“Tuscany is among the world’s most famous regions for its beauty,” wrote Guido Piovene in his Journey Through Italy. “It is a cliché to speak of the sweetness and grace of its landscape.” The valleys around Florence, in the Pistoiese, in Lucchesia and elsewhere, with their play of pale olive trees and dark cypresses, wear an enchanting mantle that seems drawn from painting and artistic perspective.
A cliché, to be sure, but one that is worth experiencing firsthand, to be seen with your own eyes and explored with your own means, the oldest and most democratic: on foot. And spring is the perfect season to do it, before the summer heat takes over, when nature shines with colors unmatched, cloaking the soft slopes of the gentle Tuscan hills in lush vegetation. There is nothing better, in the heart of spring, than the chance for a day trip and the prospect of a simple yet extraordinary walk amid the region’s greenery.
Vitaleta Ring near San Quirico d’Orcia
In recent years the Cappella della Madonna di Vitaleta, perched on a soft, solitary hill between San Quirico d’Orcia and Pienza, framed by two rows of cypress trees, at the top of a dirt road, has become an icon of the Val d’Orcia and of Tuscany, as well as one of the region’s most photographed spots.
The earliest documented historical references to the small building date from 1590, but popular tradition ties it to a Marian apparition to a local shepherd girl. Its current appearance stems from a 19th-century restoration, which endowed it with the simplicity that makes it so symbolic and essential today.
The chapel sits not far from a busy country road linking the valley’s major hamlets, but the loveliest way to reach it is on foot, walking the Vitaleta Ring, a gentle hike of about 9 kilometers along white roads that starts from the historic center of San Quirico d’Orcia, reaches the chapel and then makes a wide circuit on the surrounding hills before returning to the village.
It is Tuscany in essence: the white roads wind between gentle ascents and descents, the meadows lushly flank them, the view stretches across the unmistakable profiles of the Sienese hills, with the cypresses standing against the horizon like immobile sentinels, and red poppies adding a touch of color.
On the Summit of Monte Giovi
A few kilometers from Florence, between the Mugello and the Valdisieve, Monte Giovi is a massif that peaks at 992 meters and, despite not being very high, offers a landscape with a decidedly mountainous character: thick forests of chestnut, beech and oaks cloak its sides, while at the summit there is a green clearing with an exceptional panorama over the surrounding hills and the Sieve river valley.
A place steeped in history and memory for having hosted some of the most important partisan formations of the Tuscan Resistance, today Monte Giovi hosts the Parco Culturale della Memoria, which preserves this heritage through a network of trails named after the protagonists of that period. Educational panels, monuments and the commemorative pyramid of the partisan Brigades dot the path, guiding the excursion through nature with the memory of a decisive phase in the birth of the present Republic.
A simple ring trail suitable for everyone is the one from Tamburino, a cluster of rural houses on the foothills of Monte Giovi, which takes you first to the spring called Fonte alla Capra, then, after a couple of kilometers, up to the mountain’s summit, where one enjoys a grand panoramic view.
The ring returns to the starting point with a further five-kilometer stretch of gentle downhill, allowing you to enjoy nature without effort. In spring, the chestnut and beech woods take on a fresh, bright green that makes the landscape feel alive and inviting.
The Water Zolfina Path at the Balze del Valdarno
Those who don’t know the Balze del Valdarno would hardly believe they exist: spires, sheer cliffs and pinnacles of clay and sand that rise like natural cathedrals above a plateau cultivated with vines and olives in Arezzo province.
Leonardo da Vinci, who grew up around these parts, observed them, studied them, and is said to have used them as a backdrop for some of his paintings. He even wrote about them in the manuscripts of the Codex Leicester.
To explore them up close there is a very straightforward itinerary, the Water Zolfina Trail. It is a roughly 7-kilometer loop with a total elevation gain of only about 200 meters, doable in around two hours, with no real difficulties.
The starting point is outside the walls of Castelfranco di Sopra, near the medieval Badia a Soffena: a small wooden tabernacle explains the route. The path is well signposted with the distinctive white-red marks of the Italian Alpine Club on the trees.
The route actually comprises two segments: the Fossate stretch, which crosses the most spectacular part of the Balze, and the Water Zolfina proper, named after the sulfurous spring that wells up from the clays and is recognizable from afar by its sulfur odor. The walk ends near Piantravigne, a perched village that offers an exceptional panorama of the Balze, with the ochre walls rising among the green hills, creating a contrast of rare beauty.
Crete Senesi: The Biancane of Leonina
The so-called Crete Senesi lie around the village of Asciano, a short distance from Siena. They are pliocene clays, dating back about 4 million years, when this area was still the seabed of the Tyrrhenian Sea; to this day the soil still bears traces of rock salt. Over time, erosion by water and wind and human activity through deforestation and grazing have shaped these clays into unique formations, called biancane, due to their pale white, dome-like, glossy, vegetation-free shapes.
In spring these white erosive soils shine under the sun, in stark contrast with the hyper-saturated green of cultivated fields, cypresses and pastures that surround them, giving rise to one of Tuscany’s most beautiful and characteristic natural displays.
The recommended route to enjoy a pleasant walk to discover this unique territory is the Biancane di Leonina loop, opened in 2021 with information panels on the flora, fauna and geology of the geosite. It is a comfortable route, a little over six kilometers long, that winds along white roads and mule tracks.
Along the way you encounter the Site Transitoire, the stone installation created in 1993 by the French artist Jean-Paul Philippe, a kind of monumental window framing the landscape and concentrating sunlight during the solstice: a viewing point like no other.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Birthplace in Vinci
A simple, yet deeply satisfying walk is the 2-kilometer pedestrian path that connects the medieval village of Vinci to Leonardo da Vinci’s birth home, located in the small hamlet of Anchiano.
It is called the Green Road of Vinci: it starts from the northern part of the small and well-kept village, near the Mulino della Doccia, and climbs into the surrounding countryside, through vines and olive groves, offering magnificent views of the surrounding territory. Spring lends particular beauty to these hills, dotted with old farmhouses and tiny hamlets, with green dominating wherever the eye rests.
The ancient rural complex of Anchiano, documented as early as 1427 as a property of the Da Vinci family, is today a museum. Inside, the early years of Leonardo’s life are told. The landscape seen from the path, punctuated by terraces cultivated with vineyards and olives on the slopes of Montalbano, remains very similar to what the young Leonardo would have seen from Anchiano’s fields in 1452, an immutable beauty to enjoy with every step.
