A Common Buzzard soars over a Tuscan village. Photo: Rick Wright
Tuscany, the heart of the ancient kingdom of Etruria, is as rich in culture as it is in birds. Famous artistic centers such as Florence and Sienaperch in a landscape dotted with medieval villages, while a fine network of archaeological parks provides excellent birding amid ancient ruins. With late morning starts (usually between 7:30 and 10:00 am) and a minimum of hotel changes (with three nights at our first hotel and six at our delightful last), this is a relaxed and relaxing experience of some of the greatest historical and artistic treasures of Europe, combined with low-key excursions in search of a surprising array of breeding birds and migrants. We’ll also have the opportunity to taste world-class wine from some of Italy’s finest vineyards. All of our scheduled group activities leave individual participants the possibility of taking the day off to simply enjoy the bright skies, warm air, and easy-going lifestyle ofTuscany.
A map of our tour route is available on line.
Day 1: The tour begins at 11:00 am at a hotel in the vicinity of Florence International Airport. Once assembled, we’ll drive to the renowned Fucecchio marshes, the largest inland wetland in Italy. Among the more than 70 breeding bird species here, we’ll be looking especially for Purple and Squacco Herons and Glossy Ibis; we also have excellent chances at encountering northbound shorebirds. After lunch we’ll continue north to Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, our base for the next three days. Along the way we’ll stop at the legendary Ponte Maddalena, where we can hope to see our first Crag Martins. Night in Castelnuovo.
Day 2: Castelnuovo lies at the heart of the lush Garfagnana region, nestled between the high Apennines and the Apuan Alps. The massive Apuan Alps are famous for their deep canyons, steep slopes, and striking marbles, quarried since antiquity. Rising to over 6,000 feet, these dramatic peaks hold such desirable (and sometimes elusive) high-altitude species as Alpine and Red-billed Choughs, Rock Thrush, and Crag Martin. The mixed forests and open pastures can produce Woodlark or Red-backed Shrike. We’ll drive to several sites, each as appealing for its scenery as for its birds, taking short, slow-paced walks in search of the region’s many specialties. Night in Castelnuovo.
Day 3: The mountains of northern Italy remain surprisingly wild, though we’ll be fortunate indeed to glimpse a wolf or a Eurasian Griffon Vulture. Among our more realistic hopes today in the Apennines are such high-elevation and forest species as Alpine Chough, Coal Tit, Firecrest, Serin, and Common Crossbill. The sites we’ll visit include the beautiful small village of Castiglione and the 15th-century pilgrim’s hostel of San Pellegrino, where the town’s eponymous saint launched the devil right into the mountainside. Night in Castelnuovo.
Day 4: We’ll bid a reluctant farewell to Castelnuovo after breakfast to return to Florence, where we’ll drop our bags at our hotel—a handsomely renovated palace once owned by Rossini—and then spend two hours in the treasure-laden salons of the magnificent Uffizi Gallery. The afternoon will leave us time for shopping, strolling, and simply enjoying the sights here in the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. We can view the exteriors of the cathedral (and perhaps its nesting Peregrines), the baptistery, and Giotto’s perfect belltower, then pay a visit to Santa Maria Novella, the most beautiful Gothic church in all of Italy. Giotto’s incredibly moving Crucifix is just the most famous of the many fine objects ornamenting the interior. Night inFlorence.
Day 5: After breakfast we’ll make the short drive to Siena. Buses are not permitted inside this wonderful city, so we’ll be dropped off beneath the walls of the fifteenth-century fortress. We’ll walk about forty-five minutes up and down the brick streets to the Cathedral Museum, stopping along the way to gape at the Piazza del Campo, perhaps the finest surviving medieval square in all of Europe, and at the massive Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption. The museum houses the original rose window and limestone statues from the front of the cathedral, along with Duccio’s influential and beautiful Maestà. We’ll have lunch in Siena or on our way south to Manciano, which will be home for the rest of the tour. We’ll have dinner in our hotel, whose kitchen produces excellent Tuscan specialties from the freshest of local ingredients. Night in Manciano.
Day 6: We’ll enjoy breakfast in our hotel, then leave for the Orbetello region. An hour’s drive from our hotel, the fields and wetlands of Orbetello support good populations of many typical Mediterranean species, including Little Egret, Yellow-legged Gull, Little Tern, and European Bee-eater; the shallow, enclosed bay itself provides roosting and nesting sites for several heron species. Montagu’s Harrier and Great Spotted Cuckoo are rare but regular in the area. We might run across lingering waterfowl or shorebirds at a small pond near Albinia, famous for its rarities in wet years. We’ll have time to bird around the hotel or relax before dinner. Night in Manciano.
Day 7: After breakfast we’ll drive half and hour to one of the most remarkable archeological sites inItaly. Vulci, a thriving city-state in the sixth century BC, was conquered 400 years later by the Romans, who were eager to take advantage of the city’s strategic position on the Tyrrhenian Sea. We’ll walk along the Roman road past Etruscan fortifications and the ruins of lavish palaces, with Hoopoe, European Bee-eater, Crested Lark, and Corn Bunting among the birds we can expect to see; Common Cuckoo and Common Nightingale should both be heard, but can be more difficult to glimpse. Night in Manciano.
Day 8: We’ll have a quick breakfast in our hotel, then leave for the hour-long drive to Porto Santo Stefano, where we’ll board the ferry to GiglioIsland, ten miles off the Argentario Promontory. The ferries on this route are not designed for birding, but we have a good chance at seeing Shag, Scopoli’s and Yelkouan Shearwaters, or Caspian Tern on the crossing. After landing on Giglio, we’ll have a brisk five-minute walk to the public bus that will take us nearly 2,000 feet up the mountain to the twelfth-century Castello. We’ll take a couple of hours to explore the narrow alleyways and steep staircases of this remarkably well-preserved (and still inhabited) fortress, then have lunch in a restaurant cut into the living rock of the island. Birding on Giglio can be exciting, though we’ll be hard pressed to repeat our 2011 sighting of an Eleonora’s Falcon. We’ll ride back downhill to the harbor to catch the ferry to Porto San Stefano. We’ll be back at our hotel in time for a break before dinner. Night in Manciano.
Day 9: Today will be devoted to a relaxing exploration of the romantic Tuscan countryside. We’ll start with some optional early birding on the startlingly birdy grounds of our hotel; among the more than 40 species regularly seen and heard here are European Green Woodpecker, European Stonechat, Woodchat Shrike, Golden Oriole, Melodious and Sardinian Warblers, Cirl Bunting, and Italian Sparrow. After a late breakfast, our bus will pick us up mid-morning, taking us first to admire a breathtaking view across deep gorges to Pitigliano. If there is interest and the leaders believe that everyone in the group can comfortably negotiate the steep streets of Sorano, we’ll go on to that spectacular hill town to look for Blue Rock Thrush before returning to Pitigliano for lunch. Afterwards we’ll drive through gentle hills and across flowery fields to another atmospheric village, Scansano, where we’ll indulge in a tasting of some of Tuscany’s best wines, gems that remain little known outside of Italy. Along the way we’ll be looking for the rare Lesser Gray Shrike near the famous thermal baths of Saturnia. Dinner in our hotel. Night in Manciano.
Day 10: After breakfast in our hotel, we’ll set out on the ancient Aurelian Road to Cerveteri. The paths through this impressive Etruscan necropolis are lined with hundreds of monumental tombs, some of them 100 feet across, dating from the eighth to the third century BC. The tombs can be viewed from a wide, level path, and many can also be seen from the inside by ascending or descending short staircases. Particularly notable here is the famous Tomba di Rilievi, its walls ornamented with important reliefs showing tools, weapons, and other aspects of everyday Etruscan life from 2,500 years ago.
We’ll have lunch on the ramparts of Tarquinia, across from the Renaissance palace that houses the city’s world-famous collections of Etruscan antiquities. After lunch we’ll stroll across the street to spend an hour in the museum, starting with the renowned winged horses and working our way through the galleries of Etruscan art and artifacts, many of them from the very tombs we will have visited in Cerveteri. We’ll return to our hotel in time for a break before dinner at a classically Tuscan restaurant in Manciano. Night in Manciano.
Day 11: We’ll have breakfast at our hotel, then leave for Diaccia-Botrona Natural Reserve, where we’ll board a flat-bottomed boat to move slowly through extensive marshes in search of Squacco Heron, Western Marsh Harrier, Pied Avocet, and Ashy-headed Wagtail. We’ll stop at a couple of blinds along the way, hoping for views of nesting Greater Flamingos and perhaps a lingering shorebird or duck. After about two hours, we’ll get off the boat to walk on a flat abandoned road about 20 minutes to rendezvous with our bus. We’ll have lunch in medieval Castiglione della Pescaia before returning to our hotel for a break and final festive dinner. Night in Manciano.
Day 12: We’ll leave Manciano after an early breakfast for the two-and-a-half-hour drive toRome’s Fiumicino International Airport, where the tour ends at 11:00 am.
Updated: 03 February 2012
Prices
- 2013 Price not yet available : *
- (2011 Tour Price $5,100) :
Notes
Maximum group size 14 with two leaders.
* Tour invoices paid by check carry a modest discount. Details here.