Tours in the area of The Terme di Sorano
The area surrounding the Spa offers several opportunities to spend wonderful days walking through the Etruscan necropolis of Sovana, rich of history and mystery, visits to "cities of tufa", Sorano and Pitigliano, tour to the lake of Bolsena, to Orvieto, on Mount Amiata, also visits to cheese factories, olive oil mills, wine farms, horse riding, mountain bike or walking tours. Near by exist tens of mountain bike tracks in the beautiful panorama of the maremma woods. It is possible to have authorized tourist guides to visit the several sites in Tuscany. Our reception staff will be pleased to give you suggestions and indications, in order to organize a vacation that is characterized on the discovery of the territory, of its nature, Its culture, its traditions besides on relax and well being. SOVANA AND PITIGLIANO from the etruscans to Medieval – Historical, archaeological and naturalistic itinerary to discover the "Area of Tufa".
This itinerary is within the area so called "tufa area" and is one of the most exiting and charming tour that can be done in this territory because it brings you to discover the geological, naturalistic, historical and anthropological aspects that characterize the area of tufa and will guide you in an environment still uncontaminated where human being consider themselves subject of nature. It’s a one full day tour consisting of two walking tours, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The intent is to guide visitors to find the most hidden details that characterize the little towns of Sovana and Pitigliano and then from there to see the etruscans VIE CAVE Itinerary:
Meet the guide in the morning and starting the program with the visit to the medieval village and the Etruscan necropolis of Solana unique little town from very old origins and even today has evident traces of a renowned past. Clearly of Etruscan origin, Sovana was very important in the medieval period, when, under the guide of the "Aldobrandeschi" family has represented in good and bad most of the Maremma area. Today it’s a small rural town, but there are etruscans and medieval monuments to testimony its history. Our trip will start from the Sovana Borgo and will bring us up the Etruscan necropolis that surrounds the little town. During our trip we will see: The Cathedral of S. Pietro (XI-XII century); the Church of Santa Maria (XII-XIII century) with its remarkable "Ciborio" from 800’, Unique in Tuscany. Piazza del Pretorio with its beautiful buildings is being considered one of the nicest in Italy; The rich Etruscan Necropolis that surrounds the village, where we will see one of the most important rupestrian Tombs of Etruria (IV –III – II century B.C) and at the end we will finish our tour visiting the Necropolis with a walk along some of the most spectacular Vie Cave Etrusche, cyclopean road buildings that sink their winding advance between vertiginous tufa walls cut by hand by the etruscans. Once the visit is over it will be time for your lunch and then in the afternoon we will move along to Pitigliano, another important village curiously on the top of an inaccessible spur of tufa, which makes this place unique as a landscape. Although the origin is Etruscan and very important in the medieval, Pitigliano owes its town layout to the Orsini family that inherited the Castle and then restored it completely adding most part of the buildings that we will see during our stay: The Medici Aqueduct; Palazzo Orsini (XI – XII century, but completely restored during XVI century); The Cathedral of SS. Pietro e Paolo (1509) completely rebuilt in baroque style; The church of San Rocco (XIV century); Porta di "Sovana" and the remaining of the Etruscan defensive walls in big tufa blocks; The Synagogue and the jewish district testimony of the great jewish history of this little city and of the big community that in the 700’ made people call this town "Small Gerusalemme" Sorano & Vitozza, the stone cities in the Lente valley – Historical and naturalistic itinerary to discover the old medieval " Rocky Cities"The main intent of this itinerary is to discover two important "Cities" of the past like SORANO and VITOZZA, which, together with Sovana and Pitigliano complete the historical, archaeological and naturalistic aspects of the so called "Stony Maremma". Sorano and Vitozza represent maybe one of the less known parts of the southern part of Tuscany, but on the other hand they conserve a great artistic patrimony that varies from the Etruscan period to the renaissance while their landscape aspects, made of rough tufa rocks and deep valleys, has been an ideal place for all men of the old days who have been able to take advantage of this kind of nature. Also to be mentioned the naturalistic aspect of these places because kingdom of many animal and vegetal species now rare which grow and live undisturbed because of the uncontaminated environment. The proposed program is a full day itinerary and is composed of two short walks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Itinerary:
After meeting with the guide we will start a short excursion of about 4 Km. Which will take us to discover the rocky settlement of Vitozza; This old city, maybe not know enough, is considered the biggest agglomerate of rocky houses of central italy and, with the opinion of many, second only to the famous "Sassi di Matera". Its urban tissue is made of an artistic patrimony of over 200 grottos excavated in the tufa which were used in the medieval period as human being house, warehouses and stables. The custom to live in grottos was so deep rooted in the mind of our ancestors that some of them were still occupied in a census made by the Lorena family in 1783. We will see during the itinerary: The three fortified rocks; The romanic church so called " Chiesaccia"; The grottos inhabited by humans and grottos inhabited by animals (impossible to be dated); the two floor grottos with internal communication steps excavated in the tufa rock; the beautiful "Colombari" ( I century BC – I century AC) antique testimony of a primitive living centre. Stop for your lunch and then the visit of Sorano to admire its medieval beauties. The particularity of this village is firstly because of its strategic position, impregnable in its defence of the city and excellent at an aesthetic view. The origin of Sorano is Etruscan and has been a nice roman city and in the medieval period the Aldobrandeschi Family build the great fortress. The fortune of the city grew much more in the renaissance, when the Orsini Family increased the fortifications of the fortress and made it impregnable. It was right at this time that Cosimo I de Medici gave to Sorano the attribute of " Fire of the wars in Italy". During our walk along the narrow roads of Sorano we will visit: The Orsini Fortress (XI-XII century); The Church of San Niccolò ( XIII-XIV century); Palazzo Comitale. 
At the end we will move on to the Via Cava di San Rocco, which will take us directly in the heart of the homonymous Necropolis Useful LinksManeggio BelvedereManeggio Belvedere - Alta Maremma Toscana, near from Residence. Sovana Tourist Guides News for holidays in Maremma |
