Tombolo della Feniglia: 6 km of pine forest and free beach without a single car

Between Orbetello and Monte Argentario, the Duna Feniglia Nature Reserve protects a tombolo — a sand spit linking the mainland to the promontory — about 6 km long, covering 474 hectares in total. Crossing it is a forest of stone pines that reaches almost to the waterline, one of the last stretches of Tuscan coast left free of buildings.

Access is free, but on foot and by bicycle only: cars and motorbikes are banned from the main dirt track, passable along the reserve's entire length. Along the way, milestones and information panels mark every kilometre and point out the beach access paths, sandy and wide for its whole extent.

Precisely because there's no motorised traffic, the Feniglia stays an oasis even in the hottest months, though summer weekends can bring a good number of walkers and cyclists. Anyone after real quiet is better off aiming for spring or early autumn, when visitor numbers drop noticeably.

It's also, according to tradition, where the painter Caravaggio was found dying in 1610, before being carried to Porto Ercole.

Getting there

The reserve is accessed from car parks on the outskirts of Orbetello or from the Porto Ercole side; from there you continue only on foot or by bicycle along the dirt track.