“I am Capalbio, made glad by the Sienese Lion”

Castell’Azzara, the last east border of Maremma Tuscany
18 Novembre 2014
The Towers and Fortresses of Argentario
15 Luglio 2014
Foto di Veronica Mosci

Foto di Veronica Mosci


Certainly, the one who’s looking from the Aurelia highway at that tiny hamlet on a hill of Maremma, in the most southern edge of Tuscany, cannot read this writing on the entrance of the walls enclosing the medieval village of Capalbio.
The sentence tells about  the passage of the Sienese domain in the 14th century, which brought about the real birth of a community and a prolific and prosperous time. Economically, Capalbio’s greatest splendor was also during its own county at the end of 1500 during the Grand-Duchy of Tuscany. That time saw the birth of the slaughterhouse, the public salt warehouse, a grocery, the forge-iron works of the Pescia and the mill.
At the beginnig of 1600, Capalbio had a high production of grapes and the hunting, which was the real peculiarity and attitude of the locals, started to reveal how it was important for the community development.
Foto di Marco De Carolis

Foto di Marco De Carolis


Capalbio is rich in history then, a history that saw many lineages succeed and a lot of  battles for the conquest of its strategic lands, and it is absolutely not poor in signs of civilization, which have been arrived up to the sea (the wonderful tower of Buranaccio overlooking the lake of Burano on one side and the dune before the beach of the Capalbio coast on the other side) and more recently with the splendid Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden, to be considered as a unique example in Italy, second in beauty and charm only to the Gaudi’s Park Guell in Barcelona.
Capalbio has a symbiosis with hunting. Woods seems to be made to set that battle man/animal. The boar is the king of the Mediterranean scrub and embodies power, strength, audacity and a wild character. Exactly as the hunter from Capalbio does.
This is a land where traditional Mediterranean cultivations abounded, favoured by  almost perfect for vineyards and olive trees ampelographic conditions.
The overview is enhanced by horses, by ovine and bovine breedings and by a landscape that has kept intact its charm of a marginal land men have been able to coexist with.
If that traveller who’s looking from the Aurelia highway at the hamlet of Capalbio stopped off, he probably would find a tasty surprise. Excellent fruit and vegetables perfect to be paired with the delicious fish. But the food characterizing Capalbio is definitely meat. The boar prepared in any way, finding an excellent processing in the sausages and salami alla norcina (as they do in Norcia – Umbria), or the beef steak, the hare sauces, the typical tortelli alla maremmana, the scottiglia of lamb. Then traditional Tuscan soups.
Capalbio definitely worths a stop, not only a glance. And you will find the fierce Sienese Lion no more, but a proud beauty that will amaze you.
Foto di Roberta Sabatini

Foto di Roberta Sabatini