Malaspina

It is extremely hard to get bored in a beautiful city like Florence but if you have visited every single corner and every single museum in Tuscany's capital and you want to venture out of town to discover some other enchanting beauty spot, then take a trip to S. Donato in Poggio which can be reached from the Florence-Siena motorway. It is a suggestive medieval village, dating from around 1033 and situated in the midst of the hilly countryside and vineyards between Florence and Siena. Palazzo Pretorio, decorated with 15th century frescoes, the church, once part of the 14th century castle, and Palazzo Ticci, with a late Renaissance facade, give onto the the village square, now Piazza Malaspina. Don't forget to visit the Sanctuary of S. Maria a Pietracupa just outside S. Donato, containing a painting by Masaccio , a late 16th century polychrome sculpture in wood and a "Crucifixion" by Cosimo Gamberucci (1609).