The hills and plains of the Maremma were rich farmland for the Etruscans, who build drainage and irrigation canals and farmed grains, cereal, fruits, vegetables and olives. The conquering Romans built luxurious villas for the nobility, and large farms, groves, and vineyards such as Villa Settefinestre in the valley at the bottom of the hill outside Capalbio, built by the powerful Volusii family in the 1st century BC. You can visit the archeological site, too.

During the middle ages, however, the canals were neglected, and the region was blighted by malaria and constant flooding which decimated the local population and farmland for centuries. Dante wrote about it in the Divine Comedy, and Da Vinci and Gallileo proposed hydrolic solutions which failed, until a great land reclamation project was begun in the 19th century which included a massive system of sluices, canals and basins.