Unusual places to discover in Tuscany

Tired of the usual tourist destinations? Fancy something different? You have arrived on the right page! We have selected for you the most unusual places to visit in Tuscany, off the tourist track (or almost). This beautiful region is full of famous itineraries that attract visitors from all over the world. However, there are also others that are less known but no less interesting. These are places that are both fascinating and mysterious at the same time, and deserve to be discovered and exploited.

Make a note of these places, they will let you discover a decidedly unusual Tuscany!

The Abbey of San Galgano

One of the most unusual places in Tuscany is undoubtedly the Abbey of San Galgano, a Cistercian abbey located about thirty kilometres from Siena, in the municipality of Chiusdino. Built between 1218 and 1288, it prospered for many years. In the 15th century, however, decadence began, leading to its final decline in the 16th century. Today it is practically in ruins but represents one of the most prestigious examples of Gothic-Cistercian architecture in Italy. Of the abbey, which has remained without roof and floor, the imposing walls with the naves and some rooms, including the refectory, are still visible. Next to it stands the hermitage of Montesiepi, a chapel where, even today, one can admire an old iron sword embedded in a block of stone, which, according to legend, was planted by Saint Galgano when he decided to leave his noble life to become a hermit.

The Devil’s Bridge

In Borgo a Mozzano, in the province of Lucca, is the mysterious Ponte della Maddalena (Magdalen Bridge), more commonly known as Ponte del Diavolo (Devil’s Bridge), due to the strange legends surrounding the story of its construction. According to writer Nicola Tergimi, it was built by Countess Matilda of Canossa at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, although its current appearance is due to the reconstruction carried out by Castruccio Castracani in the early 14th century. Why is it so mysterious? Legend has it that in the year 1224, the master builder, unable to finish the bridge on time, asked the devil for help, who would complete the work in one night in exchange for the first soul to cross it. But the local inhabitants first had the bridge built and then had a dog cross it. The devil, enraged by the deception, threw himself into the river and disappeared without ever being seen again.

The ghost town of Toiano

Another very unusual place in Tuscany is Toiano, a small, ancient village full of charm and mystery. A hamlet of the municipality of Palaia, it stands on a clay spur amidst the beautiful hills of the province of Pisa. Its origins date back to the Middle Ages, when it was a castle disputed between Lucca, Pisa and Florence. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that it is completely uninhabited. Around the middle of the 20th century, following the economic and industrial boom, it slowly began to empty out and today there are no inhabitants left. It is accessed via an old drawbridge, which leads to the only street that runs through the village. What enchants visitors above all is the wonderful view of the Pisan hills. The village is also remembered for a sad news case: in 1947, a young girl, born Elvira Orlandini, whose throat was found slaughtered, and the culprit was never found.

The Bottini of Siena

Siena is a beautiful city of art renowned throughout the world for its large Piazza del Campo, where the Palio, Italy’s most famous historic horse race, is run twice a year. But few people know that beneath the city are the Bottini, a network of underground aqueducts more than 25 kilometres long that still feed the medieval fountains, including the monumental Fonte Gaia in Piazza del Campo. Due to its hilly position and lack of major waterways, Siena had to build this ingenious system of underground canals to bring water into the city. Excavated in tuff since Roman times, the network represents an extraordinary masterpiece of hydraulic engineering and a fundamental element of the city’s history. Some sections of this fascinating underground world can be visited.

The Tarot Garden

In the locality of Garavicchio, near Pescia Fiorentina, a communal hamlet of Capalbio, is the Tarot Garden, an esoteric park designed by the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle. Construction of the park began in 1979 and lasted over two decades, with the decisive contribution of her husband, Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely, and other famous contemporary artists such as Rico Weber, Pierre Marie Lejeune, Paul Wiedmer and Venera Finocchiaro, to name but a few. Inspired by Antoni Gaudi’s Park Güell in Barcelona and the Park of Monsters in Bomarzo, the garden is populated by 22 colourful and imposing sculptures, some of them up to 15 metres high, representing the major arcana of the Tarot. There is the Sphinx, the Priestess, the Magician, the Bishop and so on. The garden is only open during certain times of the year.

Have we intrigued you? Now all you have to do is pack your bags and set off to discover these unusual places in Tuscany.