The Maremma
A century ago it was marsh and malaria: today it is the wildest stretch of coast.
The Maremma is the coastal strip between Cecina and the Lazio border, and until the nineteen thirties it was largely marsh: malaria made it almost uninhabitable, and only the butteri lived there with their cattle, coming down from the hills in winter. The full drainage, begun by the Lorraines in the eighteenth century and finished under fascism, turned it into farmed plain.
What is left of the old Maremma lies in the regional park of the Uccellina, created in 1975: twenty thousand hectares between Principina and Talamone, with pine wood, scrub, dunes and about ten kilometres of beach without a building on it. Inside stand the watchtowers of the Stato dei Presidi and a ruined abbey.
How to visit
The park is crossed only on foot or by bicycle: access is from Alberese, where you buy tickets and in high season take the shuttle, because cars do not go in. The paths run from two to twelve kilometres; in summer some are closed because of fire risk, and the beach at Marina di Alberese has a daily limit.
Outside the park the coast is more built up but not excessively: Castiglione della Pescaia, Punta Ala, Follonica and the Argentario. The campsites are nearly all in this strip, in pine woods, and they are large. Inland, half an hour away, are the free hot springs of Saturnia and the tufa towns.