Maremma Natural Park

An Impracticable and Wild Chain of Hills Descending towards the Sea with Sandy Beaches and Cliffs surrounded by marshes, pine woods, cultivated fields and grazing lands.

The Park area, delimited by the railway line Livorno-Rome, stretches along the Tyrrhenian coast from Principina a Mare to Alberese, and up to Talamone. The Park is characterized by important geographical elements such as the last stretch of the river Ombrone, the orographic system of the mountains of the Uccellina which reaches 417 meters of height in Poggio Lecci, the marsh area of the Trappola, and the coast which is both sandy and characterized by steep cliffs.

Discovering the Park
The coastal stretch of the Tuscan Maremma going from Principina a Mare to Talamone and limited partly in the east by via Aurelia, has become since 1975 Maremma Park (Legge Regione Toscana – no. 65, 5th June 1975).

It extends for about 100 square kilometers – except for the outside stretch – and borders in the south and S/W with the sea, facing it in the southern part with a high coast subject to erosion. This kind of coast is followed in the north by beaches where the vegetal covering consists of several pioneer species which can adapt to the difficult sandy and brackish environment and which are replaced by typical species of the Mediterranean maquis as you leave from the shoreline.

The coastline has been subject to deep changes not only during the geological periods, but also during the last decades: it advanced in the south of Marina di Alberese, while it considerably withdrew on the one and on the other side of Bocca d’Ombrone.

From a naturalistic point of view, the complex formed by Uccellina Mountains, the pinewood of Marina di Alberese, the mouth of the river Ombrone, and the Paludi della Trappola represents a precious mosaic of ecosystems shaped by man in different periods and ways, characterizing the landscape without degrading it.