Few places could taste as bitter as this Maremma. Not as the traditional song, Maremma Maremma, imagined it—a work inspired by the reclamation of this broad stretch of land south of Tuscany, a vast coastal plain once characterized by swamps, misery, and malaria: Everyone tells me maremma maremma/But to me it seems a bitter Maremma/The bird that goes there loses its feather/I have lost a dear one.
Today it is a meeting point of sea and hills: thanks to the Maremma Regional Park one can experience firsthand a landscape where it is possible to walk along the coast for kilometers, among fragrant Mediterranean vegetation, amid sparse traces of antiquity and a remarkably rich fauna: wild boars, fallow deer, and seabirds that patrol the shoreline.
Between late spring and the early summer months the climate becomes ideal for exploring the Park. The numerous walks and hikes along the network of trails that traverse it allow one to explore wild corners filled with colorful flowers, the silvery-green of olive trees, and the blue of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Park offers itineraries suited to every level of fitness and to every kind of curiosity, from the avid birdwatcher to the hiker who is simply looking for a solitary beach along the sea to reach on foot.
The Maremma Park: what it is, where it is, and how to reach it
The Maremma Regional Park stretches along the Tyrrhenian coast of Tuscany, within the Grosseto province. Its boundary wraps a strip of coastline that runs from the mouth of the Ombrone River—the region’s second-longest watercourse—up to the town of Talamone, perched on a rocky promontory that dominates the bay of the same name.
Inside lies the chain of the Monti dell’Uccellina, dotted with the ruins of ancient watchtowers that for centuries guarded this coast. It is not uncommon to hear the Park referred to simply as the Park of the Uccellina.
The reference point for those wishing to visit the Park is the Alberese Visitor Center, where tickets can be purchased, maps collected, and, for some itineraries, guided tours reserved.
Admission to the park is always paid, with a price that varies depending on the chosen route. Only the beach of Marina di Alberese is considered freely accessible for swimming.
Cala di Forno
Cala di Forno is a symbolic destination for the Maremma Park. A route of medium-high difficulty, about 17 kilometers in total, with an approximate walking time of four hours, leading to a beach of wild, unique charm, often an ideal spot for the unusual sighting of forest animals on the sand and along the shore, such as foxes, roe deer and wild boar.
The path first crosses the grand ducal pine forest, one of the most evocative man-made woods in Tuscany, commissioned by the Lorraine in the eighteenth century to protect inland areas from coastal winds. Skirting the Scoglietto canal, one reaches the monumental Collelungo olive grove, estimated to be over four hundred years old. From there, after a small wooden gate, the trail enters the park’s integral reserve and climbs the southern slope of the Uccellina hills, the sunniest and most fragrant, bathed in sun for almost the entire day among large shrubs of rockrose and rosemary.
The hike continues with the sea continually in sight, dominating from above a long, unspoiled sandy stretch with no buildings. Reaching the small inlet of Cala di Forno is a small spectacle after the long walk: a sheltered cove, today frequented mainly by fallow deer and wild boar, whose tracks are commonly seen on the sand.
Behind the beach stands the long building of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany’s customs, built at the end of the eighteenth century, bearing witness to a past when this cove served as the port of the medieval Abbey of San Rabano and a commercial landing, marked on major Italian nautical charts since the Renaissance.
Salto del Cervo
The C1 itinerary of the Park is named Salto del Cervo, after the name of the narrow and spectacular cove it leads to. It is a demanding route, about 11 kilometers, that does not spare a couple of steep climbs and traverses the Uccellina range from the plains to a solitary beach on the sea, with a view of the Isola del Giglio.
The C1 path begins by gently climbing among neatly aligned rows of olive trees, before passing the protective fencing for crops from wildlife and plunging into the forest. It quickly reaches Torre Bassa, built in the year 1100 by the Aldobrandeschi as part of the defensive system of the now-missing Collecchio Castle.
From there one climbs along a gully cloaked by a beautiful holm-oak grove, meeting mid-way the ruins of a small medieval settlement inhabited between the 11th and the end of the 14th century: the remains of a small Romanesque church, a house with a courtyard, and even a stone bread oven built by charcoal burners from the Amiata who wintered here.
The most challenging ascent is rewarded by arriving at the Poggio delle Sugherine, where a wooden lookout offers a 360-degree panorama: inland to Monte Amiata, toward the sea to the distant Corsica. One then faces the final descent to the sea, with the low Mediterranean scrub surrounding walkers in a landscape that feels somewhat lunar.
The cove is squeezed between the cliff, with a small strip of sand, large driftwood bleached by the sea, and shallow rocks entering the water: a solitary and magical place to savor the reward of having reached it.
Bocca d’Ombrone
For those who prefer a less demanding hike yet one rich in sweeping landscapes, the A7 walk to Bocca d’Ombrone is the perfect choice. A roughly five-kilometer itinerary, entirely flat and without difficulty, which can also be done by bicycle and which offers one of the most powerful viewpoints in the entire Park.
The route starts from the road to Marina di Alberese and immediately opens into a straight stretch where a crashing sea collides with rocks against the vast Maremma plain, with distinctive vegetation, birds of every kind, and the herds of cattle historically raised here.
The arrival at the Ombrone estuary, the second-longest river in Tuscany, is truly evocative. Here the river and the sea meet, a geological duel that has lasted for thousands of years between the river’s muddy waters stretching into the Tyrrhenian and distributing sediments along the beaches through coastal currents, and the sea slowly reclaiming the space ceded by the plain.
Behind the hydraulic gate, an ancient building used to monitor waters, a short path leads to a birdwatching hut. The brackish zone where the two bodies of water meet is, in fact, a paradise for migratory birds, who frequent it happily.
Cannelle
Less known and frequented than the preceding itineraries is the Le Cannelle trail, in the southern part of the Park, not far from Talamone: almost nine kilometers with some elevation changes, to be undertaken only with a guide and by reservation by contacting the Alberese Visitor Center.
The walk starts from the ruins of two large Roman cisterns and climbs along an ancient customs route through a dense stand of bay laurel, reaching the Semaforo, a former military lookout from which a first magnificent panorama opens over the park’s rocky coast, from the Torre di Capo d’Uomo to the north.
The path then continues along the crest, with views opening simultaneously to the sea and the inland, up to Punta del Corvo, the second viewpoint from which the eye can sweep across the Tyrrhenian Sea, Monte Argentario, Elba, Giglio, and, on the clearest days, Montecristo and Corsica.
From there the descent toward the sea is nearly continuous, along a comfortable trail. Arrival at Cannelle Bay comes at what could be an ancient Etruscan landing: on the flat rock that juts into the sea there are still traces of a furnace used to smelt iron ores from the island of Elba, testifying to a very long history of human presence along this coast.
