4 Days on Monte Amiata: A Chestnut-Season Loop Around the Volcano
Four days around Monte Amiata in chestnut season, from the Siena side’s abbey and mercury mines to the Grosseto side’s springs, prophets, and olive groves.
Monte Amiata: Tuscany’s Volcano of Springs, Chestnuts, and Fire
Monte Amiata is an extinct volcano ringed by spring-fed villages, where chestnuts, mercury, and geothermal heat shaped daily life and winter is marked by fire.
Santa Fiora: The Sforza Town Built Around a River’s Source
A former Sforza county seat on Monte Amiata’s Grosseto side, where the Fiora river rises and Andrea della Robbia’s glazed terracottas fill the parish church.
Arcidosso: A Castle Town and Its Two Prophets
A castle town on Monte Amiata’s Grosseto side, bound up with two religious visionaries a century apart: David Lazzaretti on Monte Labbro and the Tibetan master Namkhai Norbu.
Meet La Casina di Giannetto: Olivastra Oil Named for a Donkey
A family olive farm near Seggiano, on the slopes of Monte Amiata, making Seggiano DOP oil from centuries-old Olivastra Seggianese trees.
Seggiano: Olive Country Under Monte Amiata
The lowest of our Amiata villages: olive country, with a Renaissance famine-vow sanctuary and an artist’s sculpture garden of about 16 hectares.
Castell’Azzara and Selvena: Dice, Cinnabar, and Karst Woods
The highest comune seat in the province of Grosseto, named for a medieval dice game, with the cinnabar-mining village of Selvena and the karst woods of Monte Penna next door.
Castel del Piano: Palio Town on Amiata’s Western Slope
A working town on the Grosseto side of Monte Amiata with a bareback Palio every 8 September, the road up to the Macinaie, and a place in the Montecucco wine zone.
Roccalbegna: Lorenzetti Panels Beneath Two Fortresses
A small fortified village in the upper Albegna valley, with three panels by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in its parish church and a fire rite every 24 November in the hamlet of Santa Caterina.
Semproniano: Templar Legends and Open Cellars in Southern Amiata
A quiet village on the southern edge of Amiata, with the limestone-perched hamlet of Rocchette di Fazio, an October open-cellar festival, and a project to rescue centuries-old olive trees.