Alberese
Encyclopedia
Alberese is a rural town in southern Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

, a frazione
Frazione
A frazione , in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other administrative divisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere...

of the comune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

of Grosseto
Grosseto
Grosseto is a city and comune in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies 14 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain, on the Ombrone river....

. It is situated 20 km south-east of the capital, in the heart of the Natural Park of Maremma
Maremma
The Maremma is a vast area in Italy bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea, consisting of part of south-western Tuscany - Maremma Livornese and Maremma Grossetana , and part of northern Lazio - Maremma Laziale .The poet Dante Alighieri in his Divina Commedia places the...

. This area includes the surrounding rural territories which begin with the first foot-hills of the hinterland and end with the sea, crossing the northern peaks of the Uccellina Mountains.

History

Even during prehistory some ancient caves were inhabited, such as the one of the Scoglietto, which conserves traces of even more recent life (Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

, Roman period
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

), Etruscan
Etruscan civilization
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...

 (Poggio Raso) and Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 (Santa Francesca, Le Frasche) remains are present mainly towards Talamone
Talamone
Talamone is a town in Tuscany, central Italy, administratively a frazione of the comune of Orbetello, province of Grosseto, in the Tuscan Maremma....

 and along Via Aurelia
Via Aurelia
The Via Aurelia was a Roman road in Italy constructed around the year 241 BC. The project was undertaken by C. Aurelius Cotta, who at that time was censor...

.

The modern rural residence area, dominated by the imposing mass of the Villa Granducale, was developed in the last two centuries, thanks to the freehold Reform and to the allocation of the territories to farmers, most coming from Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...

 and Northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...

.

Environment

In spite of the presence of man, the natural surrounding havens, with their heritage of game reserves and large flower expanses, have been saved. At present, the body of the Natural Park of Maremma
Maremma
The Maremma is a vast area in Italy bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea, consisting of part of south-western Tuscany - Maremma Livornese and Maremma Grossetana , and part of northern Lazio - Maremma Laziale .The poet Dante Alighieri in his Divina Commedia places the...

 and a series of regional laws allow to safeguard conservation and the lasting of these beauties.

Herds of wild horses and Maremmana cows
Maremmana
thumb|A Maremmana cow.The Maremmana is a breed of cattle reared in the Maremma, a prairie region extending in western central Italy from southern Tuscany to northern Lazio, usually in the provinces of Grosseto and Viterbo respectively....

 still scamper among the wide fields while deers and wild boars live undisturbed within the dense forests of the Uccellina Mountains.
Within the Park there is not only uncontaminated nature but numerous and sometimes evident are the signes of man's presence in various periods.

In every season the exterminated country-side becomes alive again with the colours of nature; ochre in autumn and in winter, green in spring and yellow in summer. This is the time when expanses of sunflowers are alernated to fields of wheat. In the sunny summer days it is not uncommon to run into the phenomenon of the Fata Morgana
Fata Morgana (mirage)
A Fata Morgana is an unusual and very complex form of mirage, a form of superior mirage, which, like many other kinds of superior mirages, is seen in a narrow band right above the horizon...

 crossing bare-foot the long and straight nearby roads.

Climate

The climate of the locality and of the Alberese area presents characteristics of the Mediterranean climate
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...

, more marked along the coastal area and lightly attenuated in the plain area in which the centre stands. This is due to the presence, from west, of the Uccellina Mountains which create a limited barrier effect from the mitigation action of the sea. The medium temperatures in January are testified at around +7 °C, while in July temperatures exceed 22 °C. On average the values are a bit inferior, mainly in the summer season, to those registered at the two weather stations in Grosseto
Grosseto
Grosseto is a city and comune in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies 14 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain, on the Ombrone river....

. In comparison to the capital, average annual precipitations result to be inferior, both in quantity (600 mm per year) and in frequency (62 days per year with at least 1 mm). Rain results to be very scarce during the three-monthly summer season (on average about 60 mm in just 7 days).

Main sights

  • Villa Granducale di Alberese
  • Church of Sant'Antonio Abate
  • Church of Santa Maria
  • Abbey of San Rabano
  • Hermitage of Uccellina
  • Tower of Uccellina
  • Tower of Castel Marino
  • Tower of Collelungo
  • Templar archaeological site of the Scoglietto

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK