CITIES VILLAGES and CASTLES in CORNIA VALLEY

PIOMBINO

This Reinassance town, is located south of a promontory on top of which - in clear sky days - you can admire the Tuscan Arcipelago. An area with over 30 km coastline along an high and rocky wall, covered by a thick Mediterranean scrub, running north over the the Gulf of Baratti sandy coastline and south through white sand beaches running along the Gulf of Follonica. Crucial over centuries for its port connecting mainland to Elba and Sardinia islands, this old town still shows traces of its glorious past: the domination of the noble Family "Appiani", works of famous artists as Andrea Guardi or Leonardo da Vinci, the government of Napoleon's sister, Elisa Bonaparte.

SAN VINCENZO

Wide beaches with fine white sandy stretch on a cobalt sea. The pine forest, stretching out to the sea, is dense and shady, full of trails for walking, hiking, horseback riding.
San Vincenzo combines natural beauty with the amenities of a welcoming, hospitable resort, making it an international tourist destination to enjoy relaxing holidays all the year.
Inhabited since ancient times - as Etruscan and Roman settlement - today San Vincenzo is a modern and efficient town, with a well-equipped marina.
The excellent wines of the area have international reputation. The Rimigliano Park, a natural and protected area, the nearby medieval villages, the Etruscan ruins at Baratti and Campiglia and Venturina spa make San Vincenzo an ideal hub for visits and excursions along the Etruscan Coast.
On December the 24th 2008, the City of San Vincenzo obtained EMAS environmental registration.

CAMPIGLIA MARITTIMA

Perched on a hill overlooking both sea and countryside, Campiglia Marittima is one of the most beautiful historic villages of the Etruscan Coast.
The melting furnaces of Fucinaia Valley - dated VII-VIIIth century B.C. - and the san Silvestro Archeological and Mining Park - a true open air museum - tell the fascinating story of metal work from Etruscan age to later centuries.
Among olive groves, vineyards and Mediterranean scrub, is the Etruscan Coast's Wine Road, along wich many farms produce excellent extra virgin olive, fine Cornia Valley DOC wines and typical tasty products of this land.
Its history and folklore live again during feasts and events that take place each year to celebrate the main anniversaries and changing seasons.

In Venturina, at the south of Campiglia Marittima and only 4 km from the Student's Hostel, there's the spa Valle del Sole with a sulphate-calcium-magnesium-bicarbonate water already known in Etruscan-Roman age a natural source with water at 36 degrees and the thermae Calidario.

SUVERETO

A beautiful medieval village, dated before 1000 AD, nestled on hills slopes overlooking the sea and the Etruscan Coast, in the green Cornia Valley, rich in history and art, Suvereto is a real jewel.
This town and its enchanting architectural harmony, encloses, inside its ancient walls, paved streets lined with stone houses, historic buildings, impressive churches, and shadowy cloisters.
Thick cork, chestnut, oak wood and Mediterranean scrub descend to the sea.
The countryside full of vineyards and olive groves, is crossed by the Wine Road.
Inside its ancient walls, this town of enchanting architectural harmony, encloses paved streets, stone houses, historic buildings, impressive churches and shadowy cloisters.
Thick cork, chestnut, oak wood and Mediterranean scrub descend to the sea.
The countryside full of vineyards and olive groves, is crossed by the Wine Road.
Here in fact, it's a plenty of farms, mills, wineries, agritourism, where you can taste local products and dishes of a genuine gastronomic tradition. During spectacular festivals, inspired by history and folklore and held throughout the year due to the mild climate are , the town keeps its ancient traditions, opening itself both to art and innovation research.

SASSETTA

A small and charming village - originally a Medieval castle - set among woods and chestnut trees, on top of a hill overlooking sea.
It preserves traces of its past, including a Romanesque baptismal font, a Madonna painting dating to 1400 AD , a rock crystal crucifix (XV-XVI sec.) and other paintings located in the St. Andrea Apostolo Church.
In a woods, full of hiking trails and paths for walking, cycling and horse riding, there are now several agritourisms together with sale of local products.
During the year, in Sassetta you can enjoy events full of charm and folklore, characterized by ancient traditions handed down over time.
Sassetta celebrates its tasty and wholesome food especially in autumn festivals.

THE SEA OF CORNIA VALLEY

The coasts with their pristine beaches and their cliffs are the frames of the enchanting landscape of Val di Cornia

VALLEY CORNIA PARKS

BARATTI AND POPULONIA ARCHEOLOGICAL PARK

Lying between the slopes of Cape Piombino and the Gulf of Baratti which stood the Etruscan and Roman city of Populonia, this archaeological site includes a significant part of old city, its vast necropolis, its calcarenite quarries and its industrial quarters where hematite - coming from Elba Island - was transformed into iron ingots. Populonia, as the only Etruscan city overlooking the sea, was one of the main commercial centers in the ancient world: a significant amount of imported material used for funerary objects attests the wealth of its people. The park has different paths explaining the transformation of landscape over centuries through traces of ironworking as slag heaps and industrial buildings, while one of the ancient limestone quarries - reused between the IVth and IIth centuries B.C. as a necropolis - shows in the marks on its cutting face, the techniques evolution of stones extraction.

SAN SILVESTRO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND MINING PARK

This park - set just behind Cape Piombino - covers approximately 450 hectares along the Campiglia Marittima hills, characterized by rich mineral deposits of copper, lead, silver and zinc. From the protohistoric era until the seventies of last century, the extraction and processing of those metals were the main activities of the surrounding area. Traces left by Etruscan, medieval, Renaissance and modern workers, guide visitors from the ancient techniques of extraction to the industrial mining and metallurgical processes of recent ages. The medieval San Silvestro Rock - a village founded by Gherardesca family in Xth and XIth centuries and populated by miners and metal smelters - is a very particular and interesting settlement. A route through the remains of the houses, the church, the cemetery, the manor house and industrialist area leads visitors to explore the social and economic organization, the food habits and the building and metallurgical techniques of a medieval community.

STERPAIA COASTAL PARK

Covering about 230 hectares along the Tyrrhenian coastline - in the large Gulf between Piombino and Follonica - this park is characterized by a large and humid coastal forest, with centuries-old oaks, ash and flowering ash spontaneously born. The forest is separated from the sea only by sand dunes: a typical landscape of the ancient Maremma coast.

RIMIGLIANO COASTAL PARK

This park covers about 120 hectares in the western Etruscan Coast. Despite being a naturalistic area, nevertheless, it retains some medieval and modern towers of coastal warning and control. The coastal dunes, with oaks and pines - with a characteristic umbrella-shaped foliageand - behind mediterranean bush are well preserved. Part of the protected area was once a lake (Lake Rimigliano), drained between the second half of the IXXth and the first decades of the XXth centuries, making this park interesting for the study of ancient marshlands and lakes in the coastal flat land.

MONTIONI NATURAL PARK

Located between Cornia and Pecora Valleys, this park covers approximately 8000 hectares of forests in the hill system between Massa Marittima and Suvereto: an interesting landscape closely related to human activities. Since the IXX century, the Montioni forest has in fact represented a coal reservoir for blast furnaces in Follonica, soffering massive cuts. Its alum deposits (used for tanning leather and fixing colors on tissues) were widely exploited since the XV century, but mainly in the first decades of the IXX century when the principes of Piombino, Felice and Elisa Baiocchi, founded a mining village (Montioni Nuovo), still clearly visible with its open pit mines, tunnels, furnaces and transport system of materials.

POGGIO NERI FOREST PARK

In the hills area around Sassetta, this park covers about 700 hectares, 600 of wich entirely wooded. It's very interesting for its vegetation and fauna, typical of hill forests in Maremma, with a strong presence of wild ungulates.

TUSCAN ARCHIPELAGO

A legend tells that the Tuscan Archipelago originated from the crumble of the pearl necklace that Venus, goddess of beauty and love, wore on his neck swimming in the Tyrrhenian Sea . The Tuscan Archipelago is rich in history, nature and landscapes and it is a fascinating place to discover and enjoy in all seasons of the year. Included in the archipelago and clearly visible from the coast during clear days, besides the island of Elba, there are the islets of Cerboli, which are 4 miles from Piombino, completely uninhabited and of Palmaiola not far from them, which emerges as a triangular cliff. The islands of the Tuscan Archipelago are the ideal destinations for day trips

ELBA ISLAND
The island is easily reachable from the port of Piombino, with about an hour journey by modern ferries that make a large number of trips every day, especially during the summer. The crystal and clear transparent sea and a backcountry dominated by the intense green of the Mediterranean scrub as well as numerous places of historic interest, and not only those related to the short stay of Napoleon, are the main attractions.

FOOD AND WINE

The gastronomic tradition of the Etruscan Coast is known around the world for the richness and the variety of its dishes.
The fish, fished every day, is the protagonist of many tasty recipes: the legendary fish soup from Livorno, rice with squid ink, and then snapper, bream, squid, shellfish, rediscovered bluetailed fish , cooked with inspiration and wisdom. The protagonist of the backcountry gastronomy is instead the flesh, as for example the exquisite "Chianina", and the game, especially wild boar.
Vegetables accompany all dishes. Typical products are cheese, honey, bread, cakes, chickpeas cake and punch made in Livorno style.
Along Wine Route are born DOC Bolgheri, Val di Cornia and Bibbona and wines such as Sassicaia and Ornellaia, famous all over the world. Even the oil is a product of absolute excellence.

SPORT

There are many opportunities to play sport in the Etruscan Coast.
Over 90 km of coastline and a sea awarded with Blue Flag of the European Union for the quality of water and services, offer all kinds of opportunities for water sports such as underwater fishing, sailing and windsurfing.
Well organized ports, harbors and marinas favor the mooring of vessels.
Cycling is practiced at both amateur and professional level.
For cycling trails, through the hills or in the pine forests close to the sea,are well organized and marked, while in special places, with efficient services, professional cycling teams train.
Paths for trekking on foot and on horse are present throughout the Etruscan Coast.

VILLAGES AND SMALL TOWNS.

A holiday in Val di Cornia can be enriched by visits to places of high tourist interest which are only a few kilometers from Campiglia Marittima: Volterra (ca KM70), Massa Marittima (about 40 km), Bolgheri (about 30 km), Follonica (about 30 km).

VOLTERRA (PI)
Ancient Etruscan town which preserves an important port, with a medieval town center. Very interesting Roman Theatre.

MASSA MARITTIMA (GR)
Born in the Middle Ages around Monte Regio, it preserves a pleasant old town with a magnificent Cathedral of 1200 AD, in Romanesque-Pisan style. It was then the main center of the area of ??the metalliferous hills.

FOLLONICA (GR)
Town of great tourist tradition, especially for large beaches that slope gently into the sea, which overlooks a large area of ??pine forest.

BOLGHERI(LI)
Village immortalized by the poems of Carducci and located a few steps from the sea, in the countryside full of vineyards and olive groves. The very characteristic country is characterized by its red brick castle which leads to the village, from cobbled alleys and ancient buildings of stone, adorned with geraniums.

MUSEUMS OF VAL DI CORNIA

CASTLE MUSEUM AND OFPIOMBINO

The Castle, with its eight hundred years of history, is first of all the Museum itself, where in an architectural space can be made consistent and recognize the many phases of construction, developed over the centuries around the original nucleus, the thirteenth century tower with a square base, the eastern gate of the ancient city, which today visitors can admire his astonishing grandeur.
The panels, the computer stations, the film Piombino and its history, the splendid graphic reconstructions, the finds from archaeological excavations and exposed in the shop windows, guide the visitor to discover this seaside town, the protagonist of historical chronicles for over four centuries (1399-1815), by virtue of political and military balance with the great State regulations which, at the time and in particular in the sixteenth century, decided the fate of the world: Spain and the Empire of Charles V, The France of Francis I and Henry II, the Ottoman Empire. A city where have alternated families of Appiani, Ludovisi, Boncompagni, Baciocchi -Bonaparte and worked some of the artists and famous persons most known of the Renaissance, as Leonardo Da Vinci, whose presence in Piombino has been the subject of studies and researches for a long time.

Archaeological Museum of Populonia (Piombino)

Located in the historic center of Piombino, with over 2000 archaeological finds from the area of ??& rsquo; ancient city of Populonia, the museum is one of the richest exhibition centers of the province of Livorno. Reconstructions of environments and landscapes that & rsquo; man marked with their activities, allowing a long journey through the history of & rsquo; man from prehistory to the & rsquo; modern age.

THE ROCK OF MARITIME CAMPIGLIA

Ancient castle of the Gherardesca family, after careful restoration, overlooking the Val di Cornia. La Rocca is a witness of three different millennium of history: from the first findings of a village of huts pig farmers of & rsquo; VIII-IX century, all & rsquo; arrival of powerful Pisan counts Gherardesca until today that we are now in the third millennium and we try to understand our history, as well as to enjoy a pleasant atmosphere and the beautiful landscape that looks l & rsquo; Tuscan archipelago. Archaeological excavations have brought to light many interesting findings that, first exhibited in the museum of the Praetorian Palace, today find their natural position natural in the museum housed in the old mold of the Rock and in & rsquo; aqueduct that around 1930 there was built nearby.