San Vincenzo Guide

San Vincenzo sits in Tuscany, Italy, its main town built directly on the Tyrrhenian coast in the province of Livorno, right at the heart of the Etruscan Coast. Sand dunes back the shoreline, Mediterranean scrub grows wild between them, and the sea stays clear enough to see the bottom a good distance out.

The beaches are the reason you keep coming back to the water: golden sand runs along a cobalt-coloured sea that has held Blue Flag status for years running. It is the fine, easy kind of sand that makes you want to lie down and stay a while, and right beside it stands the San Vincenzo Tower, watching over swimmers the way it has watched over this coast for centuries.

South of San Vincenzo, Rimigliano Nature Park spreads out between Piombino and Campiglia Marittima, 120 hectares of coastline split by an old road running straight through the middle. On one side, windswept dunes carry sea lilies and juniper; on the other, quiet farmland gives way to myrtle, mastic, holm oak and cork, all folded into a pine and live oak forest with the Tuscan Archipelago floating on the horizon.

Duck into the pine forest near San Vincenzo and you find a network of paths built for walking, cycling and horse riding, shaded enough to escape the midday sun, plus a proper trail laid out for anyone training seriously. Go quietly in the early morning and you stand a real chance of spotting red squirrels, dormice or foxes, while pheasants, jays and green woodpeckers move through the branches overhead.

Out on the water, the Marina di San Vincenzo is where the day usually starts: book a round trip across the Tyrrhenian Sea, sign up for a snorkelling or scuba course with the local diving school, or take a lesson at the windsurfing school if you have never tried. Between the sailing, fishing, water skiing and windsurfing on offer, it is easy to fill a week without repeating yourself.

Back in town, the Sailor's walk threads through the streets, the nature and the sea in one loop, and it is worth timing your walk to finish at the Statue of the Sailor, a seven-metre bronze figure that has faced the water since 2010, right as the sun drops behind the Tuscan archipelago. Duck into the church of San Vincenzo Ferreri along the way for Giampaolo Talani's frescoes, finished in 1987, before you head back out for the sunset.