So blown away by the Val di Cornia last time we visited (only a few days previously), that we said we’d have to return as soon as possible. And that’s just what we did as soon as our half week of work was over. There was at least one town I wanted to return to – and that was Monteverdi Marittimo. Return to, the more observant of you may ask. Well, yes – sort of. Unfortunately, I failed to blog that we had driven through the town last time we were here. It looked really nice, and there were people out and about and sitting in the small piazza in benches, just taking in the magnificent views. I think it was in the accompanying video, but I’d forgotten about it in the blog. Anyway, it seemed so nice that we wanted to give it a go, and stop there.

Along the way, we’d stop at a nice village, and a further surprise awaited us in the form of a town we found so lovely, that we considered it might be a Casale Marittimo beater! There’s a video of our day near the bottom, so be sure to check that out.

But first – I had a wee walk that morning. Enjoy the photos.

Righto! It was time to go and explore. Of course, to explore one must load up on calories, so that’s what we did, courtesy of L’Isola del Gusto!

We wanted to hit Monteverdi Marittimo for lunch and be hungry with it, so we had a little time to kill. On the way, therefore, we would stop off at the previously unexplored village of Canneto – the old portion of which is shaped like a dagger in its sheath. We parked here, so it was only a few steps from town. There was a bar nearby, along with signs to wine and oil-tasting.

It’s a small place, so we had a wander around it’s walls and then inside – and went to the church there too. The bells went off and kept on going at one stage, bless them. It had great views of the valley on the north side, and was just so peaceful. As well as the little bottega, there was a pizzeria there – seems to get good reviews on Google – but it wasn’t open when we were there, and we simply weren’t hungry enough.

It was warm and breezy, and although I can’t see us visiting again too soon during the day time – it might be a nice place to go to for an evening meal.

It was time to press on to our main target of the day: Monteverdi Marittimo. We travelled on roads that were fairly familiar to us from our trip a few days ago, but the weather was nicer, and the colour of the sky contrasted nicely with the forested hills. When we’d driven through the town last time, we saw that there was parking right next to the Carabinieri station. Across the street, the viewpoint overlooked a footie pitch, before the vista disappeared into distant haze.

It was a short walk into town (a couple of hundred meters. We had a patter about the central area of the town, and up a bit of a slope to a small area consisting of a couple of tiny piazzette and roads leading down to what looked like a residential area. In truth, at the time we were a little disappointed as the town seemed to promise more.

We thought we had explored a lot of the nice area of town, and were hungry by now. We had a choice between a place which had better reviews, but didn’t seem to have outside seating – and a place which had nice seating with views into the valley. We opted for the latter (Bar Sport). No lights were on in the place, so I had to wander in and ask if they were open. They must have been opening just then, because we got a friendly nod. A few other people started wandering in too – cyclists mostly, so that was a good sign. It was fairly blustery out by now, so we had to clip down our tablecloth. I went for a 2-course, double primi meal (both soups and pastas feature as first courses on Italian menus).

After the meal was done, we had thought to head out and spend the afternoon exploring at random. However, just below the dining area a little street ran parallel, and contained a couple of food-related shops, so we walked there and headed to the right. It was then that we realised, as we ambled along, looking down the lanes to the left that led to spectacular views, that we almost did Monteverdi Marittimo a disservice.

We spent the next 30 minutes exploring the truly gorgeous residential part of town. Here was where the real beauty lay in Monteverdi Marittimo. Pristine streets and steep lanes led downwards towards shallow walls where you could get some amazing views of the forested valleys.

We were well chuffed with ourselves for having taken that little tour (the fact that I accidentally stood on a cat’s tail notwithstanding). We walked back to the car, and took a look at the map to see where we could go next. I spotted the town of Sassetta which we had skipped last time out, so we made our way towards that. It was a little bit of a squiggly drive. Due to its location on a spur in a valley, there seems to be only three ways in/out of the town. We took one of them in, and I gasped as we passed by a knife-edge of land on which some houses lay, and behind it forest-covered hills. It gave us the perfect parallax effect – everything seemed so unreal-looking. The rest of the town could be seen in the background a ways to the right. We parked on the edge of the main town in a little triangle with having a drink in mind.

We stopped at a small bar/gelateria – the guy was clearly closing down for riposo, and apologised, but pointed out that there was bar in a small square not too far from where we were. We ordered and sat, and were amused by how some worker guys who were having pizza there were feeding the piazza’s resident cat.

Once we’d watered and bathroomed, we had a choice to keep on the main road to explore the main part, or be drawn instead to the archway which led to a more residential part. We decided upon the latter and what a series of view awaited us there. We were both entranced by the narrow steep lanes, each house a little different, each decorated with miniature sculptures or flowers and potted plants. The town was mostly made of grey stone, rather than the sandy tufa we’re more used to, but there was pink stone set into houses and steps. Not painted pink, but a natural pink – not much of it, but enough to make the place characterful.

Some of the houses were built on a knife-edge and afforded the owners spectacular view either onto the neighbouring forested hills or the adjoining hilly valleys. We were really taken in, and wondered what kind of prices property would attract here.

After 15-20 minutes of being slack-jawed – I don’t think the above photos do it justice – we climbed back up to the amenities side of town – and that had its merits too.

They have a butchers, grocers, post office, pharmacy… we spotted some walks leading from the village we hadn’t the time to check. But we did walk down about 200 meters to have a look at the vista at a large new building made to look like an old building… or was it vice-versa. There was a fab view over the tree-covered mountains.

We walked back to, and then beyond, the car – as we wanted to take more distant shots of the town, because the vistas really blew us away.

So is it a Casale Marittimo-beater? I think they’re equally lovely, but Casale has it beaten due to its relative ease of access, closeness to the sea and nearness to Cecina and all its amenities. Sassetta is probably better as a chill-zone – somewhere to bury yourself into another life. I’ve also been told that Sassetta has thermal pools and spas – so we might duck back for another look, as that might seriously be in its favour.

Here’s the video of our day out!

That evening, we had one of our infrequent visits to Il Sacco Fiorentino – we tried going there a few times, but frequently found it closed. Anyway, I had one of the most unusual things I’ve ever had in a Volterran restaurant: Curry noodles with chicken and veg. Hear me out – sometimes you just need a different type of flavour-set! These went down a treat… they weren’t hot, but the flavour was great. Nice to see someone trying something different during the tourist season. There is a Pokebowl place on our street, and some places do sushi during the winter months.

We polished off the day with a stroll about the town.

I hope you enjoyed the read – all 3 villages are worth the trip if you’re in the area!