Tuscany - Grosseto province (islands excluded)

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I was sometimes in the Province of Grosseto, but only in one occasion I made a short tour route that I describe here. Province came to stay with Dorina around Punta Ala, where the following morning, a good time, visited the area of the famous harbor, which occupies the end of a small peninsula. Baipassata Castiglione della Pescaia, in any city where I was some years before, we reach Grosseto. The capital has a historic center collected within hexagonal wall fortifications. Scneografica in the main square facing the Cathedral elegant facade of muted colors and the Palazzo della Provincia di Renaissance imprint with lace and turrets. Having breakfast in a bar we continue towards the inside of the Maremma to the slopes of Mount Amiata near where Arcidosso, nice to see even from the road, we stop in Santa Flora, paesotto with an air of ancient village full of stone houses, arches and churches. After eating a sandwich at a food drive for us south to Saturnia. The historic center of town is not exceptional but flowing in and around the famous hot and healing waters. There are many residences with thermal plunge pools, but where the most beautiful is undoubtedly the one where the water cascades down from some that touch the walls of an old farmhouse. All around a rural farmlands that alternate with low hills typical of the Tuscan Maremma. There is no shortage of rural tourism winning formula maremmano. From here we go to Sovana, a small village with a great story that draws its origins from the Etruscan so that the surroundings are dotted by rock tombs of the people visible in part from the street. The country itself is a medieval town with additions Renaissance, has long been a bishopric and was the birthplace of Pope Gregory VII. Compared to the size the town square is enormous because it occupies a good part. Here overlooking historic buildings like the Palazzo Pretorio small, the Loggia del Capitano and two churches. The churches are beautiful to see why very old but certainly the most interesting is the Cathedral whose entrance is in front but on one side. Inside reigns austerity in an environment of pure Romanesque style that makes it one of the greatest early evidence of the whole Tuscany. In the Church there is also the sarcophagus of St. Mamiliano and a crypt. You can not get out of this treasure trove of history without having complied with the columns and arches that support the ceiling. The church is flanked by the Bishop's Palace and nearby is the birthplace of Pope Gregory VII. A Sovana are also the remains of a fortress and stretches of walls. We can certainly assert that Sovana, where we now live a few souls, is the story of the house and left his testimony in every age. In a few km we reach the far larger Sorano, a beautiful town clinging to a wall of a hill of tufa. Moreover we are in the Archaeological Park Tufo, a rock hard and not very easy to work, so the buildings here are made with this material. In practice, the houses are Appendix artificial nature of the soil where they are located. Sorano is beautiful to look at from a distance but does not lose anything of its charm, even if we are going up in this intricate city streets that climb between courtyards, arches, portals and monumental loggias. In the highest part to dominate the city center the local Palace of the Princes who ruled up to the Medici and Masso Leopoldino where we go to see a magnificent panorama over the whole area. A Sorano there is also a Ghetto Jews but from there they left for a long time. Downstream downstream we see that each house is a piece of history, some residential areas are also incorporated directly into the tufa and everything takes us back to the Middle Ages. Little road and we are in Pitigliano, where the previous two stops we were favorably surprised by this city is not quite as well. Pitigliano is situated on a spur of tufa of which the housing will continue the vertical lines projecting into the sky forming insurmountable walls. In fact the houses are close to the rocky outcrop that forms a cliff on three sides making it inaccessible. Looking the valley do not understand where it ends and where the mountains begin construction here because everything is the same material, the tuff. The houses then end with the entanglement with the rock itself so that some circles, particularly the wineries, are inserted into the rock. His inespugnabilità has an important crossroads in history and a place where it was easy to feel protected. Probably why it was developed here in the past a large Jewish community so incorporated into the social fabric to be predominantly Catholic city to earn the nickname "Little Jerusalem." Wandering in the middle leads to the discovery of splendid architecture, a mighty palace belonged to the Princes who ruled in the Middle Ages, a square overlooked by the monumental fountains, a Roman aqueduct, the churches from which oozes history and of course a synagogue. Let Pitigliano aware that he saw a unique history, architecture and environmental location. We leave this southern end of Tuscany and past Manciano Montemerano and we move much further north, in Massa Marittima, the old city where I had already been a few years before. Too good not to review the main square overlooked by the splendid religious buildings. On all the beautiful Cathedral Diocese by the imposing bell tower, flanked by the Bishop's Palace and preceded by a wide staircase. On the other side of the Piazza Palazzo del Podestà followed by the City, from lodges and many other medieval buildings that radiate from here is the entire rest of the city center. The alleys and streets are very attractive to go but the square's left impressed because it seems to really immerse ourselves in antiquity. North of Massa Marittima leave the Province of Grosseto and enter into that of Pisa. As already said this was not the only time that I came in the Province of Grosseto and in naltre occasions I was also in Follonica, Orbetello and Isola del Giglio (the latter referring to your destination "Tuscan Archipelago"). To Orbetello, located alcentro dell'omonima of Laguna on the promontory of Monte Argentario have been twice.