheri of the army of Emperor Maximilian in 1496. In the beginning of the 20th century, the castle of Bolgheri was the center of the properties of the noble Gherardesca family ; the countess Franca Spalletti Trivelli (a Gherardesca), wife of the earl Clemente Zileri (who owned the Fattoria Poggio a Poppiano near Florence) inherited this estate of 130 ha (among which 50 ha of vineyards) from her mother.




If you are looking to take a quick trip here from the north, then head south direction south Grosseto, exit La California and continue towards south for 5 Km. Here begin on your left the cypress road. If you are heading over from Siena follow the road that leads to Massa Marittima (another goregous little stop) and then proceed towards Castegneto Carducci.


Perhaps one of the most distinctive aspects of this town is the 4.3 km of road wich stretch between the castel itself and the old roman road of Aurelian is the long and pictureqsue viale of cypress trees (more than 2000 trees), well known through the Tuscany region and often associated with the Tuscan landscape.

Between 1838 and 1848, in the famous Italian Poet named Carducci, lived in Bolgheri and with his poem Davanti San Guido, he immortalised the "Viale" that led to the small village from the antique Roman thoroughfare to the chapel of St Vitus, built in 1703.




"Cipressi che a Bolgheri alti e schietti / van da San Guido in duplice filar, / quasi in corsa giganti giovinetti / mi balzarono incontro e mi guardar"

(The cypresses trees that go from Bolgheri, high and sincere in a double line, almost as young giants run towards me and looked at me).



Comfortably small and very walkable, this quaint little village is the perfect place to stop off and have a bite to eat - or get that after lunch cafe while admiring the Italian architecture in the many times restructured castle.

Discover Pitigliano in Tuscany

Pitigliano lies in the green Etruscan hills of the Maremma, the most southern part of Tuscany. The historic center stands on a protruding tuff rock and still demostrates remains of an aquaduct. The history of the town stretches back to the Etruscans in pre-Roman times and even today Etruscan graves and pathways carved into the tuff beneath the town point to these ancient peoples.


The of Pitigilano, in southern Tuscany, town is situated on a steep tuff rock (a hardened type of volcanic magma), 313 metres above sea-level. Not far from Pitigliano and its vacation rentals is Lake Bolsena, a huge water-filled crater and the largest Italian lake.


Southern Tuscany, a beautiful place to look for a vacation rental villa, was once one of the most important centres of the Etruscans. There are numerous cave-tombs of that period around Pitigliano, caves cut deep into the tuff, that are today used as cellars and sheds. Of further interest is the Jewish history of Pitigliano.


In the 30`s the situation of the Jews deteriorated. By luck and good fortune as well as the assistance of some Italians, who risked their lives, apparently all the Jews of Pitigliano survived. Today there is no Jewish community any more, but the cultural heritage is maintained. You can visit a small museum in the old ghetto area of the town. Not only does it offer a glimsp of the Jewish livestyle, but also a great opportunity to see the catinas carved in Tuff.



The mostly volcanic mountainous area is called "Alta Maremma" (Upper Maremma). Most of this area is covered by tuff (in italian: tufo), a volcanic material, that was discharged from volcanoes in prehistoric times. Tuff can be worked quite easily as long as it has had no contact with air that hardens it. Tuff has been used by people living in the area from early times. Today most of the old buildings are gone, and most of the remains are made from hollowed out tuff.
As a well known archaeologist once said: There is nothing that lasts longer than a hole in the ground.