The quiet corner of Tuscany with thermal springs, vineyards and pretty hill towns

With his scowling white face and upturned fang, Charun is an unsettling presence. He is, after all, the Etruscan charioteer of the dead whose demonic profile provides a chilling welcome to the Tuscan underworld. Next to him, a bronzed youth reaches out to caress an older man while a three-headed snake rises menacingly, as if to strike.

I’m staring at these remarkable paintings – which inspired a 2017 Gucci dress design – in a silent corner of southern Tuscany. Dating to the fourth century BC, they adorn the Tomb of the Infernal Chariot, one of 27 Etruscan tombs to have been excavated in the Necropoli delle Pianacce near the town of Sarteano, in the Valdichiana Senese.

Abutting the better-known Val d’Orcia region, the Valdichiana Senese is one of Tuscany’s less heralded destinations – a blissfully quiet valley of semi-deserted roads, lyrical landscapes, Renaissance hill towns and historic spas.

It’s made for slow travel. For walkers, it offers the chance to blaze new paths.

“There aren’t many marked trails but you’ll find plenty of virgin territory – and with a guide you can do a lot,” Manuele de Bellis says as he leads us through the countryside around Sarteano.

Quiet Etruscan villages such as Foiano della Chiana dot the Valdichiana (Photo: Clement Leonard/Getty)

As we go, he dives into hedgerows to point out plants and stops outside a tiny church dedicated to the Madonna del Mal di Capo (the Madonna of the Headache).

“Instead of taking an Aspirin, the local townspeople would come here to pray if they had a headache,” explains Manuele, indicating a stone with a skull-shaped hollow where they would lay their heads.

Pain relief has also been traditionally sought in the area’s thermal waters. Proof of this came in 2020 when archaeologists unearthed a sprawling Etruscan-Roman sanctuary in an abandoned orchard outside San Casciano dei Bagni. At its centre was a sacred pool – Bagno Grande – where the sick would leave votive offerings in the hope of a cure.

“The sanctuary is one of the most important discoveries of this century,” says Emanuele Mariotti, the field excavation director. “When we started working on it nobody could have imagined it was as big as it was.”

One of the bronzes unearthed at the Ritrovato sanctuary

So far, more than 10,000 coins have been dug out of the Bagno’s muddy depths, along with jewellery, lead feet, marble figures and an astonishing 24 bronze statues – the largest discovery of its kind ever made in Italy.

These bronzes are on show in Berlin but you can still see a sample of finds in San Casciano’s Palazzo Comunale up in the hilltop centre.

The water in the Valdichiana is said to be good for the liver – “Chianciano fegato sano” (Chianciano healthy liver) was a 1970’s advertising slogan for the spa town of Chianciano Terme.

To test this claim we head to Chianciano and the Terme di Theia, a modern bath complex where the spa waters maintain a soothing year-round temperature of between 33°C and 36°C.

There are few other people around and it’s wonderfully relaxing to lie back in the main outdoor pool and soak away the afternoon to the sound of the breeze in the nearby trees.

Terme di Theia’s modern bathing complex

Livers fortified, we push on to Montepulciano, the Valdichiana’s main hub and the one place we experience an obvious tourist presence.

A classic hilltop borgo, complete with a steep medieval centre and sweeping views, Montepulciano is a celebrated wine town, renowned for its Vino Nobile. To taste this full-bodied Sangiovese red we duck into Cantina De’ Ricci, a historic cellar in the centro storico.

Dating to the 14th century, the cellars were taken over by the Trabalzini family in 1959 and it’s the current owner’s son, Niccolò Trabalzini, who shows us around its cavernous spaces. He recounts the cellars’ history and how wine has long been a boon to local life.

Wine is calorific, he says, and in times of famine the townsfolk would drink it for sustenance, hence the local saying, “ubriachi ma salvi” (drunk but saved).

Vino Nobile ageing at Cantina De’ Ricci (Photo: Sara Cencetti)

Wine isn’t the Valdichiana’s only traditional business. Terracotta has been produced and worked in the tiny hamlet of Petroio for centuries and at the village’s Museo della Terracotta, we learn how production developed in the area.

We hear about the family workshops that until recently animated life in the village and the memorable characters who worked in them.

It is a story of artisanal pride and changing times – of 15 workshops that once operated here, only two now remain – and one that hits home as we wander the village’s clay-red streets, alone but for a few children playing.

Getting there

British Airways and Vueling serve Florence airport from Heathrow and Gatwick. Car hire at Florence airport costs from €56 (£48) per day.

Staying there

More information