Sammezzano and the Balze: the East painted at the heart of the Valdarno

A few kilometres from Florence, yet a world away from its queues and its selfies, hides one of the most unexpected places in Tuscany. The Castle of Sammezzano, in the municipality of Reggello, is not a medieval keep as you might expect: it is an eclectic palace dominated by the Orientalist style, the result of a long 19th-century renovation commissioned by the Marchese Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes d'Aragona.

Inside, horseshoe arches, fretted stucco and thousands of coloured tiles compose interiors that seem to have stepped out of an Andalusian dream. Some rooms bear carved dates: the entrance around 1853, the central tower in 1889. After serving for a time as a luxury hotel until the 1990s, the castle fell into a long abandonment, marked by complicated corporate affairs and endless changes of ownership.

It is precisely this suspended state that makes it a symbol of undertourism. Sammezzano cannot be visited freely: the interiors normally remain closed and accessible only during rare special openings organised by local committees and associations. It is worth finding out before you set off, and avoiding any complicity with the trespassing explorations that over the years have damaged the rooms.

Accompanying the visit is an equally astonishing landscape: the Balze of the Valdarno. These are vertical walls of sand, clay and gravel, rising up to a hundred metres, carved by the millennial erosion of sediments from the ancient lake that once filled the valley of the Arno. Badlands, spires and deep ravines trace out an almost lunar terrain, scattered between Reggello and the neighbouring municipalities at the foot of the Pratomagno.

For those seeking a quiet alternative to overcrowded destinations, this corner of the Valdarno has much to offer: short trails among the badlands, peaceful villages, the great centuries-old park of the castle glimpsed beyond the gate. It is easily reached from Leccio, but it is best to move on foot, with respect and slowness. Here the value lies not in collecting images, but in calmly contemplating a fragile place, awaiting a future still to be written.

Getting there

The Castle of Sammezzano lies in the hamlet of Leccio, municipality of Reggello, in the Florentine Valdarno. By car you leave the A1 motorway at the Incisa-Reggello toll gate and continue towards Leccio, from which a tree-lined avenue leads to the castle's park. The nearest railway stations are Figline Valdarno and Rignano sull'Arno. Bear in mind that the castle is not currently open to the public and can be seen only from the outside.