Tuscan Coast

The Tuscan Coast spills into the Mediterranean on the northwestern haunch of the Italian peninsular. A montage of biscuit-coloured sands backed by lush hills, the region covers stretches of the Ligurian Sea in the north and the Tyrrhenian Sea in the south, along with a speckling of gorgeous offshore islands. It's a region that's enamoured the likes of Lord Byron and countless Roman celebrities, offering a slow pace of life and pockets of absolute exclusivity and class.

Some of our luxury Tuscan Coast villas can be found studding the hillsides above Porto Ercole, known as one of the region's most beautiful areas. Some cling to the ridges of the wooded Monte Argentario headland, fringed by coves bathed in blue waters, from Spiaggia Lunga in the south to Bagni di Domiziano in the north.

You may be able to make out the walled hilltop village of Capalbio on the Tuscan ridges just behind. Head there to wander echoing cobbled alleys, see fresco-painted churches, and holiday in the company of Italy's elite.

The area known as the Maremma spans north from that. It begins at tiny Talamone, a clutch of sea-view villas on a pine-sprouting headland, and runs out in a symphony of high cliffs and coast forests. Within, adventurers can discover the secret bay at Cala di Forno, a wild picture of golden sands hemmed in by battalions of juniper trees. Families may prefer the long, accessible runs of powdery sand at Marina di Alberese.

Next up is the shimmering fragment that is the island of Elba. It's a nugget of Corsican-level beauty set six miles off the coast of Tuscany. Come here to cruise winding coast roads worthy of James Bon and to splash in the aquamarine lagoons of Capoliveri.

Back on the Tuscan mainland, you soon get to the Etruscan Coast. This is where the sands stretch out, going for mile after mile before the softly contoured dunes at Spiaggia Seggio and Tripesce. Cross Spiagge Bianche there, a blazing and surprising white-sand addition to the Tuscan shore, before hitting the Apuan Riviera, where bustling resort towns like Forte dei Marmi sit in the shadow of the jagged Apennines.

If you can't decide between Italy's beautiful beaches and its lush countryside, a luxury villa on the Tuscan Coast offers the best of both worlds.