Italy's most beautiful villages in Tuscany

If you are looking for places to get away from the stress of the every day and enrich yourself culturally, what you need is a visit to one of Italy's most beautiful villages. Throughout the Tuscan territory you'll find small city pearls where every corner holds a surprise: tiny churches with hidden masterpieces, restaurants with the best Tuscan recipes and small workshops where artisan traditions are still alive. From the Terre di Arezzo, through the Terre Senesi and on to the Maremma countryside, there are still places in Tuscany that seem frozen in time, where the genuine flavours and atmosphere of the past are alive and well.

In the dreamy Chianti, which its rolling hills and unforgettable landscapes, Montefioralle enchants with its medieval atmosphere, good food, natural attractions and numerous vineyards that produce the noted Chianti Classico. If, instead, you follow the Wine Trails of the Pisan hills, you'll come across Montescudaio, another excellent area for DOC wines. But the “nectar of the gods” isn't the only reason to visit—here food, wine and history unite for a unique experience.

Immerse yourself in the Aretine countryside where the suggestive medieval fortresses of Anghiari, Castelfranco di Sopra and Loro Ciuffena are located. These towns are celebrated not only for their fairytale landscapes but also for their historic centres, which are unforgettable thanks to enchanting alleyways, towers, palazzos and small Romanesque churches.
 

In the heart of the Casentino, the most beautiful valley in Tuscany, you'll find the unmistakeable profile of Poppi. Those who want to relive the Middle Ages in all its splendour need only visit this historic centre and wander among its abbeys and piazzas.

Continue on to the Mugello where the most interesting village is without a doubt Scarperia. This fortified settlement, protected by two great walls, has the most precious jewel at its heart: the Palazzo Vicari, a notable example of 14th century construction.

In the Serchio Valley, a territory rich in uncontaminated landscapes and thermal stations, among the more beautiful villages are Barga and Coreglia Alteminelli, two medieval feudal settlements that to this day maintain their original characteristics. Here, history and nature can be combined to make incredible itineraries, which allow you to discover the queen of the Tuscan mountains, the Apuan Alps.

Against the fairytale backdrop of the Pistoia Appennines, surrounded by woods and imposing peaks, is Cutigliano. Nature, good cooking and breathtaking views are paired with a historical inheritance to create an unmissable experience.

In the heart of the clay countryside of the Crete Senese once a passage point on the Via Francigena, a suggestive stop can be made at Buonconvento. Not far, and of rare beauty, is Cetona, one of the villages with Etruscan origins in the Valdichiana. Ascending along its small paved roads, between noble palazzi and Renaissance piazzas, you'll feel transported to a dimension without time.

In one of the pearls of the Tuscan Archipelago, where sea, sky and land are joined like the colours of a painters palette, you'll find Giglio Castello. Picturesque locations, towers on the sea and hiking trails which give you a full-immersion experience in nature—these are just a few of the experiences that the Isola del Giglio has to offer.

The Maremma offers the wild landscapes of the Tuscan cowboys as well as the “tufo paths”. A place suspended in time where, in the fortified villages of Pitigliano and Sorano, and in the Etruscan necropoli at Sovana, you can still see the majestic testimony of the Etruscan civilization.

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