Pitigliano

Last week I visited Pitigliano, a small Italian village of about 4000 inhabitants, located in the green Etruscan hills of the Maremma, the most southern part of Tuscany.

The historic center raises majesticly more than 300 meters above sea level on a protruding tuff rock surrounded by the very steep valleys of the rivers Olpeta, Fiora and Lente. Tuff, a material discharged from volcanoes in prehistoric times has been used by people from early times on and can be worked quite easily as long as it has no contact with air that hardens it. Today most of the old buildings are gone and the remains are made of hollowed out tuff. But the tuff rock and its warm colour stamps the unique character of Pitigliano and the villages of the aera.

I was very lucky to be invited by friends who live in the historic center to come and spend a week with them - an experience I would not like to have missed.