Between the provinces of Livorno and Grosseto, there is the large Provincial Park of Montioni that, enclosed between the Valley of the Vornia River to the north and the Valley of the Pecora River to the south, protects a group of low hills dominated by Mediterranean maquis.
Inland, we find the State Integral Nature Reserve of Poggio Tre Cancelli, which can be visited only for study with the previous authorization of the State Forest Ranggers, and the State Nature Reserve for Wildlife Popultation of Marsiliana, a pilot farm dedicated only to horse and Maremma cow breeding.-the Park of Montioni is easy to reach from both Follonica and the Val di Cornia.
In particular, a road splits it in two, towards the hamlet of Montioni. The area is crossed by many tracks that can be used for trekking, mountain biking and horse riding in Tuscany. Among the excursions, we recommend the one that goes from Podere La Beyyuga to the medieval church-tower of the Pievaccia, and the one that from Montioni leads to the ruins of the early 1800 French settlement and to the suggestive alum quarries of Poggio Saracino and Poggio Speranzona.
In the hamlet of Pratini, in the Municipality of Follonica, there is a Visitors Centre that rents bikes and provides guided walking tours and bike tours. The worst season for long walks in Tuscany is summer, as the weather is very hot and it is easy to get bitten by painful horseflies.
The Park of Montioni is a series of uninhabited woods that stretch as far as the eye can see, marked only by the reddish scars of firebreaks. Almost everywhere, you are plunged in the evergreen plants of the tall maquis, holm oak, viburnum, strawberry tree, heather and phillyra, which carry in the stumps fringed by suckers the scars of the repeated cuts that they suffered in time. In some spots, the maquis becomes lower and incredibly tangled, dominated by the tree heath and by the fearsome creepers of the stracciabrache that, with its curved thorns, can easily tear clothes and skin.
Nevertheless, it is just here that mushroom hunters try to slip in to find magnificent specimens of Porcino, with their very dark caps. It is very hard to meet oak woods or tall woods because the exploitation that these forests have undergone stopped only in the fifties of the 20th century. One of the few strands of tall maquis that is slowly shifting to holm oak wood is in the State Nature Reserve of Poggio Tre Cancelli.
Walking in Tuscany along the tracks that cross the park, still today it is possible to see the most significant traces of the unbreakable bond between the wood and the people, represented by the kiln clearings that suddenly open u in the thick of the maquis, with their dark soil enlivened by the bright yellow of the beautiful broom. Come to discover this quiet region of Maremma Toscana. It is perfect for walking, mountain biking, cycling and horseback riding in Tuscany. You can stay at our Hotel Prategiano, which enjoys a central position, if you want to get to know this special part of Italy.
