Summer’s over and thoughts in the Maremma turn to vino without exception. The annual vendemmia, or grape harvest, is an all-encompassing state of mind. Even if you’re not a wine drinker, you’re swept up in the euphoria of the vendemmia. It’s a celebration that can be traced back to the first Etruscans who smuggled their […]

Summer in southern Tuscany isn’t just about melting by the seaside before chowing down on more seafood and gelato than is medically advisable. It’s also about those envy-inducing balmy nights when you can just kick back, glass of wine in hand, and listen to some great live music.   From jazz to opera, with a […]

You make the almost three-hour drive from Florence south into country Tuscany because you’re looking for authenticity. It’s a cliché, I know. Travel writers have used the word to describe everything from Paris to Peru, but in the Maremma it rings true.         It’s one of the last remaining bastions of authentic […]

For decades, Maremma in southern Tuscany wasn’t on most tourists’ radars. Like so much of the countryside, it attracted a few in-the-know Italian tourists and some intrepid Germans looking for a cheap place to tour their camper vans. Then we all discovered the Saturnia hot springs.   Even if you’ve never heard of the Maremma, […]

Pitigliano’s last Jewish nonna is a survivor, an advocate, a local celebrity and pretty much exactly what you’d imagine an Italian grandmother to be like. It’s wet and windy Thursday morning when I finally manage to get a hold of Elena Servi. She is endearingly sweet as I apologize for my less than perfect Italian. […]

Ask around and the city folk of Florence will tell you the Maremma, in the region’s south, is rural and, let’s be honest, a little backwards. If you ask the same question in the Maremma however, they’ll plant their feet, cross their arms and tell you the only part of their province that’s backwards is […]

A lifetime ago, I was on a train with a presumptuous Australian teenager who thought her eight months in Tuscany qualified her to speak authoritatively on all things culinary. I also happened to be a presumptuous Australian teenager who thought having Italian nonni made me an expert, so I listened begrudgingly as she described the […]

Why four young Tuscans decided to buck the trend and make a go of it in their very small hometown.   Fresh out of university and very recently married, I found myself in front of the sand-coloured steps of the Italian Consulate in Melbourne, Australia. I had an appointment with a white-haired gentleman named Sergio […]

Moving to the Tuscan countryside is almost every foreigner’s dream, but is it really as idyllic as it sounds? I chatted to three generations of locals to find out. Buffet at a wine bar in Montemerano Montemerano is hopelessly idyllic. Cast adrift in Tuscany’s vast and often overlooked southern countryside, it has all the ingredients […]

Caught up in the romance of the holiday season, Elisa Scarton Detti hits the streets of Manciano in southern Tuscany to find out what makes Tuscan men so darn attractive. One Sunday afternoon, I was fixing a loose cupboard door with my father-in-law. As he bent down to pick something up, my mother-in-law walked behind […]