Spring and early summer is the perfect time to visit the Maremma. It’s quiet and unspoiled by tourism, with miles of roads and lanes and hiking and cycling paths to explore, and all of it beautiful, with golden fields, rich farmland, green hills and valleys, mountains, and thick forests.

Just is special is the remarkable history of the region; it was the center of Etruscan civilization and prized by the Romans, but fell into centuries of ruin and flooding and disease and then great battles and political struggle throughout the middle ages, before remarkable restoration and land reclamation in the 20th century. Gorgeous little Capalbio, with its medieval center ringed by high fortress walls, was in the middle of it.