Scarlino

Along the coast of the Tuscan Maremma perched in a dominant position on the Gulf of Follonica, on the foothills of Monte d’Alma there is the village of Scarlino. The town is only 7 km from some of the most famous and appreciated Maremma beaches in the whole region, including Cala Violina and Cala Martina which are located within the suggestive landscape setting of the Scarlino nature reserve. The municipal territory of this city borders to the north-west with the municipality of Follonica, to the north with Massa Marittima, to the east with Gavorrano, to the south Castiglione della Pescaia, while to the west it is bathed by the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Scarlino is not only sea but also history. Near this village, near the fortress, artifacts have been found which document the presence of settlements already during the Bronze Age. Like most of the towns in Tuscany, Scarlino too took on its present form during the medieval period from which it has drawn an extraordinary legacy consisting of monuments, palaces and extremely valuable works of art. Scarlino today represents a renowned holiday center in which there is a famous tourist port of the Marina di Scarlino in the Puntone locality. Precisely by virtue of its many faces, Scarlino represents one of the few realities on the Tuscan coast able to combine cultural and seaside tourism.

What to see

The historic center of Scarlino begins with the Rocca Pisana, a fortress built in the 14th century and used today as an open-air theater. The castle stands at the highest point of the town and is accessed by a wooden gate preceded by Piazza Belvedere from which you have a complete view of the Metalliferous Hills and the gulf. Nearby there is also the documentation center of the territory, a small museum with a collection that covers about 200 years of local history and in which rare fifteenth-century coins known as “the treasure of Scarlino” are kept.

As for the religious buildings, in the old part of the city, we point out the church and convent of San Donato in which there is a vast art collection that traces six centuries of history.

In the Puntone area in via delle Collacchie there is the MPS, a museum set up with finds recovered from the depths of the Gulf of Follonica which describe life in the ancient port of Scarlino between the 4th century BC and the 7th century AD.