Five getaways from Florence to discover Tuscany From the art-filled woods of Celle to the Lucignana bookshop, itineraries through ghost towns and visionary architecture

There is a moment, every summer, when Florence seems to ask for a break. The heat slows down the days, the streets fill up and even those who deeply love the city start looking for a way to change perspective: a car, a regional train and the chance to disappear for a few hours. The problem is that many getaways end up in the same places already told a thousand times, among villages turned into postcards, beaches taken by storm, all-too-familiar itineraries.

And yet it takes only a short distance to discover another Tuscany. A region made of museums hidden in the woods, small towns that become cultural hubs, visionary architecture immersed in nature and works of art that don't stay within four walls but enter directly into the landscape. We have selected five getaways from Florence for those looking for something different: places where art, memory and territory meet, perfect even for a last-minute weekend.

Fattoria di Celle: the museum without walls hidden in the green

A few kilometers from Pistoia there is a place that feels more like a treasure hunt than a museum visit. The Fattoria di Celle was born from the vision of the Gori family, which since the 1970s has transformed a historic estate immersed in the Tuscan landscape into one of the most important Italian collections of environmental art. Here the works are not hung on walls but inhabit the territory. Among woods, meadows, paths and historic architecture, visitors come across installations created specifically for the site by international artists such as Daniel Buren, Richard Serra, Sol LeWitt and Alberto Burri.

What makes Celle unique is that you don't come here to "see" works of art, but to find them. A sculpture hidden among the trees, a structure that suddenly appears behind a bend, a continuous dialogue between nature and art. It is an escape into the quietest Tuscany, the one where creativity does not interrupt the landscape but becomes part of it.

Toiano and Villa Lena: the ghost town turned creative refuge

There are places where time seems to have stopped. Toiano is one of them. This small village in the Pisan hills, almost completely abandoned over the course of the twentieth century, still preserves a suspended atmosphere: stone houses, empty streets and a sense of memory left on pause. Its history is also linked to a famous crime case that over the years has fueled the mysterious charm of the town, turning it into one of the most evocative ghost villages in Tuscany.

Yet right here, in the middle of this motionless landscape, there is a completely contemporary project. Villa Lena is a historic estate turned international residency for artists: painters, musicians, designers and creatives come from all over the world to work surrounded by woods and silence. The contrast is what makes this place special: a village that tells the story of Tuscany's past and a villa that imagines its future.

Gulf of Baratti: from the Etruscans to radical architecture

Baratti is one of those places where distant eras coexist in the same panorama. On the sea lies Populonia the only Etruscan city built directly on the coast: a place where necropolises, archaeological remains and Mediterranean landscape meet in an almost cinematic way. But the real hidden treasure comes many centuries later. In the pine grove above the beach stand two architectural experiments outside of time: Casa Esagono and Casa Balena, designed by architect Vittorio Giorgini between the 1950s and 1960s.

The first is a modular wooden structure inspired by natural geometries; the second looks more like an inhabitable sculpture than a house, with organic shapes that anticipate some of the research of contemporary architecture. Two small visionary objects hidden near the sea, testimony to a lesser-known Tuscany also made of experimentation and research. A place where you can go from Etruscan civilization to the future of architecture in a matter of minutes.

Capalbio: the esoteric garden and the Maremma of artworks in the landscape

In southern Tuscany there is a Maremma different from the one on postcards: freer, more experimental, almost surreal. The starting point is the Tarot Garden, the monumental project created by Niki de Saint Phalle inspired by Gaudí's Parc Güell. Twenty-two sculptures dedicated to the Major Arcana emerge from the vegetation: surfaces covered in mosaics, mirrors and colored ceramics, gigantic structures you can enter and walk through.

It is not simply an art garden, but a parallel universe built into the landscape. And the journey doesn't end here. In recent years the area between Capalbio, Ansedonia, Orbetello and Talamone has become the territory of Hypermaremma, a public art project that brings contemporary installations out of museums, into countryside, ruins and natural landscapes. A part of Tuscany where the boundary between museum and territory practically disappears.

Lucignana: the bookshop in the mountains that changed a village

In the greenest Garfagnana, in a small village overlooking the Apuan Alps, there is a bookshop that seems to have come out of a novel. Sopra la Penna was born from the desire of writer Alba Donati to create a place dedicated to books and community far from the big cultural centers. A few shelves, a house immersed in the green, a view of the mountains and an atmosphere that invites you to slow down. A meeting point for readers, writers and travelers.

Its strength lies precisely in its simplicity. You don't come here to tick a box off a list, but to live a moment: choose a book, stop for a chat, look at the landscape outside the window. It is proof that even a small village can become a place capable of attracting ideas, people and new stories.