Maremma

With only a week available, we chose to stay fairly close to Bologna so as not to waste time on long journeys and to make the most of the beach and the sun. The choice therefore fell on Tuscany and more precisely on the Maremma and Argentario area. Three families with teenage children all together in a big nine-bed house on the Giannella tombolo, a few km from Porto Santo Stefano. The choice of beaches was dictated by the kids, so we preferred long, sandy beaches like the very long and beautiful Feniglia beach, reachable also with a lovely walk or a bike ride, inside the pine wood. Note that through the pine wood you can reach a stretch of beach dedicated to dogs and "their families". The choice of places to visit was instead the parents', and so between one swim and another we visited some of the most beautiful villages in the area such as Pitigliano, Capalbio and Sovana.

The first, carved out of the tufa, shows all its importance since ancient times, highlighting its Roman aqueduct and some excavations among the medieval alleys full of atmosphere. The second, Capalbio, entirely surrounded by walls and towers, transports the visitor into the past, among alleys, stairways and paths along the ramparts. Besides the Feniglia beach, also worthy of note is "la torba" near Capalbio with its ferrous, dark sand that already by 10 in the morning is unbearable without flip-flops! Beautiful and wild is the beach inside the Maremma park, at Marina di Albarese, where you can try your hand at building huts to shelter from the sun, using the many logs found on the beach, brought by the sea.

It is advisable to leave the car at the park's visitor centre and take the shuttle that in 10 minutes takes you to the beach, crossing the park, with herds of free horses and grazing cows. And since we were in the area, a trip to the Terme di Saturnia for an afternoon a bit different from the usual was not missing either. The beaches of Monte Argentario, on the other hand, although beautiful, wild and hidden, did not turn out to be suited to the needs of our kids, who grumbled for a whole morning because on the sand-and-stone beach of "Spiaggia Lunga" it wasn't possible to play football....

In their defence it must also be said that, having had a morning with rough sea, it wasn't even possible to spend time in the water because of the stones at the shore which, due to the force of the waves, hit you on the ankles and shins like a fierce full-back of a football team! The cove is also fairly sheltered from the wind, and so after half a day of suffocating heat without even the relief of a swim, we left, giving way to those who will surely have appreciated more than us the tranquillity and beauty of this inlet. We spent the evenings between a pizza and a few "laps" along the streets of Porto Santo Stefano and Porto Ercole which, set into the mountain and with their illuminated fortresses and little houses reflected, lend themselves to being photographed from every point of view.

The return journey was lightened by the stop at San Galgano, to visit the Chapel of Montesiepi with the sword in the stone planted by the saint as a testimony to the renunciation of all his earthly goods, and a little further on, the beautiful and evocative Abbey of San Galgano. This Abbey, built in 1218 by the Cistercian monks, today stands without a roof, and this makes it particularly fascinating and evocative, giving the sensation that the walls reach up towards the sky. We, on the other hand, heading home, say goodbye to the sea and our short holidays!