Walking in Tuscany - A Walker's Guidebook

Guidebook to 50 walks through Italy's Tuscany, Umbria and Latium, ranging from brief strolls to a five-day trek (the Chianti Trail). Includes the wild Chianti ridge, city walks through Perugia, Orvieto and Volterra, and day walks on the beautiful island of Elba and along the unspoilt coast around Orbetello.

This guide covers an intriguing part of central Italy that was once known as Etruria, home to the ancient Etruscan people from about 8th until 1st century BC. Roughly speaking it is bounded by the Arno and Tiber Rivers and the Tyrrhenian Sea, straddling present-day Tuscany (Toscana in Italian), Umbria and Latium (Lazio). This encompasses an extraordinary range of landscapes from modest mountains clad with dense conifer forest through to lightly wooded hills where wild boar still roam, rural areas with expanses of waving wheat fields dashed with the red of poppies, and some stunning stretches of coast in the west with pristine beaches backed by typical Mediterranean maquis vegetation. Scattered throughout are great Italian cities of Etruscan, Roman, medieval and Renaissance fame.

The aim of this walking guide is to encourage people to get out of their car and explore the area on foot. A series of walks is presented to take visitors through the maze of age-old tracks and discover the delights of the Tuscan and surrounding countryside, often taking in fascinating little-known Etruscan sites. There are mysterious tombs excavated out of volcanic tufa cliff sides, original sunken roadways, dominating acropolis sites and impressive sanctuaries, all set in inimitable picture postcard countryside. Such forays will hopefully stimulate curiosity in the enigmatic Etruscan civilisation itself. In addition to the archaeological interest is the great attraction of nature reserves and parks, without neglecting the idyllic medieval hamlets and Renaissance townships traversed for the sake of some mythical tale or in search of elusive ancient remains.