Most travel itineraries for Tuscany follow the same map: Florence, Chianti, Siena, Val d’Orcia. Beautiful places, all of them — and all extraordinarily well-known. Maremma rarely makes the first draft of the trip. That’s exactly why those who do find it never forget it.
Maremma is the southern corner of Tuscany, stretching from the inland hills down to the Tyrrhenian coast. It has everything the region is celebrated for: medieval villages perched above silver olive groves, thermal springs the Etruscans were already using two thousand years ago, vineyards that quietly produce some of Italy’s finest wines. What it doesn’t have is the crowd. You can drive thirty minutes between hilltop towns and pass more wild boar tracks than tour buses.
The food here tells the same story. Maremma’s culinary tradition is honest, rooted, and seasonal in a way that hasn’t been redesigned for visitors. Acquacotta — a peasant soup of bread, eggs, and wild greens — still appears on local tables. Pici, the hand-rolled pasta of southern Tuscany, gets paired with slow-cooked wild boar ragù or simply garlic, breadcrumbs, and pecorino. From the coast: anchovies, red mullet, octopus stewed with tomato and olives. Every plate is tied to a specific patch of land or stretch of sea.
The wines deserve their own paragraph. Bolgheri sits at Maremma’s northern edge. Morellino di Scansano holds the south. And small estates like Rocca di Frassinello — one of the wineries I collaborate with — are producing bottles that travel far beyond Italy without ever losing their connection to these hills.
Calling Maremma one of the great alternative Tuscany destinations doesn’t quite do it justice. It isn’t a backup plan for somewhere busier. It’s a region that earns its place on its own terms — wilder, quieter, more generous with the people who take the time to come.
This is the Tuscany I grew up in. It’s also the Tuscany I cook from, every time I step into a villa kitchen.
If you’re planning a stay here and want to taste it from the inside, explore the Maremma experience or get in touch to design something around your trip.
