Set at nearly 1,000 m on the rippling slopes of Monte Amiata (1,734 m), this small town made its reputation long ago as a summer holiday and winter sports resort, a fount of medicinal springs and a base for the ascent of Tuscany’s highest mountain. The climb to the top is not hard: you have a choice of sleigh-lift, ski-lift or well-trodden path. The Mountain Ring is a circuit (30 km) of byroads at the altitude of Abbadia. You can drive nearly to the summit, to a car-park and some cheap souvenir stalls. En route you pass the Madonna del Scout viewpoint, where the Virgin’s statue is plastered with Boy Scout emblems and patches.

At Abbadia you have all-round views of wide tracts of Lazio, Umbria and Tuscany. On the outskirts there are mercury mines: you are not far from the rough treeless uplands they call the Colline Metallifere (‘metal-bearing hills’). The rectangular Abbadia (abbey) originated in Lombard times and was once a nest of religious painters. The Medicis removed the pictures to Florence, but some noble architecture remains.

Five kilometres south is the rustic retreat of Piancastagnaio. Buried among groves of sweet chestnuts, the survivors of the ancient Tuscan wild-wood, are cool scented footpaths and a few springs.