Things to do
There are a lot of activities to add to your enjoyment. The farm’s eight hundred hectares are an ideal setting for various sports, such as running, jogging, walking, fishing in the private lake and cycling. In the immediate vicinity of the La Striscia Farm there are also equipped facilities for golf and horse-riding. In the centre of one of the richest areas in Europe for history and charm, La Striscia is a perfect base for trips, cultural visits and surprising discoveries of food and wine.
The apartments and country houses of the La Striscia Farm are surrounded by 800 hectares of unspoilt nature, an ideal place for jogging and walking along footpaths and trails of various length and difficulty, surrounded by superb countryside. During your stay we will be available to assist you and give advice about the main routes crossing the property.
Near the La Striscia Farm there are numerous routes that you can go along also by bicycle. When you arrive, we will be pleased to advise you as to the most suitable trails and to indicate where to hire bikes, benefiting from a discount of 10%. There is also the possibility of participating in cycle tours accompanied by local guides.
Our guests can go fishing in a lake of the property, located in a position of rare beauty. It is at the confluence of a stream, which provides a continuous renewal of the waters, in this lake you can fish for carp, tench, roach, barbel and bleak. We provide fishing rods and other equipment free of charge, while baits can be bought in Castelfiorentino.
A few kilometres from the La Striscia you can play golf in a club surrounded by typical scenery of the Tuscan countryside. The Castelfalfi Golf Club (27 holes) offers two different courses and also has a driving range with 10 covered stalls, a Club house equipped with changing rooms and a bar with terrace.
Not far from the La Striscia Farm is a riding school that organises rides and excursions on horseback in the Tuscan countryside. These are naturalistic, scenic and historic routes enabling all riding enthusiasts to visit the hills of the Elsa Valley in a relaxing, original manner. You can also attend lessons and courses in horse-riding or enrol your children for day courses to learn how to care for and handle a horse.
La Striscia is surrounded by a district that offers infinite surprises also to enthusiasts for local wine and food products. A few kilometres away you can visit wineries, taste wines, seek out genuine products and taste dishes of an unforgettable flavour. On your arrival you will be given a membership card of the “Toscana In” Association, which will enable you to enjoy a series of services, benefits and discounts in local shops and restaurants with agreements.
A few hundred metres from the Villa of the La Striscia Farm you can visit, by appointment, the studio of the painter Carlo Romiti, who has dedicated himself for the last twenty years to the rediscovery and interpretation of local flora and fauna, with particular interest in horses and wild boar. In Carlo Romiti’s paintings the earth of the countryside is not only a source of artistic inspiration but also provides materials for creating the colours he uses to paint his canvases. Info: http://www.carloromiti.it/ – info@carloromiti.it
Gambassi Terme, about ten kilometres away, is the nearest town to the Farm. It is located along the Via Francigena, which was travelled every year by thousands of pilgrims between Rome and Canterbury. Still today you can walk along some stretches of this itinerary, in the midst of splendid views. Just outside Gambassi, we recommend a visit to an important stopping point of the Via Francigena: the Pieve di Santa Maria a Chianni, a parish church dating from the late 12th century.
Another town about ten kilometres from the Farm is Montaione, which look out on one of the most evocative panoramas in Tuscany. There are various shops and two large supermarkets. TheSacro Monte of San Vivaldo, in the immediate vicinity, is worth a visit; around 1515 a series of chapels were built there, with terracotta decorations depicting scenes and episodes from the life and Passion of Christ.
Castelfiorentino is a town about twenty kilometres from the La Striscia Farm, with a large supermarket, a hospital and a railway station with a regular train service to Florence. There are two interesting museums: the one next to the Sanctuary of Santa Verdiana, which also houses works by Cimabue and Giotto, and the one dedicated to the Tuscan painter Benozzo Gozzoli (1421-1497). Also worth a visit are the Church of St. Francis and the fine, tree-lined Piazza Gramsci, overlooked by the Teatro del Popolo, the only remaining theatre of the 1800s in Valdelsa.
The ancient town of Certaldo, known as “The Castle”, represents a rare example of a town layout with a marked medieval character (although with some development also during the Renaissance), culminating in the imposing Palazzo Pretorio, with a terracotta façade decorated with characteristic coats-of-arms in stone and multi-coloured tiles. A funicular railway will get you comfortably to the historic town centre of Certaldo in a few minutes, the birthplace of Giovanni Boccaccio, one of the fathers of the Italian language (1313-1375).
About fifteen kilometres from the La Striscia Farm you can enjoy one of the most celebrated panoramas of the whole of Tuscany: San Gimignano, with its famous towers. The town layout and the numerous civil and religious buildings have survived practically intact from the Middle Ages to the present and 15 of the original 72 towers are left, more than enough to make its skyline recognisable still. Not to be missed is the Collegiate of Santa Maria Assunta (12th century), whose two naves are decorated by stupendous series of frescoes.
We strongly recommend travelling the twenty kilometres of road separating the La Striscia Farm from Volterra. This town, of Etruscan origin, stands on a steep ridge between rugged ravines (the famous “balze” [cliffs]), offers splendid medieval palaces and a Cathedral dating from the 11th century. Of particular interest is the Museo Etrusco Guaranacci, one of the oldest public museums in Europe, founded in 1761. “If you love ingenious spontaneous forms that could never be standardised,” wrote D.H. Lawrence, “go to the Etruscans”.
About 45 minutes’ drive from the La Striscia Farm is one of the most famous medieval cities in the world. Over the centuries Siena has been able to preserve places and memories of its history intact. We recommend first and foremost that you visit Piazza del Campo and the splendid Cathedral with its Gothic façade. A curiosity: the basilica church of San Domenico preserves the reliquary of Santa Caterina da Siena, patron saint of Italy together with St. Francis of Assisi.
To reach Florence we advise you to drive to Castelfiorentino and then proceed by train. It would be impossible to summarise the attractions of the city; here we shall just recall that Florence is considered the cradle of the Renaissance, an extraordinary period of literary, artistic and scientific development, which took place from the 14th to the 16th century. The epicentre of this “extensive museum” is the Cathedral Square with the Giotto Bell-tower, Piazza della Signoria with the Palazzo Vecchio, with the sculptures of the Loggia dei Lanzi and the nearby Uffizi Gallery, one of the most famous museums in the world.
Just 50 kilometres from the La Striscia Farm you can find some well-known seaside resorts, which offer equipped beaches, good restaurants and various opportunities for evening and night-time entertainment. You can proceed from Cecina for San Vincenzo or northwards towards Versilia, Viareggio and Forte dei Marmi. If you’re willing to go a bit further you can visit the Cinque Terre, a stretch of coastline of the east Ligurian Riviera, full of tiny villages overlooking the sea.
About an hour and a half away from the Farm is Lucca, one of the main art cities of Italy, famous for its intact city wall of the 15th-17th century. Inside the walls is a very well-preserved historic centre, rich in medieval churches and renaissance palaces. Lucca is a city that invites you to walk and take in the charm of its narrow streets and the play of light in its many squares, the most famous of which is the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro. Outside the town we suggest a visit to the Garfagnana, an area of extraordinary natural beauty.