Exploring Maremma, a Quiet Corner of Italy

I woke up to the braying of donkeys. Opening the window to morning air perfumed by wisteria and honeysuckle, I could see the herd — 16 sweet-eyed animals in all — grazing by the olive groves of La Pescaia, a country estate turned idyllic inn that embodies a fantasy of pastoral happiness for me: life among animals and bird song and olive trees, encircled by the rugged nature of Maremma, in Italy.

The most sparsely settled area of Tuscany, spilling slightly into northern Lazio, Maremma retains vast swathes of nature reserves and uncontaminated woodlands, and over a series of visits, I took a deep-dive into countryside Zen, with horseback trips, hikes, bike rides, swims at protected beaches and improvised field sessions of donkey therapy.

“Here your days follow the cycles of the weather, animals and plants, and that natural rhythm gives life a sense of serenity,” said Margherita Ramella, who owns La Pescaia with her sister Beatrice. The siblings abandoned their careers in Milan to cultivate this rural endeavor.

My own rural mission began on horseback. In Maremma, traveling by horse was the customary way — long the only way — to navigate the dense and swampy territory, and the old horse trails endure, cutting through secluded woods and overgrown fields, past vineyards, farmland and the occasional quaint medieval village rising among the hills.

The butteri, Maremma’s unique brand of cowboys (and some modern-day cowgirls), are no longer numerous yet remain an active and integral part of the area’s identity. They chaperone packs of the Indigenous lyre-horned Maremmana cows, riding robust, wide-torsoed Maremmano horses in a tradition that some say dates back to the ancient Etruscans — rendering Maremma one of few places to possess such an enduring and vital equestrian link.

Tenuta di Alberese, a farm with 400 Maremmana cows run with support of the region of Tuscany, allows visitors to accompany the butteri on their daily horseback rounds — a task requiring a 7 a.m. start-time and enough expertise to gallop alongside them for several hours as they do the arduous work of herding (far more than what I, one morning’s feeble observer, possessed).

At La Pescaia, once famed for raising racehorses, there are horseback lessons, daylong excursions and nighttime full-moon rides for all levels. One early evening on my first visit there, my group saddled up at the pen and rode uphill through an enchanted-looking copse of gnarled cork trees, with the horses…