Viale dei Cipressi

The Cypress Avenue of Bolgheri runs in two straight rows for about five kilometres between the Oratorio di San Guido and the entrance to Bolgheri. Its cypresses and the road's literary associations make it one of the most recognisable landscapes of the Maremma.

Why it matters

The avenue is closely associated with Giosuè Carducci's poem “Davanti San Guido,” which made its double row of trees part of Italian literary memory. Its route also links the coastal plain with the historic village of Bolgheri.

What to notice

The long, straight perspective draws the eye toward Bolgheri's castle gate. Near the avenue stands a stone obelisk erected by Giuseppe Della Gherardesca in 1908 in memory of Carducci. The trees frame a changing landscape of fields, vineyards and the low hills around Castagneto.

Context and history

The road developed during nineteenth-century rebuilding of the coastal route and its connections to villages inland. Count Guido Alberto della Gherardesca had the cypresses planted along it. Today the avenue is cared for by Tenuta San Guido, which also established the Bolgheri wildlife refuge in 1959.