Although Tuscany is a highly popular holiday destination, Grosseto has long been overlooked by tourists. This, however, is changing, as the city is now setting an example for sustainable tourism in Italy.
When I first decided to visit Grosseto in early spring, it was a part of Tuscany I had neither visited nor heard of, despite living in Italy for five years. Even with Tuscany’s fame as a holiday hotspot, and its proximity to Florence and Siena, Grosseto—with its historic city center, untamed nature reserve, and nearby beaches—had largely been left unexplored by both tourists and Italians alike.
Now, this once-overlooked city is gaining recognition as the 2024 European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism. This award, given by the European Commission, honors Grosseto as a model for emerging sustainable tourism destinations in Europe, chosen from among 40 cities. The initiative aims to foster a network of destinations that share best practices for responsible tourism, serving as examples for other European cities and towns.
“Grosseto’s achievement as a Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism is the culmination of years of dedicated work to enhance our natural and cultural heritage,” said Antonfrancesco Vivarelli Colonna, mayor of Grosseto. “This is just the beginning of our journey towards a greener and more sustainable future for Grosseto.”
As the first Italian city to receive this award, Grosseto aspires to be a model for how responsible tourism can be adopted in a country that tops many travelers’ wish lists. While destinations like Venice, Positano, and Cinque Terre struggle with excessive tourist numbers, Grosseto’s efforts demonstrate how alternative destinations in Italy can promote responsible travel and attract visitors seeking a more relaxed and meaningful experience.
Grosseto’s historic city center, surrounded by well-preserved medieval walls and filled with ancient buildings, is as visually stunning as any Italian “centro.” However, it is the city’s natural features that truly distinguish it. Just a short drive west from the city center leads to the vast, 9,000-hectare Regional Park of Maremma, which extends from the Uccellina mountains to the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Here, the landscape shifts from pine trees and wheat fields to flat, dusty plains inhabited by wild horses and native horned Maremma cows. The scenery is more reminiscent of the African savannah than the typical Tuscan countryside. The park’s western edge is lined with long stretches of natural sandy beaches scattered with driftwood.
The conservation of this park is central to Grosseto’s sustainability initiatives, as is the focus on numerous slow agritourism projects within the area. Unlike popular tourist spots like Florence and the Chianti wine region, Grosseto is one of the least densely populated provinces in Italy. The park offers a variety of pristine landscapes, from forests and dusty plains to wetlands and coastal areas, and is home to more than 250 species of birds, as well as badgers, porcupines, wolves, wild boars, and deer, some of which are rare or endangered.
However, this area wasn’t always so inviting to visitors. For centuries, this part of the greater Maremma region was a marshy swamp infested with malaria-carrying mosquitoes. In the 1930s, Mussolini launched the bonifica integrale project, which aimed to reclaim Italy’s marshy lands to make them arable and encourage Italians to buy plots and establish agricultural businesses.
Today, 30% of the Regional Park of Maremma is dedicated to agriculture. The park is home to 32 agriturismi (B&B-style accommodations on working farms), all of which must adhere to specific environmental standards, such as using recycled and eco-friendly materials, adopting energy and water-saving practices, and appointing an in-house environment manager. I spent a peaceful night at the sprawling estate of Tenuta San Carlo, surrounded by towering pine trees, saltwater marshes ideal for rice cultivation, and paddocks of striking Maremma cows with their long, curved horns.
Gifted with a box of the agriturismo’s organic rice grown just outside my door, I prepared a simple risotto in the apartment kitchen for dinner, savoring my first taste of local produce. The estate also grows organic heirloom wheat, legumes, chickpeas, alfalfa, clover, flax, and oats and offers cooking classes and agriculture-focused tours.
The next morning, I took a guided tour around the estate with Ariane Lotti, the fourth-generation owner and an ideal steward given her background in environmental land management. According to Lotti, whose great-grandfather purchased the land for Tenuta San Carlo in 1936, “It’s a good way to diversify income and preserve the rural landscape because you’re also renovating and repurposing older farmhouses. I spend a lot of time giving tours, explaining to people how rice grows, hosting them. It’s a really important part of reconnecting people with the land and food production.”
Borrowing a bike from the agriturismo, I cycled through pine tree-shaded paths to a wild, secluded stretch of beach. Unlike the often-overdeveloped Italian seaside resorts and beach clubs I’ve seen across the country, with their rows of plastic beach chairs and music blaring from speakers, here the only structures were makeshift driftwood forts providing shade from the sun; the only sound was the gentle lull of waves. The pristine natural beaches, lush Mediterranean vegetation, soft sand dunes, and clear waters offer a different kind of Italian beach holiday.
The park and its surroundings are also known for numerous small food producers offering a range of gastronomic tours and specialty dishes. One could spend days here tasting local cheeses, wine, honey, olive oil, beer, fresh fruit, vegetables, and pasta. I visited the cheesemakers at Caseificio Inno al Sole, where I sampled soft white knots of buffalo mozzarella made fresh that morning, with the buffaloes grazing just behind the shop.
