TUSCANY and SABINA DISTRICT, from May 25th until June 7th, 2008. 13 nights/14 days.
Four different hotels and castles/guesthouses! Spectacular…

TUSCANY is not only the land of Art and History, but also of teriffic Biodiversity.
More than 5,600 plant species grow there (while for example, the U.K. has only 1,500).
More than 400 bird species can be observed - and large mammals like the Wolf, Brown Bear and Wild Boar still inhabit the forests of Italy.
The climate is very varied - from the glaciers of the Alps - to the subtropical coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Geomorphology and Geology are even more varied.

As a result, the landscape is incredibly diverse, changing every few kilometres.

Location and details of the tour:
With our good friend Dr Goffredo Filibeck as our local guide (Botanical professor at Viterbo University), we will have the best possible introduction to Tuscany and Sabina province. Our tour will take place inland and along the West Coast of Central Italy, in the Southern part of Toscana (Tuscany) region and in the northern part of Lazio region, as well as along the edge of The Apennines in Sabina district.

We shall stay in four very different accommodations during this tour: the first three days will be on Monte Argentario on the coast, then the next four days will be in the medieval hilltop town of Pitigliano, followed by the next two nights in a 1000 year old magical castle in medieval Sorano, finally followed by 4 nights in the spectacular medieval fortified hill-top village of Casperia in Sabina (Lazio). From these varied locations, we shall tour every day by minibus and on foot to the most interesting places of Southern Tuscany and Northern Lazio. The area of the tour will approximately coincide with the district called "Maremma", that is the coast (and the hills near the coast) of Southern Toscana. But our itinerary will also include visits to some other interesting districts: the area of Monte Amiata (a volcanic mountain 1,700 metres high, in Toscana); the Monti della Tolfa (volcanic and calcareous hills, in Lazio, 50 km NW of Rome); the Isola del Giglio (an island in the Tuscan Archipelago), the beautiful Sabina district - poised on the edge of the mighty Apennines - and, last but not least, we shall visit Sienna and some of the famous hill towns of Tuscany.

Landscape and geology
The name Maremma comes from the Spanish word "marismas" ( marshes), as this stretch of coast was almost entirely covered by wetlands. Nowadays, although many of these marshes have been drained, there are still many interesting wetlands, rich of birds. The landscape of Maremma includes coastal flatlands with marshes; coastal lagoons; coastal hills with rocky calcareous cliffs; and inner hills, made of soft volcanic rocks (tufa), in which erosion excavated deep canyons. Therefore, Maremma's coast is a mixture of sandy beaches and rocky cliffs.
For example, we shall visit the half-island of Monte Argentario (635 m high), that has high cliffs but is connected to mainland by two "tomboli" (flat stretches of sand dunes). Geology of Maremma includes Permian metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, Mesozoic limestone, Tertiary "flysch", and Quaternary volcanic tufa. The landscape of Maremma is beautiful - where there is a harmonious mixture of wilderness, agriculture and history.
Monte Amiata is a volcano that was active 400,000 years before the present to 100,000 years b.p. Today it is extinct (but there are hot springs and fumaroles). Its height is 1,738 metres.
It is covered with sweet chestnut woods and beech woods.

The landscape is therefore very wild.

Isola del Giglio (where we'll take a boat trip and hike and swim that day) is an island 15 km W of Monte Argentario. It belongs to the Tuscan Archipelago, the group of islands that lie between Tuscany and Corsica. The island is 8 km long and 496 m high and is made up of granite. The sea-water is extremely clear and good for swimming.

History:
During our tour we shall see many Etruscan ruins. Etruscans were a pre-Roman people; their history begins in the ninth century bc. They were very powerful in the seventh and sixth centuries bc. They decayed after the fourth century bc. They reached a high degree of technology, art and science. In their religion, tombs were very important, so they built big necropolis ("towns of tombs"). Today, we can see these tombs, dug into the volcanic rocks; they are particularly interesting, because they are shaped like houses (and as big as houses). Often, necropolis were built in gorges, and nowadays forests cover these ruins, therefore they are wild, remote and fascinating places, where nature and history are harmoniously mixed.
In the area of our tour there are, of course, also many Roman ruins. There are also some Middle Ages castles; and particularly common are lookout towers on coastal hills, built from the Middle Ages up to the 17th century, as a defence against Saracen pirates.
Particularly picturesque are some villages, still inhabited, and built in the Middle Ages on steep cliffs along gorges.

The cost of this 13 night/14 day tour in 2008 is 2450 euros per person, based on two sharing, with collection and return from/to Rome airport included. This is a luxury tour by our normal standards, with excellent hotels and really superb cuisine, with most wine included