Metalliferous Hills

30 min.

The area slopes gently from the mountaineous zone of the Cornate di Gerfalco down through the hills and continues to the wide Gulf of Follonica and the Maremma coastline north of Grosseto.

It is an area of lovely and diverse landscapes. It moves from the oak woods of the interior through the typical Mediterranean scrub and reaches white, sandy beaches, washed by a transparent sea and crowned by thick green pine forests.

Important tourist sites such as Follonica and Scarlino offer their visitors beautiful beaches furnished with every possible comfort. The area is known above all for its mineral resourses which lend a unique appearance to the countryside and have been mined from ancient times to the present.

The Etruscans were skilled craftsmen and merchants and developed a highly evolved society whose principal activity revolved around these mineral resourses. The remains of ancient furnaces and Etruscan mines can still be seen all along the Gulf of Follonica and in the Metalliferous Hills.

The best known Etruscan and Roman cities such as Gavorrano, Montieri and Monterotondo were mining centers and achieved their importance thanks to the abundance of copper, silver and iron.

Still today the colors of the minerals and the vegetation mix and alternate, creating striking settings for castles, churches, fortresses and watchtowers. Massa Marittima, that small but significant Medieval City Repubblic, offers two important and contrasting historical attractions, both in Piazza Garibaldi.

The one is temporal and military, the Fortress and the Tower; the other the most important religious monument in the province, the Duomo. The splendid square is the focal point of town activity.