Colline Metallifere · Maremma

Boccheggiano

The mining village among the red "Roste", a gateway to the UNESCO Geopark.

Boccheggiano is a village in the municipality of Montieri, in the Colline Metallifere hills, province of Grosseto, set among woods at around 500 metres above sea level. A village of miners for centuries — its copper and pyrite mines, the last of them Campiano, closed in 1994, marked the history of Italian mining — it preserves a landscape found nowhere else: the Roste, the imposing red heaps of slag along the river Merse, today a monument of industrial archaeology. The Teatro di Boccheggiano is one of the official Gateways to the Tuscan Mining UNESCO Global Geopark.

At the table

Woodland cooking, made at home: porcini mushrooms, chestnuts, tortelli, wild boar and pecorino. The village festivals are the moment to eat it all together, at long tables.

Small square with warm-coloured houses in the village of Boccheggiano

Alleyway in the historic centre of Boccheggiano with geraniums in the foreground

Wine and olive oil

The Colline Metallifere district is crossed by the Strada del Vino Monteregio; in the lower valleys, olive groves produce Toscano IGP extra virgin olive oil.

Festivals

Village life revolves around popular festivals tied to its mining and woodland identity, and around the Geopark's activities: walks on the Roste, visits to the mining sites, events at the theatre. Twenty minutes away, the Sagra della Bistecca in Montieri.

Distances

Montieri: 15 minutes · Massa Marittima: 30 minutes · Siena: 50 minutes · Grosseto: 45 minutes.