Castiglione della Pescaia

Along the Tuscan coast, just over twenty kilometers from Grosseto, Castiglione della Pescaia will captivate you with its exquisitely vintage flavour that elegantly blends with the sea breeze.
In fact, in recent decades, Castiglione della Pescaia has become one of the most popular seaside resorts on the Maremma coast, thanks to the quality of the blue sea and its beaches, among the best equipped in Italy.
But the tourist impetus of this beautiful Tuscan town also comes from its ancient medieval village, surrounded by walls, which lies on a hill and dominates both the mouth of the Bruna river and the Tyrrhenian coast.

From the tenth century until the thirteenth century, Castiglione della Pescaia was governed by Pisa, to then become a free municipality. During the fifteenth century, Castiglione della Pescaia was occupied first by the Medici, then by the Aragonese and finally by the Piccolomini of Siena. In the mid-sixteenth century, it became part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

The medieval center, perfectly preserved among its imposing bastions, houses buildings of great interest, such as the eighteenth-century Church of Santa Maria del Giglio or the sixteenth-century Church of San Giovanni Battista.
Outside the ramparts there is the eighteenth-century Casa Rossa, which represents the direct access to the Diaccia Botrona Nature Reserve, or what remains of the marshes that once covered the uncontaminated area of the Maremma.
The area around Castiglione was colonized by the Etruscans: the remains of the Etruscan city of Vetulonia are an example. The Castle of Castiglione cannot be visited, but the historic center is worth a day trip: climbing to the top of the walls, it is possible to see the view of both the Maremma and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The famous Italian writer Italo Calvino is also buried in the small and charming cemetery-garden of Castiglione della Pescaia.