Pretty little Scansano is perched on a spur in the forest hills north of Capalbio, and is the home of the reknown Morellino red wine. Founded by the Etruscans and settled by the Romans, numerous castles of military importance were build in the middle ages to protect the area, while Scansano itself was argued over by the local Aldobrandeschi and the Tolomei family from Siena in the 13th century.

Happily, though, strategic marriages or profitable sales in the following centuries meant Scansano passed peacefully between various rulers, all while growing in prosperity and importance until 1780, when it became vice-capital of the Province of Grosetto. Scansano was also the home of Luigi Canzanelli, known to all as Lieutenant Gino, the resistance commander whose troops battled the Germans and fascists constantly during the second world war and who died heroically, protecting his men when they were ambushed.