Capalbio (GR)

Capalbio (GR) is a municipality of a little over 3,000 residents on the last hill of the Grosseto Maremma before the border with Lazio. The walled historic center is pedestrian and can only be entered on foot, through the double-arched gate that faces the valley. From Rome it is about 140 kilometers along Via Aurelia (SS1), from Grosseto about 50. The useful exit for the town is Capalbio Scalo, the one for the Giardino dei Tarocchi is Chiarone. The regional train on the Tyrrhenian line stops at Capalbio Scalo, below the village, and from there you go up by taxi or with the Tiemme bus lines. The village itself has no ticket: you pay only for the Rocca Aldobrandesca, at Via Collacchioni 2, with a token-price ticket at the information office on the ground floor. The Giardino dei Tarocchi, in the locality of Garavicchio in Pescia Fiorentina, opens every day from April 1 to October 15 from 14:30 to 19:30 with last entry at 18:15: full price €15, reduced €10, free under six, and the ticket must be bought online, with date and time, because it isn't sold at the box office. Phone 0564 895122. The WWF Oasis of Lake Burano, on Strada Litoranea del Chiarone 35, can only be visited with a guided visit by reservation, to be fixed by 13:00 the day before at 388 4231098 or at lagodiburano@wwf.it. The beaches are free for most of their length and are reached by car from the roads that go down from the Aurelia. Prices and hours change by season: before you leave it's worth checking the official sites of the individual places.

Anyone arriving from the capital finds here the natural end of an itinerary that goes up the Tyrrhenian coast and the villages of the Tuscia: the pages on Tarquinia and on Montalto di Castro tell the intermediate stops, the one on Argentario the continuation northward.

Getting to Capalbio (GR) and Where to Leave the Car

The Aurelia, here, is a dual-carriageway expressway that runs parallel to the sea. Arriving from the south you exit at Chiarone Scalo or at Capalbio Scalo. From the north the Capalbio Scalo exit is best: the town is already in view from the road, a cone of light-colored houses with a tower on top, and the signs lead you up a climb of wide switchbacks. By car the Rome-Capalbio stretch is covered in about an hour and three quarters unless you run into the Friday evening traffic of August, which exists here and how. From Siena you come down on the SS223 toward Grosseto and then take the Aurelia southward.

By train the reference station is Capalbio Scalo, on the Tyrrhenian Rome-Grosseto-Livorno line, served by regional trains. There are no frequent connections to the village: if you don't have a car you find taxis (among the contacts listed by the Giardino dei Tarocchi are 339 7031080 and 348 3630623) and the runs of the Tiemme bus lines. The airports are Rome Fiumicino, about 120 kilometers away, and farther off Florence and Pisa.

All the parking is outside the walls, along the road that goes around the hill and in the lots below the gate. In summer, and especially on the evenings of the cultural events, it fills up early: if you arrive at noon you park under the walls, if you arrive at seven in the evening you walk 500 meters uphill. The historic center of Capalbio is closed to traffic and this is one of the reasons it is so good to walk with small children.

The Walled Village of Capalbio (GR): The Visit Step by Step

Capalbio is visited going up, and there is no way to get the route wrong: from the gate you climb, and every lane that climbs sooner or later reaches the Rocca. A full tour with stops takes an hour and a half, two if you go into the Rocca and stop on the walkway. A quick one can be done in 40 minutes, but it would be a shame: here the value isn't in the single monument, it's in the intact defensive system that wraps the town like a shell.

The Gate and the Plaque of 1418

You enter through a double-arched gate, topped by a plaque of 1418 that commemorates the restoration of the walls carried out by the Sienese conquerors, and by a Medici coat of arms with an inscription of 1602: two dates, two masters, one wall. It's the stone summary of the whole local history. Under the arch the wood-and-iron door is still in place, which over the centuries was shut at sunset to keep out raids: not a scenic piece, a device that really worked as long as the Maremma was a land of borders and incursions.

The most famous plaque of Capalbio, however, is the one at the Porta Senese, the Latin text that brags of the double circuit of walls and of the lion of Siena. Gabriele D'Annunzio gave a poetic translation of it that the people of Capalbio still quote: I am happy Capalbio, defended by the Sienese lion by which I am protected, and by these first walls restored at their own expense and by the other walls that surround the first, the years 1404 running, beyond which the world had turned 10 years and more times two. Translated from the language of dates: the outer wall is from the early 1400s and the inner one is older still.

Via Vittorio Emanuele II and the Patrol Walkway

Having taken the climb, you run alongside the crenellated stretch that keeps the original patrol walkway. It can be walked, and it's the most beautiful thing in town: you walk above the curtain wall, with the void on one side and the roofs on the other, and in 20 minutes you do almost the whole circuit of the village. Capalbio has a double circuit of walls, on two different levels, and this is its real anomaly compared with the other walled towns of the Maremma. The circuit on the upper level gives the panorama, the one on the lower level gives the idea of how the defense worked: whoever came up had to break through twice.

A practical warning that no sign gives: the walkway is bare stone, often without a continuous parapet, and in some stretches it is narrow. With very small children you hold their hand, with flip-flops you don't go. At summer sunset it gets crowded with people holding phones, and they're right: the light at eight in the evening on these walls is one of the things worth the trip.

The Arco Santo and the Portrait of Emperor Hadrian

Climbing on the right you meet the Arco Santo, and above the arch, set into the wall, a marble portrait of the emperor Hadrian datable to the 2nd century AD. In all likelihood it comes from the Roman city of Cosa, on the promontory of Ansedonia, a little farther north: in the Middle Ages the ancient ruins were quarries of material, and an imperial portrait willingly ended up walled into a defensive structure as a good-luck charm, as a trophy or simply as a block of good marble. The provenance from Cosa is a reasonable and widely accepted hypothesis, not a fact documented by records: it's worth knowing, because the way a guide says things separates those who know from those who repeat.

The detail to look for with the naked eye: the face is worn by the rain of eight centuries of exposure, but the cap of curls and the short beard remain readable. Hadrian up there, above the heads of those who enter, is the highest-placed piece of antiquity in the whole municipal territory.

The Church of San Nicola in the Village of Capalbio

Continuing, on the left, opens Piazza della Chiesa with the archpriest church of San Nicola. The layout is medieval, almost certainly of the 12th century, when the church also had the function of a pieve. In the 14th century Gothic elements were grafted onto the original Romanesque, and in the 15th century came the Renaissance decoration that dominates the interior today. The facade has a simple crowning, with the portal topped by a pointed Gothic arch and a rose window above. The bell tower rises at the back, on the right, plastered like the rest.

Inside, a single nave marked into bays with cross vaults, semicircular side chapels separated by pillars with worked capitals. A large part of the side chapels preserves Renaissance frescoes of the Umbrian-Sienese school: the term is not an empty formula, it indicates precisely the geographic and cultural position of Capalbio, a Sienese land facing the Umbrian-Lazio orbit. Don't expect first-rank names or labels: here you look by stylistic groups, and the surprise is the quality of the color in a town of 3,000 souls. The parish of San Nicola serves about 1,450 residents.

Via Collacchioni and the Rocca Square

From San Nicola you keep climbing along Via Collacchioni to the square of the Rocca, which is the highest point of the settlement. Here the street ends and the fortification begins. The sequence is the typical one of border castles: church halfway up, fortress at the top, houses leaning in between. Anyone who looks carefully will notice that the buildings along Via Collacchioni have stone portals of higher quality than the rest of the village: it's the street of the lords, not of the peasants.

Piazza Magenta and the Stretches of Wall

Going back toward the gate you reach Piazza Magenta, which in summer becomes the natural audience for the town's cultural events. From here depart the different walkable stretches of the circuit wall: the double curtain of Capalbio reads best from this side, where the two levels are closer and you see by eye the difference in height. On festival evenings the piazza fills with chairs and the town changes face in half an hour.

The Oratorio della Provvidenza Outside the Walls

Just outside the circuit is the Oratorio della Provvidenza, and this is the place hasty visitors always skip. It began as a small chapel that arose around the cult of a lost image of the Madonna. At the end of the 18th century a new oratory was built over it, while the original chapel remained at the lower level. The frescoes are of the early 16th century and critics assign them to Pinturicchio or to a close follower: a traditional attribution, not an archive document, and it's best to say it that way.

The scenes: on the back wall the Madonna and Child between Saints Jerome and Sigismund. On the left Saints Cosmas and Damian within a decorated portico. On the right the Trinity within a twin portico. In 1792 Pietro Calderoni made a new image of the Madonna della Provvidenza to replace the lost effigy, and that remains the devotional focus of the place. A Pinturicchio or nearly so, in a country oratory, with no line and no ticket office: if you find it open, go in.

Niki de Saint Phalle's Nana-Fontaine in Front of the Walls

Just outside the gates is a sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle, the Nana-Fontaine. It's not a piece detached from the Giardino dei Tarocchi: it's the mark the Franco-American artist left on the town that was her base for 20 years. The Nanas are her monumental female figures, round, colorful, deliberately exaggerated, born in the 1960s as a joyful counterpoint to her earlier works. Seeing one at the entrance to a medieval village is a short circuit that nobody in Capalbio finds strange, and this says a lot about the town.

The Rocca Aldobrandesca and the Palazzo Collacchioni of Capalbio

The Rocca is at the highest point of the historic center and is the silhouette you recognize from the Aurelia: an L-shaped fortification with a keep on a battered base, crenellated crown and closed courtyard. It began in the medieval period as a possession of the Abbey of Tre Fontane, the Trappist monastery in Rome. In the 13th century it passed to the Aldobrandeschi, who had it enlarged, then to the Orsini of Pitigliano, then to the Sienese, who in the 15th century restructured it, giving it its current look. After the fall of Siena came the Medici. Every master left a piece: the keep is the ancient core, the building leaning against it is Renaissance.

The Conrad Graf Piano Played by Giacomo Puccini

Palazzo Collacchioni is the residential building that leans against the keep, on three floors, with a decorated portal and an inner courtyard with a historic well. The interior is largely bare, but some rooms preserve fine decorations and period furnishings. The piece everyone comes to see is a Conrad Graf piano, a Viennese instrument of the 19th-century school, on which Giacomo Puccini played during his stays in Capalbio. Puccini frequented the Maremma for hunting, which was his real second passion after the theater, and Capalbio was one of his bases.

An opinion: the piano alone doesn't justify the climb, but the combination of the two decorated rooms, the courtyard with the well and the terrace does. The ticket costs little, the information office on the ground floor also provides illustrative material, and the Rocca is often the venue of exhibitions and cultural events, so the visit changes content depending on the period.

The Keep Terrace and the 360-Degree Panorama

You climb up to the crenellated terrace of the keep, and from there the panorama turns through 360 degrees: the hills of the interior on one side, the coastal plain with Lake Burano and the line of the sea on the other, the promontory of the Argentario closing the horizon to the north and, on clear days, the outline of Giglio and of the archipelago. It's the place from which you best understand why the castle was built right here: from this terrace the whole stretch of coast between Ansedonia and the Chiarone was controlled, that is the entire southern border of the Stato dei Presidi and then of the Grand Duchy.

Accessibility: the palace isn't accessible to visitors with mobility difficulties beyond the ground floor. The terrace is reached only by narrow, steep stairs, as in every medieval tower that has stayed authentic.

Niki de Saint Phalle's Giardino dei Tarocchi

The Giardino dei Tarocchi is in the locality of Garavicchio, near the hamlet of Pescia Fiorentina, in the municipal territory of Capalbio, and it's the reason a good part of visitors come all the way down here. It's a park of monumental sculptures inspired by the major arcana of the tarot, between 12 and 15 meters high, covered with ceramic mosaics, mirrors and colored glass. The page dedicated to the Tarot Garden goes into the detail of the individual figures.

Hours and Tickets for the Giardino dei Tarocchi

Open every day from April 1 to October 15, from 14:30 to 19:30, last entry 18:15. The full ticket costs €15. The reduced ticket, €10, is valid for young people aged 7 to 22, for over-65s, for Capalbio residents, for groups of 25 people or more and for licensed tour guides. School groups pay €8 per student with a minimum of 10 participants. Admission is free for children under six, for visitors with a disability above 67 percent, for the companion of the disabled person and for one adult per 10 schoolchildren. Anyone requesting the reduced rate or free entry must show ID at the entrance: without it, you pay full price.

Online purchase is mandatory, the ticket is nominal for date and time, cannot be changed and is not refunded. Reservations by phone or email are not accepted. Contacts: 0564 895122, info@ilgiardinodeitarocchi.it. Parking is free and unattended. The garden stays open even in the rain and on holidays. The average visit lasts about 90 minutes, dogs are allowed on a leash and no guided visits or private tours are offered: you wander on your own, which is exactly how the artist wanted it.

How the Giardino dei Tarocchi Came About

The origin dates to 1955, when Niki de Saint Phalle saw Antoni Gaudí's Park Güell in Barcelona and came out of it changed. In 1974, during a convalescence in Saint Moritz, she told her friend Marella Caracciolo Agnelli about the dream of a sculpture garden based on the symbols of the tarot. It was the Caracciolo family who made the land in the Maremma available. Work began in 1978 on the Garavicchio property. The first monumental figures, the High Priestess and the Magician, were completed between 1980 and 1982, with the welded-iron supporting structures made by Jean Tinguely, who was the engineer and accomplice of those armatures.

In the mid-1980s the team expanded: the ceramist Venera Finocchiaro and the mosaic specialist Pierre Marie Lejeune worked alongside the artist. The Foundation obtained official recognition on August 4, 1997 and the garden opened to the public on May 15, 1998. The entrance pavilion is by Mario Botta, and the choice is openly ironic: a severe, geometric masonry volume, as the access door to a world that inside is all curves and color. Niki de Saint Phalle moved to California in 1994 for health reasons, kept following the site from afar and died on May 21, 2002, at 71.

What You See Inside the Giardino dei Tarocchi

The route follows the 22 major arcana, translated into inhabitable architecture more than into statues: inside the Empress the artist lived for years, with a kitchen and a bedroom carved out of the body of the sculpture. The shattered mirrors that cover the surfaces change the piece at every hour of the day, and this is the technical reason why the afternoon opening is not a whim: the raking light of six in the evening does things that the light of noon doesn't.

A clear opinion: if you arrive at 14:30 with 40°C and no shade, you spend an uncomfortable hour. The right time to go in is around 17:00, so as to have the second half of the visit in good light and relative coolness. And anyone with kids will find that the garden works on its own, without any need for explanations: it's one of the few works of contemporary art in front of which a six-year-old doesn't ask when they're leaving.

Accessibility and Visiting Rules

The ground is partly uphill and partly paved irregularly. The official site of the Giardino dei Tarocchi keeps a page dedicated to accessibility and it's worth consulting before you leave if there are mobility difficulties. The rest is good manners: you don't climb on the sculptures, you don't touch the mosaics, you keep the dog on a leash.

The WWF Oasis of Lake Burano, Italy's First Oasis

Lake Burano is a brackish coastal lagoon of about 140 hectares, on average one meter deep, separated from the sea by a ridge of dunes. The protected area managed by the WWF exceeds 410 hectares, to which are added about 600 hectares of hunting buffer zone. The fact that counts for the history of Italian environmentalism is another: this was the first oasis of WWF Italy, the model on which all the rest of the network was built. The page of the WWF Oasis of Lake Burano tells it at length.

What You See in the WWF Oasis of Lake Burano

More than 300 species of birds have been observed here, among waterbirds, waders and raptors: the lake is an internationally significant wintering point and in winter the surface is covered with ducks. Among the mammals are porcupines, badgers, foxes, and the wolf appears more and more often in transit during seasonal movements. The flora exceeds 500 species: junipers, cork oaks, holm oaks on the consolidated dunes, and then myrtle, phillyrea, mastic and rosemary in the low scrub. The nature trail is equipped with observation hides and there is a visitor center.

Guided Visits and Booking at the WWF Oasis of Lake Burano

Individual visitors enter only with the guided visit, and booking is mandatory by 13:00 the day before. From September 22 to May 10 the guided visits by reservation are on Saturday, Sunday and holidays, at 10:00 and 14:30. From May 11 to September 21 they are on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 17:30, with an earlier start at 16:30 in September. Groups and schools can book every day. Visits in English must be arranged in advance by phone or email. Contacts: 388 4231098, also by message, and lagodiburano@wwf.it. The oasis stays closed in case of a yellow, orange or red weather alert. The visitor center is on the provincial road Litoranea del Chiarone at number 35. If you come by train, get off at Capalbio Scalo and continue on foot for a short stretch.

The Buranaccio Tower on Lake Burano

Between the lake shore and the sea rises the Buranaccio Tower, the southernmost coastal tower of Tuscany. It is squat, square, with a crown of large corbels, and it looks a lot like the fortress of Porto Santo Stefano: it belongs to the same fortification project of the Stato dei Presidi and was built by the Spaniards around 1600. Today it is private property and is visited only on rare occasions, for example during the Oasis days, when the owners grant permission to WWF excursions. Photographing it from outside, however, nobody forbids, and you can see it very well from the path.

The Beaches of Capalbio (GR), Stretch by Stretch

The Capalbio coastline is a single uninterrupted sandy arc of 12 kilometers, which to the north borders the municipality of Orbetello and to the south continues to the border with Lazio. Put that way it all sounds the same: it isn't at all. From one headland to the next the color of the sand, the type of crowd, the density of the beach clubs and even the way you get there change. The seabed is shallow and sandy, and with a calm sea the water becomes truly clear. Most of the beach is free beach, the access points are convenient and in several places you get almost onto the sand by car. Behind it runs a dense Mediterranean scrub that gives the only shade available.

The municipal territory was awarded the five sails and first place in the Blue Guide of Legambiente and Touring Club Italiano in 2007 for the protection and management of the beaches, the landscape and the environment, and has returned several times among the localities recognized for the quality of the coast. Sailing sports are practiced, kitesurfing and windsurfing first of all, and there is a sailing school that accepts children from age five.

Playa La Torba, the Capalbio Beach Toward Ansedonia

It is the stretch closest to the Ansedonia promontory and has the darkest sand of the whole coastline, almost ferrous. A quiet area, with beach clubs alternating with long free stretches. From here starts the walk that leads to the foot of the promontory: whoever does it can get to see the Tagliata Etrusca and the Spacco della Regina, the artificial channel dug into the rock by the Romans to prevent the silting up of the port of Cosa and the natural fissure that runs beside it. The name Tagliata Etrusca is traditional and misleading: the work is Roman.

Macchiatonda, the Wild Stretch of the Capalbio Coast

Going down toward the Lazio border you reach Macchiatonda, and you come here for the landscape more than for the services. There are two beach clubs and an exclusive club, but the bulk remains free. You get there by driving the whole Strada di Macchiatonda, which crosses fields where cows and horses graze in the wild: the road is part of the experience, and in June in the morning light it is one of the most beautiful stretches of the Maremma.

Once on the beach, walking to the left you enter the wildest and least frequented part of the whole Capalbio coast. The advice is to continue as far as the Buranaccio Tower: even at Ferragosto, after the first kilometer, you are practically alone. Bring water and a hat, because there is no shade.

Chiarone and the Last Stretch Toward Lazio

In the southern part, in the locality of Chiarone, the sand lightens markedly. Here is one of the best-known beach clubs in Italy, the one that made Capalbio's fashionable fame and that in summer gathers journalists, politicians and entrepreneurs: the discreet charm of the Italian intellectual bourgeoisie, with a beach umbrella. Around it, however, there remains a great deal of free beach, and 200 meters from the most photographed loungers on the Tyrrhenian there are still people who bring their own towel from home. The border with Lazio is right after, marked by the Chiarone ditch.

Practical Tips for the Capalbio Beaches

The libeccio wind here raises waves quickly: if you have small children, check the forecast, because with a rough sea the shallow seabed becomes a sand blender and the clear water disappears. Parking at the beach accesses is almost all unpaved and in August it fills by 10 in the morning. A last warning from someone who goes there: the mosquitoes of the wetland, toward evening, are a serious reality and not a folkloric detail.

Outside the Village: Roman Villas, Castles and Customs Houses in the Territory of Capalbio

The Villa delle Colonne

From the Aurelia, heading toward Rome, take on the left the Pedemontana road toward Giardino. After about 100 meters, on the right, appears the towered enclosure of the ancient Roman Villa delle Colonne. You see a portion of the enclosure wall and some turrets: the construction deliberately imitated the fortified walls of contemporary cities, which was a way of declaring rank. Over a part of the ancient villa there is now a private house, not open to visitors, but the site is right along the road and is worth a five-minute stop.

The villa was inhabited between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD and was a rustic villa devoted to wine production. Its enclosure wall is identical to that of another important Roman villa not far away, the Villa of Settefinestre: in all likelihood both belonged to the Sestii family, the great landowners of the Cosa area, whose stamps on wine amphorae have been found as far as Gaul. Here, 2,000 years ago, wine was made for export.

The Castle of Capalbiaccio

Follow the Aurelia toward Rome and, a few kilometers after the locality of La Torba, you find on the left the signs for the castle of Capalbiaccio. Today it is called that, but the ancient name was castle of Tricosto. It is cited in the 12th century among the possessions of the Abbey of Tre Fontane in Rome, then dominated by the Aldobrandeschi and the Orsini, and finally conquered by the Sienese in 1416.

It was a notable settlement: a fortified village ringed by walls six meters high, not an isolated turret. Today imposing but hard-to-read ruins remain, because over the centuries vegetation has engulfed the fortification. An honest warning: anyone expecting a castle open to visitors will be disappointed, anyone who loves ruins overrun by woods, and silence, will find one of the most beautiful places in the municipality. The hill on which it stands overlooks Lake San Floriano.

The Papal Customs Houses and the Palazzo del Chiarone

At the southern end of the municipal territory, where the border between the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal State passed, a series of customs buildings survives. In the locality of Chiarone, along Via Aurelia, rises the Palazzo del Chiarone, an imposing building preceded by a portico, a customs seat for transit between the two states. The current name, Palazzo Boncompagni, comes from the family that lived there after the customs houses were dismantled. The building has almost 100 rooms and included the papal apartment, the stables and a prison: you passed through here to go from Rome toward the north, and a traveling pope had to sleep somewhere.

In the countryside near the settlement of Pescia Fiorentina was the seat of another customs house, housed in the complex of the Villa del Fontino. When its customs functions ended, this one too passed to the Boncompagni, who at the beginning of the 20th century resold all the properties to the Magrini family. The building that housed the customs house has been restored. Anyone who arrives in Capalbio from Lazio crosses without noticing a border that for three centuries was real, with passports, tolls and smugglers.

The Fattoria della Nunziatella and the Rural Chapels

Along Via Aurelia, near the locality of the same name, is the Fattoria della Nunziatella, a rural complex developed mainly in the post-18th-century era, with a manor house, a family chapel and farm structures. The Nunziatella Chapel is near La Torba, inside the farm complex. Another small chapel, the one of Torre Palazzi, is in the rural locality of the same name. They are minor buildings, but they tell the arrangement of the Maremma after the land reclamations: large estates, few houses, a private church for each property.

The Military Architecture of the Coast: Forte di Macchiatonda and Torre di Selva Nera

The Forte di Macchiatonda, on the beach of the same name, is a 17th-century complex with lookout functions along the southern coast of the Stato dei Presidi. The Torre di Selva Nera is the coastal fortification closest to the border with Lazio, the last Grand Ducal garrison before the territories of the Church. Together with the Buranaccio Tower they make up a chain of lookouts designed against Barbary raids, which on this stretch of coast were not a theoretical threat. The walls of Capalbio, with their double circuit and patrol walkways at different levels, are the last link upstream of the same system.

The Churches of the Hamlets of Capalbio

The municipality of Capalbio is made of hamlets scattered across the reclaimed plain, and each has its 20th-century parish church. The Church of the Immaculate Heart, the parish church of Borgo Carige, was built in 1956 and inaugurated in 1958 to a design by Riccardo Medici, in Neo-Romanesque style, and the parish counts about 1,500 residents. The Church of Santa Maria Goretti, the parish church of Capalbio Scalo, was consecrated on September 6, 1986 by Bishop Eugenio Binini and serves about 700 residents. The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the parish church of the hamlet of Giardino, was consecrated in 1959 but had been a parish seat since 1945, and has simple stylistic lines. The parish counts about 500 residents. Another church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus serves the hamlet of La Torba.

They are buildings that no tourist guide points out, and for a reason: architecturally they are worth little. Historically they are worth a lot. They are the material proof of the agrarian reform of 1952 and of the Ente Maremma: where there was swamp and malaria before, in 10 years villages were born with a church, a school and a square. Anyone passing through Borgo Carige should look at the layout of the town, not at the facade of the church.

The Lakes and Natural Areas of the Capalbio Territory

Besides Lake Burano the municipality preserves other bodies of water of natural value. Lake San Floriano is at the foot of the hill of Poggio Capalbiaccio, on whose summit the ruins of the castle remain: it covers an area of 30 hectares and is a protected wetland. Then there are Lake Acquato, Lake Marruchetone and the Biotopo dei Lagaccioli, minor environments but important for amphibians and birdlife. The hills of Capalbio, with their cork oak woods and pastures, complete the picture.

A professional's advice: anyone who comes for birdwatching shouldn't stop at Burano alone. The system of wetlands between Capalbio, Orbetello and Macchiatonda works as a single corridor, and on a day in late October you can put together species counts that in other parts of Italy would take a week.

The History of Capalbio (GR), from Charlemagne's Bequest to the Autonomy of 1960

The Name and Coat of Arms of Capalbio

The place name is debated. Caput Album or Campus Albus has been hypothesized, because of the white alabasters of the area, but the explanation held to be the most solid today is Capo d'Alveo, from the name the castle took, built in the Middle Ages above the river called Pissia. The two readings have coexisted for centuries in the local literature, and it's best to present them as competing hypotheses, not as certainty.

The municipal coat of arms has carried since the Middle Ages an albino head, in connection with the first reading of the place name. The Sienese lion that holds it up was added in the 15th century, when Siena took control of the castle. A blazon rarely tells a political story so explicitly.

From the Abbey of Tre Fontane to the Aldobrandeschi

The Castle of Capalbio was part of the donation to the Abbey of Saints Anastasius and Vincent at Tre Fontane, made in the year 805 by Charlemagne. In 1161 a privilege of Pope Alexander III confirmed that possession to the same abbey. A few years later it was the Aldobrandeschi who obtained the lands of Capalbio from the abbey in emphyteusis, and at the end of the 13th century they were in turn defeated by Orvieto, which in those years was extending its dominion to the sea. The page on Orvieto tells the other face of that expansion.

The Sienese Period and the Orsini

Capalbio then passed to the Republic of Siena, falling under the dominion of the Orsini. It was an economically flourishing period: important works were carried out, the holding was enriched with walls, houses and churches, and the Rocca, whose construction had been started by the Aldobrandeschi, was completed. The double circuit of walls that today makes the village so recognizable belongs in large part to this phase, and the plaque of 1418 on the gate is its receipt.

The Spanish Conquest of 1555 and the Medici

In April 1555 the Spanish troops of the prince of Morignano, allied with the Medici, conquered Siena. In June, after Porto Ercole and Orbetello, Capalbio fell too. Spain then assigned Capalbio to Cosimo I de' Medici, and from that moment a long economic and demographic crisis began for the town.

The causes of the decline are known and they all added up together: the unhealthiness of the marshy areas, the distance from the central power, the border position, the absence of a decent road network and raids from the sea. The unhealthy air was the gravest problem of the whole Maremma in the 17th century, and the depopulation from malaria emptied entire villages. Anyone who today sees these green hills and these orderly fields has to make an effort of imagination: for three centuries people died of fevers here.

Lorraine, Presidi and the Loss of Autonomy

The Medici dynasty kept sovereignty over the Grand Duchy of Tuscany until 1737, when, with the main branch extinct, the succession passed to the dukes of Lorraine. In the meantime the Stato dei Presidi ceased to be a Spanish possession to pass to the Austrians in 1707 and to the Bourbons in 1736. Capalbio lost its administrative autonomy: Leopold I aggregated it to Manciano and in 1842 Leopold II aggregated it to Orbetello, a condition that lasted a century. In that same period the plague of banditry was added to the disastrous social situation, and terrorized the Maremma for decades.

From the Kingdom of Italy to the Agrarian Reform

After the Second War of Independence Capalbio entered the Kingdom of Italy, and agriculture remained characterized by extensive landed estates. The turning point came in 1952 with the application of the agrarian reform, preceded by the creation of the Ente Maremma in 1951: it was then that the plain hamlets, the scattered farmhouses and the network of farm roads that you still drive today to go to the sea were born. In 1960 Capalbio finally regained its administrative autonomy. 60 years later, the town that was a synonym of malaria has become a synonym of intellectual vacation: few places in Italy have changed reputation so violently.

A Curiosity About Capalbio (GR)

The best curiosity of Capalbio is not in the village: it is in the cemetery, just outside the town, and concerns a tomb built straddling the boundary wall. Buried there is Domenico Tiburzi, called Domenichino, born in Cellere on May 28, 1836 and killed in Capalbio on the night between October 23 and 24, 1896: the most famous brigand of the Maremma, whom the newspapers of the time called the king of the Maremma and who spent 24 years as a fugitive.

At his death the parish priest refused religious funeral rites and burial in consecrated ground, as ecclesiastical discipline provided for a man struck by excommunication. The population, which owed Tiburzi protection and favors, did not accept. A compromise was reached that is both grotesque and ingenious: the grave was dug at the entrance, so that the lower limbs stayed inside the consecrated enclosure and the head and chest outside. Half in and half out, exactly as his life had been.

It's worth understanding why a killer enjoyed so much affection. In the Maremma of the late 19th century the brigand was not only a criminal: he was the only concrete counterpower in a territory where the big landowners made the law and the State arrived only with the carabinieri. Tiburzi imposed his own taxation on the landowners and in exchange guaranteed the farmhands that nobody else would rob them. His death story, reconstructed from the records, even has a humiliating detail: in the shootout with three carabinieri, caught off guard in a farmer's house, his legendary aim, dulled by wine and years, hit a terracotta jar instead of the targets. The tomb is still there, you find it without difficulty, and the cemetery keeper is used to pointing it out.

Something Nobody Tells You About Capalbio (GR)

That the Giardino dei Tarocchi can't be visited on impulse. It seems a bureaucratic detail and instead it is the number one cause of ruined days around here: the ticket has to be bought online, it's nominal for date and time, none are sold at the box office, and phone or email reservations are not accepted. Anyone who arrives by car from the sea at 16:00 on a Saturday in August convinced of finding a physical ticket office finds a gate and a sign. There is no refund and no date change either.

The second thing nobody says concerns the hours: the garden opens only in the afternoon, from 14:30 to 19:30, with last entry at 18:15, and only from April 1 to October 15. Out of season it is closed, period. Anyone planning a weekend in November thinking of combining village and Tarocchi has to give up the second.

The third concerns the WWF Oasis of Lake Burano, and the same principle applies: individuals don't enter freely, you enter only on the guided visit and the booking has to be made by 13:00 the day before. Anyone who shows up at the visitor center without a reservation stays out, even if the gate is open and you can see people walking inside. They are three simple rules that, put together, decide if your day in Capalbio works or not. The right way to organize it is the opposite of how almost everyone organizes it: first you lock in Tarocchi and Burano, then you fit village and beach into the remaining gaps.

The Advice I Give You for Visiting Capalbio (GR)

Don't do Capalbio as a day trip from Rome in July or August. I say it after having seen it done dozens of times and end almost always the same way: you arrive at 11 with the heat already unbearable, you climb into the village when the stone gives back 40°C, you go down to the sea at the worst hour, you leave at seven without having seen either the Tarocchi or Burano. Capalbio is a two-day place, or a day organized in reverse of the usual.

The day that works is this. Leave early, arrive in town around half past nine: the village at 10 in the morning is empty, you go up to the Rocca with nobody ahead of you, you do the patrol walkway in good light, you enter San Nicola while it's still cool. A long, slow lunch in town, which in summer is the only civilized way to get through two in the afternoon. At four you head down toward Chiarone and enter the Giardino dei Tarocchi around five, with the ticket bought online weeks before: the mirror-covered sculptures give their best in low light. Out at seven, and then the beach, not before: at Macchiatonda at half past seven on a summer evening there is still an hour and a half of light, the water is warm and there is almost nobody.

If you have two days, devote the second morning to the guided visit of the WWF Oasis of Lake Burano and the afternoon to the hinterland: Capalbiaccio, the Villa delle Colonne, the Palazzo del Chiarone. It's the part everyone skips and it's the one that will stay in your mind longest. One last thing, against the current: if you can choose the month, come to Capalbio in late September or the first half of October. The sea is still swimmable, the Giardino dei Tarocchi is open until October 15, the mosquitoes decline, prices drop and the town goes back to being a town.

Another Well-Known Fact, Yet Rarely Cited

That Capalbio was a border land for three centuries, and that that border was a real frontier. Everyone knows it in the abstract, almost nobody keeps it in mind while driving on the Aurelia. Yet it's enough to look at the map: the Chiarone ditch, which today separates Tuscany from Lazio, separated the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from the Papal State, and before that marked the southern edge of the Spanish Stato dei Presidi. Three different political entities within a radius of 10 kilometers.

The material consequences are all still visible. The Palazzo del Chiarone, with its portico and its almost 100 rooms, is not a noble palace: it is a customs house, complete with a prison and an apartment reserved for the pope in transit. The Villa del Fontino, near Pescia Fiorentina, was the second customs house. The coastal towers, from Buranaccio to Selva Nera, didn't only watch the sea: they watched the border. And 19th-century banditry, which here was more violent than elsewhere, thrived for exactly this reason, because 200 meters from the scene of the crime was another jurisdiction where the Tuscan carabinieri couldn't enter.

The double circuit of walls of the village is also better explained in this key. A town of a few hundred souls in the 15th century doesn't build two overlapping curtains with patrol walkways at different heights for aesthetic whim: it builds them because it is the last stronghold of one state before the territory of another, and because whoever loses it loses control of 12 kilometers of coast. When you climb onto the walkway, you are walking on a frontier line.

The Right Photo to Take at Capalbio (GR)

The photograph everybody tries is the village seen from the road, the cone of light-colored houses with the keep on top. It works, but it's the postcard, and with a high sun it comes out flat. The right photo is another one, and it's taken from the patrol walkway on the upper level, toward the west, in the hour before sunset: in the foreground the crenellation, behind it the tiled roofs, in the background the reclaimed plain with the dark patch of Lake Burano and the line of the sea. If the day is clear, the silhouette of the Argentario appears on the horizon and, farther left, the outline of Giglio. It is the only point from which you see together all the elements that make up the territory of Capalbio: fortification, village, marsh, beach, sea, islands.

Practical setup: position yourself so that the sun stays out of the frame, just beyond the right edge, and use the crenellation as a frame. With the phone, tap the crenellation for exposure, not the sky, otherwise the stone comes out black. If you have a long lens you can isolate the Buranaccio Tower against the sea: from up there it's a dot, but at 200 millimeters it becomes a photograph.

The second photo to bring home is taken at the Giardino dei Tarocchi, and the advice is to give up the overall shot. The sculptures of Niki de Saint Phalle, shot whole, lose out in photographs: they are too big and too dense. Instead get close to the surfaces, frame a mosaic detail with the mirror reflecting the sky, and you'll have an image that holds up. A last note of etiquette: in the Giardino dei Tarocchi you don't climb on the sculptures, and the photo standing on the hand of the Empress is not only forbidden, it is the reason certain surfaces are in worse shape than the artist left them.

Some Important Events That Happened Here in History

The first document that counts is from 805: Charlemagne includes the castle of Capalbio in the donation to the Abbey of Saints Anastasius and Vincent at Tre Fontane. It's not a formality: it means that at the beginning of the 9th century the hill was already fortified and worth giving away. In 1161 Pope Alexander III issues the privilege that confirms that possession to the abbey, and that document fixes in writing an arrangement that will last for centuries.

In 1416 the Sienese conquer the castle of Tricosto, present-day Capalbiaccio, closing the game with the Orsini in the southwestern part of the territory. Two years later, in 1418, the new masters carve on the gate of Capalbio the plaque that commemorates the restoration of the walls: it is the stone you still pass under today entering the village, and it certifies the handover.

April 1555: the Spanish troops of the prince of Morignano, allied with the Medici, conquer Siena. In June, after Porto Ercole and Orbetello, Capalbio falls too. It is the watershed of local history: the flourishing period ends and a three-century-long economic and demographic crisis begins, aggravated by the malaria that in the 17th century empties the whole Maremma.

In 1602 a Medici coat of arms with an inscription is walled onto the gate, next to the Sienese plaque: two powers superimposed on the same arch. In 1707 the Stato dei Presidi passes from the Spanish to the Austrians, in 1736 to the Bourbons, in 1737 the Grand Duchy passes from the Medici to the Lorraine. Then the administrative mortification: Leopold I aggregates Capalbio to Manciano, and in 1842 Leopold II aggregates it to Orbetello. 100 years without a municipality.

On the night between October 23 and 24, 1896 three carabinieri surprise Domenico Tiburzi and his lieutenant Luciano Fioravanti in a farmer's house near Capalbio. In the shootout the brigand is hit in the legs and chest and dies. The burial straddling the cemetery wall immediately becomes legend and symbolically closes the era of Maremma banditry.

In 1951 the Ente Maremma is born, in 1952 the agrarian reform is applied: the swamp becomes productive countryside, the plain villages are born, malaria is eradicated. In 1960 Capalbio regains administrative autonomy. In 1978 Niki de Saint Phalle opens the construction site of the Giardino dei Tarocchi at Garavicchio, on the land made available by the Caracciolo family. The Foundation obtains official recognition on August 4, 1997 and the garden is inaugurated on May 15, 1998. In 1994 the international short-film festival Capalbio Cinema is born. In 2007 the municipal territory obtains the five sails and first place in the Blue Guide of Legambiente and Touring Club Italiano.

Who Has Passed Through Capalbio (GR)

Giacomo Puccini is the name the town shows off first, and with some reason: he came to the Maremma for hunting, which was his declared passion along with music and motors, and stayed in Capalbio playing the Conrad Graf piano that is still kept in Palazzo Collacchioni. The link is with the hunting territory more than with the village, but the instrument is there and can be seen.

Gabriele D'Annunzio did not live in Capalbio, but he left the text the people of Capalbio have been quoting for a century: the poetic translation of the Latin plaque of the Porta Senese, the one that begins I am happy Capalbio. An author's translation that has done more for the town than any promotional campaign.

The figure who really changed the contemporary destiny of Capalbio is Niki de Saint Phalle, a Franco-American artist born in 1930 and died on May 21, 2002. From 1978 to the mid-1990s her construction site at Garavicchio was also her home: she lived inside the sculpture of the Empress. Working with her were Jean Tinguely, author of the welded-iron armatures without which those figures wouldn't stand, the ceramist Venera Finocchiaro and the mosaicist Pierre Marie Lejeune. The architect Mario Botta signed the entrance pavilion. It was Marella Caracciolo Agnelli, in 1974 in Saint Moritz, who first listened to the project, and her family who offered the land.

Then there is the Capalbio of Italian politics and culture of the second half of the 20th century, the one that gave the town the journalistic nickname everyone knows: for decades the coast between Macchiatonda and Chiarone has been a vacation spot for journalists, publishers, members of parliament and intellectuals, and the summer festivals of the village live off that presence. It's a social fact before a fashionable one, and explains why a town of 3,000 inhabitants has an international film festival and a literary festival.

Finally the movies: in 1989 the Rocca Aldobrandesca was the set of a production directed by Duccio Tessari with Peter Ustinov and Salvatore Cascio. And, centuries later, the most illustrious guest of all remains a man who never set foot in Capalbio: the emperor Hadrian, whose marble portrait of the 2nd century, brought up here probably from the ruins of Cosa, still looks at those passing under the Arco Santo.

When to Go to Capalbio (GR) and When to Avoid It

The best period of all runs from mid-May to mid-June and from mid-September to mid-October. In these windows the Giardino dei Tarocchi is open, the WWF Oasis runs guided visits, the sea is swimmable, the village isn't overrun and the temperatures let you walk on the walls without suffering. October, up to the 15th, is the best period: the low light on the sculptures of Garavicchio and on the crenellation of the village is the most beautiful thing Capalbio can offer.

July and August are the moment when the town gives its worst and its best together: worst for the traffic, the parking, the restaurant lines and the heat on the stone. Best for the festivals, the evenings in Piazza Magenta and the atmosphere. If you come in high season, book everything well in advance and flip the schedule as described above. Ferragosto, honestly, I would avoid.

From November to March the Giardino dei Tarocchi is closed and the town goes back to itself. It's not a dead period: the village can be visited very well, the Lake Burano Oasis in winter is at its best because the lake fills with wintering birds, and the deserted beaches with the libeccio are a spectacle. It's the Capalbio that the people of Capalbio know.

Capalbio (GR) with Kids

It works, and better than you'd expect from a medieval village. The historic center is closed to traffic, so kids walk free. The patrol walkway is an adventure in every respect, with the caution of holding their hand on the narrow stretches. The terrace of the Rocca's keep is the final prize. The Giardino dei Tarocchi is perhaps the most kid-friendly attraction in the whole Maremma, because it needs no explanations: you walk in and it works.

The sea helps a lot: shallow, sandy seabed for tens of meters, wide beaches, beach clubs with play equipment, green areas, pools for the little ones and entertainment, and a sailing school that accepts enrollees from age five. The Capalbio beaches can be enjoyed out of season too, for a walk or a sunset. At the WWF Oasis of Lake Burano the guided visit lasts long enough to bore the very little ones but is perfect from age seven up, especially if you bring binoculars.

Frequently Asked Questions About Capalbio (GR)

How far is Capalbio from Rome?

Capalbio is about 140 kilometers from Rome along Via Aurelia, the SS1, a trip that by car means about an hour and three quarters in normal traffic. By train you arrive at the Capalbio Scalo station on the Tyrrhenian line, from which you then need a taxi or a bus to go up to the hilltop village.

How much does it cost to visit the village of Capalbio?

The village of Capalbio is free: the walls, the lanes, the patrol walkway and the piazzas have no entrance ticket. You pay only for specific attractions of the territory, like the Giardino dei Tarocchi in the locality of Garavicchio, whose ticket must be bought online before the visit.

Do you need to book to visit the Giardino dei Tarocchi?

Yes, Niki de Saint Phalle's Giardino dei Tarocchi, in the municipal territory of Capalbio, cannot be visited without a reservation: the ticket must be bought online, is nominal for date and time, none are sold at the box office and phone or email reservations are not accepted. Anyone who arrives without a ticket risks finding the gate closed.

Is Capalbio suitable for a visit with kids?

Yes, Capalbio works well with kids, better than you'd expect from a medieval village. The historic center is closed to traffic, so the little ones walk free, and the patrol walkway becomes an adventure in every respect. The Giardino dei Tarocchi is probably the most kid-friendly attraction in the whole Maremma.

Is it worth visiting Capalbio as a day trip from Rome in summer?

No: doing Capalbio as a day trip from Rome in July or August tends to produce the same negative pattern, with arrival around 11 when the heat is already unbearable, a climb into the village with the stone giving back very high temperatures and an evening departure without having seen either the village or the Giardino dei Tarocchi calmly. Capalbio is better suited to a two-day stop or a morning start.

What is the best time to visit Capalbio?

The best time to visit Capalbio runs from mid-May to mid-June and from mid-September to mid-October. In these windows the Giardino dei Tarocchi is open, the WWF Oasis of Lake Burano runs guided visits, the sea is swimmable and the temperatures let you walk on the walls without suffering from the heat.

What is the WWF Oasis of Lake Burano near Capalbio?

The WWF Oasis of Lake Burano is a protected natural area that extends around a brackish coastal lagoon of about 140 hectares, in the territory of Capalbio. The protected area managed by the WWF exceeds 410 hectares and historically represents the first oasis of WWF Italy, the model on which the entire network of national oases was subsequently built.

What's Around Capalbio (GR)

15 minutes by car to the north is the Ansedonia promontory with the ruins of the Roman city of Cosa, the Tagliata and the Spacco della Regina. A little farther the Orbetello lagoon opens, and the system of Monte Argentario, with Porto Ercole and Porto Santo Stefano, from which the ferries leave for Giglio. Toward the interior you climb to the tuff villages of the Pitigliano and Sorano area.

Going down a few kilometers you cross into Lazio and the Etruscan Tuscia begins: Vulci with its archaeological park and the devil's bridge, Tuscania with the Romanesque basilicas, the Lake Bolsena farther inland. If you have a weekend and want to build a serious itinerary you can combine Capalbio with the painted necropolises of Tarquinia: it's 40 minutes of Aurelia and the pair works well, because it tells two different ways of inhabiting the same piece of coast 2,500 years apart.

Anyone organizing the trip for a group, and not for themselves, knows that the hard part isn't choosing the stops: it's fitting together fixed hours, nominal reservations and transfer times on roads that don't forgive. Here the work of the professional tour leader makes the difference, as the pages of TourLeaderPro on tour leading and on organizing group trips in Italy explain well. For those traveling with foreign guests, the ItalyPlanner guide to Tuscany in English and the page on day trips from major Italian cities are the quickest way to make clear where you're going and why.

Quick Questions About Capalbio (GR)

How far is Capalbio from Rome?

About 140 kilometers along Via Aurelia (SS1), which by car means an hour and three quarters in normal traffic. By train you arrive at the Capalbio Scalo station on the Tyrrhenian line, and from there you need a taxi or a bus to go up to the village.

How much does it cost to visit Capalbio?

The village is free: the walls, the lanes, the patrol walkway and the piazzas have no ticket. You pay only the entrance to the Rocca Aldobrandesca, at a token price, with tickets sold at the information office on the ground floor. The real expenses are the Giardino dei Tarocchi, €15 full price, and the beach club, if any.

How much does the Giardino dei Tarocchi of Capalbio cost?

Full price €15, reduced €10 for young people aged 7 to 22, over-65s, Capalbio residents, groups of 25 people and licensed tour guides. Schools €8 per student with a minimum of 10 participants. Free under six, for a disability above 67 percent, for the companion and for one adult per 10 schoolchildren.

Do you need to book for the Giardino dei Tarocchi of Capalbio?

Yes, and it's mandatory. The ticket is bought online only, is nominal for date and time, cannot be changed and is not refunded. None are sold at the box office and reservations by phone or email are not accepted.

What are the hours of the Giardino dei Tarocchi?

Every day from April 1 to October 15, from 14:30 to 19:30, with last entry at 18:15. Outside this period the garden is closed.

How long does the visit to the Giardino dei Tarocchi take?

The average duration indicated by the foundation is about 90 minutes. Those who photograph or sit often can easily reach two hours, and the length of stay is not capped after entry.

Are there guided visits to the Giardino dei Tarocchi?

No. The garden doesn't organize guided visits or private tours: it is visited independently. Dedicated conditions are provided for groups and school groups, but the leading remains the responsibility of whoever accompanies them.

Can you bring dogs to the Giardino dei Tarocchi?

Yes, on a leash. Parking is free and unattended, and the garden stays open even when it rains and on holidays.

How do you visit the WWF Oasis of Lake Burano?

Only with a guided visit and only by reservation, to be made by 13:00 the day before at 388 4231098, also by message, or by writing to lagodiburano@wwf.it. The visitor center is on Strada Litoranea del Chiarone 35.

When are the guided visits at the WWF Oasis of Lake Burano?

From September 22 to May 10 on Saturday, Sunday and holidays at 10:00 and 14:30. From May 11 to September 21 on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 17:30, which becomes 16:30 in September. Groups and schools can book every day.

Can you visit the Buranaccio Tower?

Only on rare occasions. The tower is private property and the owners grant permission to WWF excursions on particular days, like the Oasis festival. From outside you can see it very well from the path and from the beach.

Are the Capalbio beaches free?

For the most part yes. Along the 12 kilometers of coastline beach clubs alternate with large free stretches, with free beach clearly prevailing. Access is convenient and in several places you park right next to the sand.

What is the most beautiful beach in Capalbio?

It depends on what you're looking for. For absolute tranquility, the Macchiatonda stretch toward the Buranaccio Tower. For convenience and proximity to the promontory, Playa La Torba. For the social scene, the Chiarone area. My advice remains Macchiatonda, walking to the left until the people run out.

Are the Capalbio beaches suitable for kids?

Very. The seabed is shallow and sandy for tens of meters, the beach is wide, several beach clubs have play equipment, green areas, pools for the little ones and entertainment, and there is a sailing school that accepts children from age five. With a rough libeccio sea, however, better to skip the swim.

Can you visit the Rocca Aldobrandesca of Capalbio?

Yes. The Rocca, at Via Collacchioni 2, can be visited with a low-cost ticket available at the information office on the ground floor, which also provides illustrative material. You see the rooms with period furnishings, the courtyard with the historic well, the Conrad Graf piano and the crenellated terrace of the keep.

Is the Rocca of Capalbio wheelchair accessible?

No, except on the ground floor. The palace isn't accessible to visitors with mobility difficulties beyond that level, and the keep terrace is reached only by narrow, steep stairs.

What does Puccini have to do with Capalbio?

Giacomo Puccini frequented the Maremma for hunting and stayed in Capalbio. In Palazzo Collacchioni the Conrad Graf piano he played during those stays is kept: it is the most famous piece in the Rocca.

Where is the tomb of the brigand Tiburzi in Capalbio?

In the Capalbio cemetery, at the old entrance. Domenico Tiburzi, killed on the night between October 23 and 24, 1896, was buried so that his legs remained in consecrated ground and the rest of the body outside, a compromise between the refusal of the parish priest and the will of the population.

How much time do you need to visit the village of Capalbio?

An hour and a half for a tour with stops, two hours including the Rocca and the patrol walkway. 40 minutes is enough for a quick pass, but you miss the best part.

Can you drive into the historic center of Capalbio?

No. The walled village is pedestrian and is entered only on foot from the gate. Parking is all outside the walls, along the road that goes around the hill, and in summer it fills in the early afternoon.

Can you visit Capalbio in winter?

Yes, and in some ways it's better. The village, the Rocca, the deserted beaches and the Lake Burano Oasis, which in winter welcomes the wintering birds, work very well from November to March. The Giardino dei Tarocchi stays closed.

What events are there in Capalbio in summer?

For decades the town has hosted an international short-film festival, Capalbio Cinema, founded in 1994, and a summer literary festival, Capalbio Libri. Piazza Magenta is the natural venue for the evening events, and the Rocca hosts exhibitions of ancient and contemporary art. The calendar changes every year and it's worth checking before you leave.

What's the difference between Capalbio and Ansedonia?

Capalbio is a walled medieval village on a hill with a municipality behind it, 12 kilometers of beaches and a vast territory. Ansedonia is a residential promontory with the archaeological area of the Roman city of Cosa and the Tagliata. They are a quarter of an hour apart and can be visited well in the same day.

Is Capalbio one of the most beautiful villages in Italy?

Yes, the town is in the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy circuit, and in 2007 the municipal territory obtained the five sails and first place in the Blue Guide of Legambiente and Touring Club Italiano for the management of the beaches and the landscape.

Where do you eat in Capalbio?

The restaurants are almost all inside the walls or just outside the gate, and in high season you book. The cooking is that of the Maremma: acquacotta, tortelli, wild boar, fish on the coastal side. A long lunch in the middle hours of an August day isn't laziness, it's strategy.

If I had to give just one reason to come all the way down here, I wouldn't pick the Giardino dei Tarocchi, which is extraordinary all the same and which everybody mentions first. I'd pick the patrol walkway at seven in the evening on a day in October, with the crenellation warm with sun, the reclaimed plain stretching toward the sea and the silence of a town that for three centuries was a malarial frontier and today is one of the most civilized places on the Tyrrhenian coast. Capalbio is told badly in photographs and very well on foot: climb up, walk all around it, and give it the time it deserves.

Article written by the editorial team of TourLeaderPro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

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