2 The foothills and high Apennines
Walk 4 Collodi and Pescia
Walk 5 Le Piastre to Pontepetri
Walk 6 Lago Scaffaiolo
Walk 7 Libro Aperto
Walk 8 San Pellegrino and Giro del Diavolo
Walk 9 Monte Prado
3 Alpi Apuane
Walk 10 Monte Forato loop
Walk 11 Monte Croce
Walk 12 Around Monte Procinto
4 Pratomagno and the Foreste Casentinesi
Walk 13 Vallombrosa
Walk 14 Monte Falco, Monte Falterona, Lago degli Idoli
Walk 15 Eremo di Camaldoli loop
Walk 16 Monte Penna
Walk 17 Cortona
5 Chianti
Walk 18 Gaiole and Badia a Coltibuono
Walk 19 Castellina to Radda in Chianti
Walk 20 Volpaia loop
Walk 21 Poggio San Polo
6 West of Siena
Walk 22 Sovicille loop
Walk 23 Monteriggioni circuit
Walk 24 San Gimignano
Walk 25 Volterra to Saline di Volterra
7 The Crete and Val d’Orcia
Walk 26 Chiusure and San Giovanni d’Asso
Walk 27 Montalcino to Sant’Antimo
Walk 28 San Quirico d’Orcia to Pienza
Walk 29 San Quirico d’Orcia to Bagno Vignoni
Walk 30 Bagno Vignoni circuit
Walk 31 Montepulciano loop
Walk 32 Radicofani
8 Elba and the Tyrrhenian coast
Walk 33 The Enfola promontory
Walk 34 Marciana Marina circuit
Walk 35 Marciana to Pomonte
Walk 36 Porto Azzurro
Walk 37 Baratti and the Populonia headland
Walk 38 Campiglia Marittima–Suvereto circuit
9 The Maremma coast and hinterland
Walk 39 Le Torri loop
Walk 40 San Rabano circuit
Walk 41 Feniglia
Walk 42 Pitigliano to Sovana
Walk 43 Sorano to San Quirico
Appendix A Route summary table
Appendix B Italian–English glossary
Appendix C Accommodation
Appendix D Useful information
Appendix E Further reading
Torre Collelungo (Walk 39)
PREFACE TO THIS FOURTH EDITION
Extremely enjoyable wanderings through glorious Tuscany over the last few years have helped me extend this guide to little-visited corners and mountains of this justifiably world-famous region. But after all the walking came the hard part – selecting the finest routes to offer readers a flavour of each distinctive district, without making the book too cumbersome.
So Walking in Tuscany has now been greatly expanded in scope and completely overhauled, old untenable routes removed and brand new ones added along with heaps of new photos, mapping and information ranging from public transport to food, wine and cosy places to stay. Buone camminate e buon appetito! Happy walking and enjoy your meals!
Cypress-lined Viale del Nonno leads back to Volpaia (Walk 20)
INTRODUCTION
One of Italy’s largest regions, glorious Tuscany is awesomely beautiful. Everywhere you look are landscapes like paintings, pristine hill villages and hamlets crafted from stone that seem unchanged since ancient times. Gently rolling hills are clothed with fields of golden wheat dashed scarlet by poppies. Winding lanes lined with pencil-straight cypress trees lead to inviting villas with views to picture-perfect hill towns of medieval and Renaissance splendour, recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Walking in Tuscany means all this – and stacks more! The dense forests of the Casentino, rugged mountains of the Apennines and Apuane, Mediterranean maquis backing long sandy beaches in the Maremma on the Tyrrhenian coast, and there’s even the stunning island of Elba, a world of its own.
The tiny lookout on Monte Penna (Walk 16)
Visiting Tuscany on foot is akin to making a voyage through time, as the region is riddled with historical pathways used by traders, pilgrims, armies and travellers since time immemorial. A breath of fresh air for visitors between the crowded art cities, the walks follow in the illustrious footsteps of the ancient Etruscans, the Romans, Hannibal, Saint Francis, Barbarossa, Dante, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Pinocchio, Giuseppe Verdi, Byron, Milton and DH Lawrence – to mention just a few. Oh, food and wine play a big part too.
Thanks to the excellent capillary network of trains and buses, travel around Tuscany is both enjoyable and reliable, enabling visitors to enjoy the scenery without contributing unnecessarily to pollution.
Exploring Tuscany
To help visitors orient themselves, the 43 walks in this guidebook have been grouped into nine areas, each the focus of a separate chapter. Each chapter illustrates the area’s distinctive character and gives a potted history along with essential practical information.
Chapter 1, The environs of Florence, introduces the hilly surroundings of the regional capital, including Medici towns and villas at Fiesole and Artimino, as well as Vinci, home to the great Leonardo.
Chapter 2, The foothills and high Apennines, is a guide to fascinating hills where Pinocchio is star, then the Apennine mountains and rugged ridge walks.
Chapter 3, Alpi Apuane, presents challenging routes in the rugged ‘Alps of Tuscany’.
Chapter 4, Pratomagno