The remarkable little Talamone, north of Orbetello, perched on a rocky bluff overlooking the sea, with the fearsome Aldobrandeschi fortress overlooking the bay. The little beach in the foreground is one of a number of fabulous places to swim next to the lush pine forest just north of the pretty little medieval town.

Talamone itself has a remarkable history, as a thriving Etruscan port, as the site of a fierce battle in 225BC when the Romans successfully fought off a horde of Celtic invaders marching on Rome, where Garibaldi landed in 1860 to to restock arms during his campaign to unify Italy, and home of the local resistance who fought against and suffered fierce reprisals from the Nazis during world war two.