Art parks

Tour of Capalbio and the Tarot Garden

Rif. T-LO 2913

Information

Language Italian English

Tour Min. 5 Max. 25 people

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Tour to discover the legend of the bandit, Tibursi, and the medieval village of Capalbio, from whose walls you can enjoy an extraordinary panorama of the Tyrrhenian coast and the southern countryside of the Tuscan Maremma. We will also visit the magical Tarot Garden, a sculpture park by the French-American artist, Niki de Saint Phalle, dedicated to the Major Arcana of the Tarot.

Features

Suitable for childrenSuitable for families

Description

In the first part of our tour, we will visit Capalbio, the famous medieval village first mentioned in a document dating back to 805 A.D. in which Charlemagne donated Capalbio to the Abbey of the Three Fountains in Rome.

The town was owned by the Aldobrandeschi family, then the Counts of Orsini, then from 1416 until its fall, part of the Republic of Siena. It then passed into the control of the Spanish Domain which assigned it to Cosimo Dei Medici.

Capalbio stands on a hill immersed in the Maremman scrub at 219 meters above sea level and offers a panorama of rare beauty. It has the particularity of being closed inside double walls (the innermost of which are crenellated) on which it is possible to climb along the walkway. The most interesting monument in the village is the Rocca Aldobrandesca whose hall hosted the conversations of famous icons such as Gabriele D’Annunzio and Giacomo Puccini and whose ancient piano on which the maestro composed various works still stands. Of particular importance is the Pieve di San Nicola where there are frescoes from the Sienese School from the 14th Century and the Umbrian School from the 15th Century.

We will also recount the legend of the bandit, Tiburzi, also known as “the good bandit” because his illegal activities supported poor people. Tiburzi is now part of the Maremman folklore and a trip to Capalbio is incomplete without mentioning Tiburzi’s role.

After the visit of the village, we will move to the nearby Tarot Garden, a unique place in the world. Get ready to leave reality and enter the dream of Niki de Saint Phalle, considered one of the greatest French artists of today, whose works are located in the squares of Paris, Stockholm, Jerusalem, etc. A magical world made up of 22 gigantic sculptures made of cement and polyether and covered with splendid mosaics representing the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot.