Article Surfing Archive

There is a place where you don't need words to be understood, comparisons to feel you're just fine, strong sensations to thrill with excitement.

That place is the Maremman countryside, and you are its guest. You will discover, on a farm, a vacation you have never tried before, one that will put you at ease at once: the vacation is Farmtourism and it transports you to a world you feel yours at last. Nowhere else is nature like this!

You can take a walk to that ancient village and discover its art, go for a ride on horseback, stop a moment with astonishment in a solitary parish church, enjoy a meal full of gaiety and good things. You can do all of these things or do nothing at all and just relax. This is Farmtourism in Maremma: wherever you are, you fell at home.

All this is farmtourism in Tuscany : wherever you are, you feel at home.

There is more than one Tuscany. You already know a Tuscany famous for its cities of art, its history, its famous men and their works. But, do you know its landscape and the honest hospitality of the Tuscan people in for a holiday?

Solitary farm houses, medieval villages, rows of vines, olive trees, cypresses: this is Tuscan country. And thanks to Farmtourism you can enjoy it on a different kind of holiday.

You can walk down dusty white farm paths, ride a mountain bike alongside vinesyards and olive orchards or explore marked trails on horseback and discover the many facets of this Region while trying out its local products: the famous D.O.C. wines, the olive-oil, the meats, the cheeses.

Maremma welcomes all women who know the value of nature, who can feel the earth breathing, the landscape moving. Who know how to interpret the outlines of the mountains, the marvellous enormity of the sea, the precious remnants of our traditions. Here in Maremma ecology and country life play a primary role.

As soon as you arrive, just take a look: some of the panoramas seem to be the handiwork of a genius, a great artist. In this case the artists are those who have cultivated this land, while respecting its identity, contents and history.

Some islands of the Maremma archipelago offer courses in nature photography and bird watching - the Corsican seagull, the blue rock-thrush, the raven - courses for learning to recognise nature and name plants and birds, to interpret sounds and recognise smells, all precious signals that mother earth continues to send us constantly, and which we are increasingly likely to ignore or unable to understand.

There are many offers to get to know country life: for example museums with interesting small exhibitions. The truffle museum in San Giovanni d'Asso, the share-cropping museum in Buonconvento, the landscape museum in Castelnuovo Berardenga, or the oil museum in Serre di Rapolano. But you can also approach it directly, by tasting typical products: the light odour of saffron cultivated for centuries on the Florentine hills, in San Gimignano and the Val d'Orcia, the taste of sheep's cheese seasoned in the terracotta vases as the farmers have done as far back as the Middle Ages.

There will be the opportunity to taste freshly baked bread, after following it rising, and to accompany it with the rich taste of a Chianina beef steak or a Cinta Senese salami, or, if you prefer, ham matured breathing the air of the Casentino or Garfagnana. You will have the possibility to enter the production laboratories and observe the slow, repetitive gestures of the expert hands of those who know the subject, love nature and are not disloyal to history.