Published on: 2 February 2014  | Last updated: 1 January 2020

The Gran Tour della Maremma is a 405-kilometre circular tour in the south-western part of Toscana. It takes in some of the regions’s most inter­esting hilltop towns, and takes you from the sea to the shoulder of the Monte Amiata. Monte Amiata is the great mountain (strictly speaking a volcanic dome) that is the key landmark of the south Tuscan landscape.

It takes you through several hilltop towns that are among the most authentic in Toscana including Massa Marittima, Capalbio, Magliano in Toscana, Sorano, Sovana and Pitigliano. As well as the hilltop towns there are also a number of Etruscan sites including the Vie Cave - the roadways cut by the Etruscans thousands of years ago.

The Maremma occupies about a quarter of Toscana (and a chunk of northern Lazio). It’s an area that defin­itely has its own distinctive character and history. There’s a lot to see and enjoy here. The Strada del Vino e dei Sapori Colle Maremma has commis­sioned an excellent promo­tional video, it’s in Italian, but even if you don’t under­stand the commentary, the photo­graphy is gorgeous. (A white space means the vimeo servers are down).

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Credits: Italia - Maremma from R-evolution on Vimeo.

The tour primarily follows quiet, tarmac roads, but there are a couple of sections of unsur­faced road - but there are variants which enable you to avoid the more difficult bits (the variants are shown on the inter­active map and included in the route file).

Map and altitude profile

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The route officially starts in Massa Marittima, but of course you could start in other places, for example at Grosseto. The signage is excellent and works reasonably well in both direc­tions, however, the local authority has taken a different approach to route­m­arking in that instead of a sign with the name of the route, the signs have the name of the next town or village. There’s a lot to be said for this approach, but bear in mind that there are a number of routes in the area so you need to have an idea of the places on the route.

There’s about 4700 metres of climbing in total over the route, with four climbs over 200 metres in altitude gain. 

More about the main climbs

Variants

There are two main variants on the route. The first, a little way after Sassofortino, about 38 kilometres from Massa Marittima, enables you to avoid sections of sterrata (unsur­faced road), should you wish to, and reduce the length of the route by almost 60 kilometres. The second, at Sovana, about 200 kilometres into the route) enables you to avoid ‘il muro di Monte Nero’ (the wall of Monte Nero’) a 1.2-kilometre section on the way to San Martino with gradients of between 15 and 20 per cent.

A third variant is a detour from to Capalbio and the coast.

Map showing route variants

  Map:  FT-maps-toscana-GTDM-show map in overlay    |    FT-maps-toscana-GTDM-show map in new window 

Options and connections

You could connect this route to the Grand Tour della Val di Merse by taking the very scenic road via Roccastrada. Here’s a map showing the two routes and the links between them:   show map in overlay   show map in new window.

The Bicitalia Ciclovia Tirrenica shares the coastal section of the route. You could head north along the coast towards Pisa (see this article or south along the Lazio.

You could also head towards Campiglia Marittima and from there take the high road along the coast 

And if you want to spend some time on the coast, my advice would be to head for Elba which I think is a better option than the mainland coast, which can be a little dull with not very good-value campsites.

From Arcidosso and Monte Amiata you could also head north towards Pienza, Montepulciano and Siena, or south for northern Lazio and Rome. 

Day rides

You could head for the summit of Monte Amiata (1738m) and return via Abbadia di San Salvatore.

Route description

The official route heads clockwise from Massa Marittima towards Arcidosso (822m) on the slopes of Monte Amiata (1738m). A major part of the climbing on the route is in this first third.

A little way after Sassofortino, about 38 kilometres from Massa Marittima, you have the first of two linked variants that avoid sections of sterrata (unsur­faced road) and reduce the length of the route by almost 60 kilometres. The variant takes you through the town of Roccastrada where you can climb up to the Belvedere (viewpoint) on the old city walls with views out over the coast. There’s also a nice restaurant (the Picio Matto) hidden away in the old town.

Arcidosso to Sovana

From Arcidosso the route turns back towards the coast and the hilltop towns of Sorano, Sovana and Pitigliano - the zona del tufo so called after the soft tufo rock. There’s lots to see here:

• Sorano and Pitigliano are both definite stops to explore. There are plenty of restaurants so they are nice places to stop for a meal or a glass of wine;
• in Pitigliano the most inter­esting sight is the Piccolo Gerusalemme (Little Jerusalem) the old Jewish ghetto of the city including its synagogue. The Jewish population of the town were evicted from their homes by order of the duke of Toscana and compelled to live in the tiny ghetto. You can visit the synagogue as well as buying a sfrato - a sweet pastry that commem­orates their confinement to the ghetto (sfrato means ‘eviction’). Open every day except Saturdays;
• around Sovana, Sorana and Vitozza are the Città del Tufo archae­olo­gical sites. These include an Etruscan necro­polis near Sovana, but the most fascin­ating and enigmatic remnants of the Etruscan era are the Vie Cave - paths and roads constructed by cutting away the rock. The biggest is wide enough to drive a car through;
• as well as the Etruscan sites there’s the medieval settlement of Vitozza where the villagers built homes into the tufo. You can also pigeon lofts - colombari - with spaces for the pigeons to roost carved out to the rock. 

From Sovana to Grosseto and Massa Marittima

At Sovana (about 200 kilometres into the route) there’s another option - you can continue on towards Manciano and ‘il muro (wall) di Monte Nero’ a 1.2-kilometre section on the way to San Martino with gradients of between 15 and 20 percent. You may prefer to take the variant of doubling back to Pitigliano, and from there to Manciano.

At Manciano you can detour off towards Capalbio and the coast. The detour is well worth taking especially to visit Capalbio, a lovely walled town with great views out over the coast. Nearby, if you have the time and the energy you might also want to visit the Giardino dei Tarocchi (IT). Tarot Garden. A garden with 22 huge sculp­tures covered with brightly coloured ceramics (the garden was inspired by Gaudi’s Parc Guell in Barcelona). Check out the gallery for a flavour of what to expect. Entry is 12€ and the gardens are open from 14:30 to 19.30.

From Manciano the main route continues on towards Magliano in Toscana. Near the town you pass the ruined church of San Bruzio. If you have time, detour off to visit Magliano and look out from its city walls. After Magliano quiet roads take you to Grosseto. I bypassed the centre of Grosseto but according to the Lonely Planet guidebook. 

 “The old walls, raised in 1559, form a near-perfect hexagon. Within, where refresh­ingly few tourists penetrate, the historic old town has unpre­ten­tious entice­ments and genuinely friendly, good-value eating and sleeping options. ”

A stretch of road converted into a cycleway takes you from to the coast. In a nice touch the local author­ities have planted hundreds of trees along the cycleway. At the moment (2013) the trees are fairly young but they promise to turn the cycleway into a gorgeous tree-lined arcade. 

At the coast there’s another cycleway through the coastal pineta to Castiglione della Pescaia. From Castiglione it turns back towards Massa Marittima.