Dave & Meredith's Travel Blog

We spent our last day in Tuscany exploring a hill town that we did not visit in 2008 and that is not visited by most tourists (at least most Americans). A coworker of mine also writes travel guidebooks about Tuscany and Italy and he generously gave me a copy before we left. In his book, he describes a town in southwestern Tuscany called Massa Maritima as an “undiscovered gem” so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be exactly that – very charming and worth a return visit. It’s a very small hill town with the usual picturesque red tile rooftops, great views, steep streets, and cafes tucked away in side alleys. For such a small town, it has a lot of options for places to eat and as we left in late afternoon, lots of cars were passing us in the other direction. The town’s population must expand a lot at night.

The view over the rooftops with the sea in the background.

A typical view down a steep street.

The main square in the old town with the cathedral and campanile.

The cathedral shows a change in architectural style as it was built. The lower part with rounded arches is Romanesque while the upper part with striped marble is Gothic.

The other side of the old square with lots of cafes.

A view down an alleyway with cafes, shops, etc.

— Dave