Rocchette

Castiglione della Pescaia, Maremma

Rocchette is a village and summer beach holiday destination situated along the Maremma Grossetana coastline, close to Castiglione della Pescaia (within which locality it resides). Except for a few outlying private houses and "agriturismi", the village itself is spread along a 3.4km long pine tree lined road (SP62) directly off the SP158 between Follonica and Castiglione della Pescaia.

The road runs parallel to the northern end of Roccamare beach and then the whole length of Le Rocchette which merge into each other. (The links for the beach and satellite image map pages are at the bottom of this page.)

The only exit from the village is a road mid-way down its length - via San Martino, on the corner of which is a distinctively coloured hotel. This takes you to the village of Pian di Rocca, a great spot for eating out at a Sagra during the summer months.

No reflection intended upon the hotel in question, but when we were at this point in the road on our visit, the youngster in our party asked me what colour the hotel was painted, to which I replied "a kind of pinky peach colour". Without a pause she responded, "I don't like pinky peach anymore!". Until then her favourite colour had been pink! Anyway, you won't miss it when you see it!

In the winter months this is a solitary village with very few people at home.

The beach

Rocchette beach is a very popular destination for self-catering holiday makers, especially campers, caravaner's and camper home owners, as there are many campsites to choose from, all of which are located only a few metres from the beach.

It is a long sandy beach with one after the other of bathing facilities and bar areas, which makes it ideal for young families. Although when the tide is in there is a drop and a rip current at times to be aware of. Find out more...

Holiday Accommodation

For the self-catering options behind the beach, the residential hotels residence Rocchette and residence Roccamare.

Shopping

There are no shops or post office etc in the village, other than those included within the camping site/village complexes. The nearest town for supermarket and other shopping is Castiglione della Pescaia.

Alternatively, for fruit, vegetables, olive oil, and wine etc direct from the farmers, there is the nearby agricultural village of Pian d'Alma. Also a good stop for eating out - Pian d'Alma restaurants.

The Il Baracchino bar at Pian d'Alma is not only a great stop for a cold lunch, but also sells their own fruit and vegetables, olive oil, wine, marmalades, local honey and other "prodotti tipici della Maremma", typical Maremman products.

Forte delle Rocchette

At the top of the promontory at the nortern-most end of the beach sits its fortress.

Photo courtesy of Opaxir

Originally built as a look-out tower during the course of the twelfth century, it was further fortified in the second half of the sixteenth century as part of Cosimo I de'Medici's reinforcement of the defense system along this part of the Granducato di Toscana coast.

Progressively disused between the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth, a series of restorations in the following centuries enlarged the complex and transformed it into a private residence. Which it remains today.