Photo Gallery
Rick Wright
The ancient culture of what is now central Italy…
…occupies an even more ancient landscape…
…where romantic villages and castles perch above wooded hills and vineyards.
Our first six nights will be spent in a beautifully renovated Tuscan estate…
…just below the perfect medieval town of Manciano…
…where Common Redstarts sing from rooftops…
…and every corner reveals this region’s simple beauty.
From here we’ll visit the Orbetello lagoon and the mighty Argentario Promontory…
Photo: Marco Valtriani
…inhabited by colorful European Bee-eaters…
…and handsome Hooded Crows.
The salt pans of Tarquinia attract delicate Slender-billed Gulls to the flat water behind the Mediterranean dunes…
…where outlandish Greater Flamingos sieve the shallows.
After our visit to Siena and Florence, we’ll move to Castelnuovo, nestled between the Apuan Alps and the Apennines…
…wild landscapes of forested lakes and mountains…
…cut by rushing streams, the home of White-throated Dippers and Crag Martins.
Marble quarries here have provided raw materials to artists and builders since the days of the Romans.
We’ll be following the footsteps of the famous when we visit such sites as the fifteenth-century pilgrimage hostel at San Pellegrino…
…and the ancient church of Codiponte.
There’s always time for a coffee break on a Birds and Art tour…
…inside or out…
…where the distinctive Italian Sparrow is every bit as bold as its more familiar relatives.