Italy - Tuscany - The Maremma Region

The Tuscan coast as one heads down from Viareggio past Livorno – with a few notable exceptions such as the chic, glittering Forte dei Marmi west of Lucca – is basically a rather humdrum affair and only becomes of interest after Piombino opposite Elba island.

This wild area of Italy was first inhabited by the Etruscans and was, until Roman times, a prosperous, agricultural and maritime region with towns such as Massa Maritima and Campiglia Maritima. However, the mismanagement under Rome and neglect of the Etruscans' finely tuned system of drainage canals doomed the Maremma to a slow death: the land was abandoned and gradually reverted to swamps and marshland.

It was in this backwater that the butteri, tough Italian-style cowboys, tended to their herds just like their equivalent in the French Camargue.

The land reclamation that was initiated under the Austrian Grand Dukes was completed following the last war: the Maremma today is back on its feet – mosquito-free – a new region and a little rough around the edges, but once again prosperous with thriving farms and butteri raising beef as they always have done.

And ironically enough, all that neglect has born late fruit in that the region now has great swathes of natural, totally unspoilt coastline and beaches as well as inland areas of absolutely stupendous beauty.