Green tour of Tuscany and Lazio

On this day enjoy a tour in the Maremma Region.

Bring your water bottle, a k-way, a hat and a mosquito lotion which, especially at certain times of the year, can be very useful.

The Maremma natural park is a protected natural area and was the first park in the Tuscany region, established by Regional Law 65 of 5 June 1975. It can be identified between the lower Tuscany and upper Lazio. From a historical point of view, it has very ancient origins that have left over time various testimonies from the prehistoric age, to the Etruscan, Roman, to the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance, to the Italian State.

Horse-drawn carriage tour.

After the tour we will continue to La Bottega del Buttero located in the heart of the Maremma, where we will stop for a substantial snack and tasting of typical local products and visit the boutique for individual shopping.

Overnight La Principina

Meals: breakfast, light lunch/local product taste, dinner

On this day we will have a tour that will see us involved in legend and fairy tales.

In the morning visit to San Galgano – The legend of the sword in the stone.

Here two attraction points; the great Abbey with a huge roofless church and the hermitage of Monte Siepi where, according to legend, San Galgano retired to hermit life in 1170. As a symbol of peace he stuck his sword into the rock, where it is still found today .

It is known that of San Galgano, owner of the place that is celebrated on December 3, he died in 1181 and that, after converting after a disordered youth, he retired to hermit life to give himself to penance, with the same intensity with which he had previously given himself to debauchery.

The culminating moment of the conversion occurred on Christmas day 1180, when Galgano, arrived on the Montesiepi hill, stuck his sword in the ground, in order to transform the weapon into a cross; in fact in the Rotonda there is a boulder from whose cracks a hilt and a segment of a sword corroded by years and rust emerge, now protected by a case of polymethylmethacrylate. The evident echo of the Arthurian myth has not failed to raise curiosity and, obviously, some daring hypotheses on possible relationships between the mythology of the Round Table and the history of the Chiusdinese saint.

Lunch Agritourism Il Mulino della Pile (the Pile Mill) an ancient mill renovated and between 1990 and 1995, testimonial of the Mulino Bianco, a brand of the famous Barilla pasta factory for a line of biscuits and snacks, which has become very famous attracting visitors from both Italy and abroad.

After lunch we will continue to the north area to visit  Selva di Sogno ( The Dream forest). Here the only one thing happens is: The artist Devo Manfredo composes stones, places them horizontally vertically together and lay them, without binding or cementing them, without cutting or breaking them. He composes freely and spontaneously.

Overnight La Principina

Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner

Let’s start another day with the visit in an area rich in history, nature and charm.

Bring your bathing suit, bathrobe or large towel and rock shoes with you

We will stop at the  beautiful Cascatelle di Saturnia, a magical place to discover, unique for the properties of the thermal waters, for the limestone pools originated by the waterfall and for the surrounding nature.

They represent the most reviewed and appreciated tourist attraction of the Tuscan Maremma and inserted by all the tourist guides among the most beautiful Free Spas in Tuscany. It is a place that was created naturally, thanks to the action of a cascade of thermal sulphurous waters and generated by the Gorello thermal stream. Classified by world-renowned newspapers (New York Times and The Guardian) among the ten best beneficial thermal springs in Europe.

We will continue to Sovana, a small village in the Maremma, located on a tuff spur, which still maintains the appearance of a classic medieval village. The origins of Sovana (in ancient times Suana) are very ancient, numerous and valuable monuments have come down to us from its illustrious history, witnesses of the power and wealth of the Etruscans, of the Church and of the noble Aldobrandeschi family, the square with the Praetorian palaces, the church of Santa Maria, the church of San Mamiliano and the Duomo, give the whole area a fascinating atmosphere, enriched by the contrast of color between the tuff bricks and the greenery that surrounds the surrounding hills. In the whole area below the village, the Etruscan testimonies with rock architecture, the hollow streets carved out of the rock, the necropolis with different types of burials prevail.

Pitigliano  Beautiful town in the Tufo Area, in the heart of the Tuscan Maremma, Pitigliano is one of the most beautiful villages in Italy

Also nicknamed Little Jerusalem, because starting from the 16th century it hosted a large Jewish community within its walls, Pitigliano is today one of the most fascinating historic villages in Italy and an unmissable stop during a trip to Tuscany.

Perched on a tuff cliff, the history of the village began in ancient times, legend has it that the town was founded by two young Romans Petilio and Celiano who, fleeing from Rome after the theft of the golden crown of Jupiter, they took refuge in the countryside of this area, founding a first community, from which the city originated, which originally took the name of Petiliano, from the merger of those of the two Romans, then becoming, in the following centuries, Pitigliano.

Besides the legend, the town of Pitigliano has an even more ancient history, the territory was already inhabited since the Neolithic Age, but it is with the arrival of the Etruscans that the real history of the Tuscan town begins, the Etruscans built the famous streets Quarries, ancient communication routes dug by hand in the tuff rock, used as a communication and defense route, the first villages, and the wonderful Necropolis, the City of the Dead.

The day will end on Bolsena Lake fifth in size in Italy, it is located in upper Lazio, on the border with Umbria and Tuscany, in the main caldera of the Vulsinio volcanic complex

Overnight in Bolsena or in the surroundings of the lake

Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner

Transfer to Civita di Bagnoreggio fraction of 11 inhabitants in the municipality of Bagnoregio, in Lazio, part of the most beautiful villages in Italy, famous for being called “The city that dies. it was founded 2500 years ago by the Etruscans (Entrance tickets to the village  euro 5))

We will continue to Bomarzo The Monster Park, also called Sacro Bosco or Villa delle Meraviglie di Bomarzo, in the province of Viterbo, is an Italian monumental complex. It is a natural park decorated with numerous basalt sculptures dating back to the 16th century and depicting mythological animals, divinities and monsters.

Last village of the day will be Caprarola to visit an “Unique Jewel” : Palazzo Farnese recognized as one of the most important and intriguing late Renaissance monuments in Europe.

It is one of the best examples of a Mannerist dwelling with its pentagonal shape with the circular courtyard in the center, the Italian gardens and the monumental park. It was built for the Farnese family, started by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Baldassare Peruzzi but finished by Jacopo Barozzi, called il Vignola.

The day will end at Sutri

OVERNIGTH in Sutri or in the surroundings

Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner

This will be the Etruscan day.

In the morning visit to the charming and ancient village of Sutri, from the pre-Etruscan era with the splendid amphitheater carved out of the tuff, with the carved steps mentioned in the rock dating from the end of the second century and the first century BC. and which could hold over 9,000 people. It is one of the wonders of Sutri together with the splendid Etruscan-Roman Necropolis, one of the best preserved in the whole of Tuscia: in fact, you can admire different types of Etruscan tombs from those with a fine chamber to the niches for cinerary urns. In the Necropolis, during the Christmas period, a suggestive living nativity scene is organized

We will proceed after lunch Tarquinia the greatest testimony of Etruscan art in the world and

Visit the Necropoli dei Monterozzi The extraordinary series of painted tombs represents the most prestigious nucleus of the Tarquinia necropolis which remains, for this aspect, the most important in the Mediterranean, so much so as to be defined by the father of Etruscology.

The day will end in Rome for the last overnight and farewell dinner party in a typical local”Trattoria”

Meals: breakfast, lunch, farewill dinner

The ancient city of Ostia Antica was founded during the 4th century BC as a military camp and developed during the Roman imperial age as a port commercial center, closely linked to the supply of grain in the capital. Due to the insufficiency of the river port, Claudio began in 42 AD. the construction of an artificial harbor further north, connected to the Tiber by an artificial canal and equipped with a lighthouse; a second hexagonal port was built between 106 and 113 under Trajan, whose remains were in the private property of the Sforza Cesarini princes. At the time of its maximum development the Roman city of Ostia reached 75,000 inhabitants, but declined with the crisis of the third century. It had a recovery in the fourth century as a residential location, while commercial and administrative activities had moved to the city of Porto. In the Archaeological area of ancient Ostia are  the remains of part of the ancient city, excavated during the 19th and especially 20th century. Along with the public monuments, numerous private buildings have been preserved (dwelling houses, production structures, headquarters of associations), which allow you to relive everyday life as it was in antiquity.

Extraordinary mosaics, polychrome and in black and white, are preserved. The small tesserae in limestone or marble, in flint and colored local stones (brick red, light yellow and brown, greenish and gray-celestino) cover walls and floors composing geometric and floral motifs, divinity profiles, mythological representations such as Nereids and Tritons , and then seahorses, fish, bottoms and marine animals, ships, fishing scenes and daily work

Transfer to Fiumicino – Leonardo da Vinci International airport to fly back to hometown with unforgettable memories.

Meals: breakfast, lunch