24/02/2026
Lidt mere inspiration til ferien i Toscana 😎
7 villages in Tuscany tourists never find.
Everyone goes to the same places in Tuscany.
Florence. Siena. San Gimignano. Pienza. Montepulciano.
They're beautiful. Nobody is saying they're not. But they're also packed with tour buses, overpriced restaurants, and souvenir shops selling the same ceramic plates you'll find in every town from here to Rome.
The real Tuscany — the one Italians actually love — is in the villages that don't show up on the first page of Google. The ones with no tour groups, no English menus, and no €7 espresso.
Here are 7 of them.
PITIGLIANO — "LITTLE JERUSALEM"
In the far south of Tuscany, where the landscape turns wild and volcanic, there's a town that looks like it was carved straight out of the cliff.
Because it was.
Pitigliano rises from a massive tufa rock, its honey-colored buildings hanging over the edge like they've been there since the beginning of time. And they nearly have — the Etruscans were here 2,500 years ago.
What makes Pitigliano different from every other hilltop town in Tuscany is its history. This was home to one of Italy's oldest Jewish communities, dating back to the 1500s. You can still visit the synagogue, walk through the old Jewish quarter, and explore the underground tunnels — the "vie cave" — carved into the rock by the Etruscans. These paths are 20 meters deep, cut through solid stone, and almost nobody knows they exist.
The town is 2.5 hours from Florence. That's why nobody goes. And that's exactly why you should.
Dinner here costs half what you'd pay in San Gimignano. The local white wine — Bianco di Pitigliano — is excellent and almost impossible to find outside this area. And when the sun sets and the tufa rock glows orange, you'll have the view entirely to yourself.
MONTEFIORALLE — THE VILLAGE ABOVE THE WINE
Five minutes uphill from Greve in Chianti. That's all it takes.
But almost nobody makes the walk.
Greve is where all the wine tourists go — the piazza, the butcher shop, the tasting rooms. It's nice. But Montefioralle, the tiny medieval village sitting directly above it, is where the magic is.
This is a circular village — the houses follow the ring of the original 10th-century fortifications. You walk through a single stone archway and suddenly you're in a place that hasn't changed in 600 years. Stone walls, flowers spilling from every window, cats sleeping in doorways, and not a single souvenir shop.
The population is under 100 people.
This is also where Amerigo Vespucci — the man America is named after — was born. There's a small coat of arms on one of the houses. No plaque, no museum, no gift shop. Just a quiet reminder that the man who gave his name to two continents came from a village you can walk through in 8 minutes.
Sit on the wall at the edge of the village. Below you, the Chianti vineyards stretch to the horizon. Bring a bottle of wine and some pecorino from Greve. This is Tuscany at its most honest.
BARGA — THE SCOTTISH-ITALIAN VILLAGE
In the Garfagnana valley, north of Lucca, there's a small town that doesn't look or feel like anywhere else in Tuscany.
Barga is built on a steep hillside with pastel-colored houses stacked on top of each other, narrow staircases instead of streets, and a Romanesque cathedral at the very top with views of the Apuan Alps that will stop you mid-sentence.
But here's the strange part: Barga has a deep connection to Scotland. In the 19th and 20th centuries, hundreds of families from Barga emigrated to Scotland to open fish and chip shops and ice cream parlors. The connection is still alive — there's a Scottish-Italian festival, some shop signs are in English, and if you talk to the older locals, some of them will reply in a Scottish accent.
It's one of the most surreal experiences in Tuscany. And nobody knows about it.
The Garfagnana valley around Barga is wild, mountainous, and nothing like the postcard Tuscany of rolling hills and cypress trees. It's hiking territory. The food is mountain food — chestnut flour pasta, wild boar, porcini mushrooms, sheep's milk cheese. A full dinner with local wine costs €15-€20 in a place where the chef is probably also the owner, the waiter, and the person who grew the vegetables.
SUVERETO — MEDIEVAL WALLS AND NOBODY THERE
An hour south of Livorno, in the Maremma — the wild, untamed coast of southern Tuscany that most tourists never reach.
Suvereto is a perfectly preserved medieval village with its original walls, a 13th-century town hall, a Romanesque church, and narrow cobblestone streets that twist between stone buildings covered in ivy.
It's been named one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. And yet, you can walk through it on a summer afternoon and be the only tourist there.
The Maremma region around Suvereto is cowboy country — literally. This is where the butteri, Italy's original cowboys, still herd Maremma cattle on horseback. The coast is 20 minutes away, with beaches that look nothing like the crowded Riviera. And the wine here — Val di Cornia DOC and the nearby Bolgheri wines — is some of the best in Tuscany, without the Chianti markup.
ANGHIARI — THE VILLAGE LEONARDO DA VINCI MADE FAMOUS
Perched on a hill in eastern Tuscany, near the border with Umbria, Anghiari is surrounded by 13th-century walls and filled with streets so narrow two people can barely walk side by side.
In 1440, the Battle of Anghiari took place in the valley below. It was so significant that the city of Florence commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint it on the wall of the Palazzo Vecchio. The painting was never finished — and some art historians believe it's still hidden behind a later fresco by Vasari.
The village itself feels frozen in time. There are small artisan workshops where craftsmen restore antique furniture by hand. There's a monthly antique market. There are trattorias where the menu is whatever the kitchen made that morning.
Anghiari is 30 minutes from Arezzo, which itself is one of the most underrated cities in Tuscany. Combined, they make a day trip that's better than anything on a tour bus itinerary.
CAPALBIO — WHERE ROMANS GO WHEN THEY WANT TUSCANY
On the very southern tip of Tuscany, almost on the border with Lazio, there's a village that Romans have been escaping to for decades.
Capalbio is a tiny medieval walled village on a hilltop surrounded by the wild Maremma countryside. Inside the walls, you'll find stone alleys, a 12th-century fortress, and a handful of restaurants that serve wild boar pasta, local olive oil, and wines from the Morellino di Scansano region.
But Capalbio's real secret is nearby: the Giardino dei Tarocchi — the Tarot Garden. Created by French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle, it's a surreal sculpture garden inspired by Gaudí's Park Güell, hidden in the Tuscan hills. Giant mosaic sculptures of tarot card figures tower over you in a landscape that feels like a dream. Most tourists have never heard of it.
The coast near Capalbio has some of the most unspoiled beaches in Tuscany. No beach clubs, no umbrellas for rent, just sand and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
BAGNO VIGNONI — THE VILLAGE WITH A HOT SPRING FOR A PIAZZA
Every village in Italy has a piazza. Bagno Vignoni has a thermal pool.
Right in the center of the village, where you'd normally find a fountain or a statue, there's a large rectangular stone basin filled with hot mineral water. Steam rises from the surface. The buildings around it are reflected in the water. It looks like something from a Tarkovsky film.
The thermal springs here have been used since Roman times. Lorenzo de' Medici bathed here. Pope Pius II came for his health. Today, tourists drive right past it on their way to Montalcino or Pienza without knowing it exists.
The village is tiny — maybe 30 buildings. But the atmosphere at dusk, when the steam catches the last light and the pool glows against the stone walls, is unlike anything else in Tuscany.
Below the village, the hot water cascades over natural rock formations into free thermal pools where locals swim. Bring a towel. It's free. And it's extraordinary.
SAVE THIS LIST.
These are not the villages you'll find in a guidebook. They're not on the hop-on-hop-off bus route. They don't have audio guides or ticket offices or crowds.
They're the Tuscany that existed before tourism — and the Tuscany that still exists if you know where to look.
