One of the beautiful walking paths through the largest beech tree forest in Europe, on Monte Amiata. It’s a protected nature reserve, with beech, spruce, fir, chestnut, and pine trees, thermal baths, and miles of hiking trails, nature walks, and bike paths ringed by five proud fierce little towns with their own cuisine and customs.

Amiata is the largest extinct volcano in Italy, inhabited since prehistoric times, and considered sacred by the Etruscans as the home of their most important god, Tinia. In medieval times the region was fiercely independent, and battled invading forces from Siena and Orvieto and elsewhere repeatedly, and with considerable success.