Welcome to
Riparbella.
A Tuscan hilltop town where art, wine and nature meet — a few kilometres from the sea.
Riparbella in practice
A medieval hilltop town stretched along a ridge of white tufa at 216 m above sea level, in the province of Pisa, between the Val di Cecina and the Etruscan Coast. It grows in a line along the ridge — not on a circular plan like the neighbouring towns — with 13 murals in the old town, nine wineries in the countryside and around 65 km of green trails.
Getting here
| By car | Exit at Cecina Nord on the SS1 Aurelia / Variante Aurelia, then SP 13 del Commercio . Cecina 10 km (15′) · Livorno 50 km (45′) · Pisa 65 km (55′) · Volterra 35 km (40′) · Florence 130 km (1h 45′). |
| By train | The nearest useful station is Cecina , on the Pisa–Rome Tyrrhenian line; from there you continue by bus, taxi or hire car. The Cecina–Saline di Volterra railway is not in service and is replaced by buses: the San Martino stop is therefore not a useful arrival point. |
| By bus | Riparbella is served by regional bus routes with their terminus in Cecina: up-to-date timetables and stops at at-bus.it. |
| By bike | Anello del Vino : 42 km and around 1,000 m of ascent taking in the nine wineries. Bike racks in the old town and e-bike charging points. |
Car parks — all free
You can walk across the town in a few minutes: leave the car in one of the car parks along the ridge. On the map they are marked with the letters A–I from south to north, and every card has a direct link to Google Maps.
- A · Via delle Mura — the first one you come to arriving from the south, from the coast.
- B · Via Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa — the lower part of the town and the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista.
- C · Via della Fonte Vecchia — the central car park.
- D · Via degli Orti — central area, a few steps from the Town Hall.
- E · Via della Grotta — the largest, on the north side: a flight of steps leads straight up to Piazza della Madonna.
- F · Oliveta car park — north side, along Via Roma.
- G · San Rocchino — next to the park and the tabernacle of San Rocco.
- H · Cemetery area — handy for the Monumental Cemetery.
- I · Sports ground — during festivals it is normally reserved for campervans.
The murals
There are 13 so far : every year, on the last weekend in September , the festival La Collina delle Fiabe adds new ones. They are painted by international artists working with residents and with the owners of the walls, and each one tells a story about Riparbella or is connected to the town in some way. You can see them all on foot in half an hour, all in the old town, along with the twenty hand-painted artist benches .
The project was started in 2018 by the municipal administration with the association StArt Attitude and funding from the GAL Etruria, with the idea of turning the town into an open-air contemporary art museum. You can follow the route on your own with the map from the tourist office, or join a guided tour led by volunteers.
Useful numbers
Tourist office / Town Hall
Piazza del Popolo 1 · 0586 697111
Municipal pharmacy
Piazza Matteotti
Carabinieri
Riparbella, north side
Tourism portal
visitriparbella.com
Regular events
| 25–26 April | Pianeta Ripa |
| May | Ripa Fiorita — flowers and tradition. From May, Via di Piazzetta becomes the street of coloured umbrellas |
| 24 June | Night of San Giovanni |
| July | Ripa Wine — wine and music |
| early August | Agrifiera |
| late August | RipaTalent |
| last weekend in September | La Collina delle Fiabe — street art festival: the new murals are created |
| November | Sagra del Cinghiale wild boar festival · Festival of Tradition and New Olive Oil |
| December – January | RipaChristmas and the Mechanical Nativity Scene |
How to use the map
- Tap a category at the top : the map frames those points and the list opens.
- In the old town, points close together are grouped into a circle with a number : tap it to open it.
- On every card the button Take me there opens navigation in Google Maps.
- With the crosshair button, top right, you can see where you are in relation to the points on the map.
Data sources
Content from the Riparbella tourist office and the portal visitriparbella.com, data from the BiciInComune app and base mapping by OpenStreetMap. The car park locations are those given by the tourist office. Some points in the centre have a position estimated along the street from the house number: their card says so.
Riparbella stretches along a ridge among the hills of the Val di Cecina and the Etruscan Coast.
The town has its origins around the year 1000, when the Counts della Gherardesca founded the castle here — destroyed during the wars of the fifteenth century — and it grew along a single ridge instead of closing in a circle.
In recent years the murals of the La Collina delle Fiabe project have been added to this historic layout: thirteen large works signed by Italian and international street artists. All around are vineyards, olive groves and the woods of the Giardino Scornabecchi.
Next to this you will find the map of the town: murals, wineries, restaurants, trails, car parks and services, all with directions for getting there. Tap a category to filter the points, or open it full screen to search and read the cards.
Four souls
of a single town.
The old town, street art, terroir wine and woodland a few kilometres from the sea. Four different ways of looking at Riparbella — you can take them one at a time, or all in a weekend.
Medieval town
The old town stretches along the ridge instead of closing in a circle around the castle — a layout that is rare among Tuscan towns. The town still has the church of San Giovanni Evangelista, the sixteenth-century Oratory of the Madonna delle Grazie and the manor house of the Marquis Carlotti.
Murals on the town’s walls
For some years now the town has been home to an urban art project promoted by the Municipality. Among the names already on the walls: Moneyless, Zed1, Gio Pistone, Daniel Muñoz, Zosen Bandido, Mina Hamada, Tellas, Vesod, Hitnes.
Nine wineries in the hills
The wine estates of Riparbella — among them Caiarossa, Duemani, Podere La Regola, Pakravan-Papi — make reds and whites acclaimed by Italian and international critics. A calling that goes back to Etruscan times.
The woods of the Giardino Scornabecchi
A 632-hectare Regional Agricultural and Forestry Estate between Riparbella and Montescudaio. Trails, wildlife and the treetop adventure park of Il Giardino Sospeso. The sea is a few kilometres away.
When the town
becomes a work of art.
The project, promoted by the Municipality of Riparbella and curated by Start Attitude with Gian Guido Maria Grassi, has brought works by some of the most important Italian and international street artists onto the town’s walls.
written on the walls
of the town.”
Wine from the hills
,
wind from the sea.
- Caiarossa
- Podere La Regola
- Duemani
- Pakravan-Papi
- Prima Pietra
- Colline Albelle
- Urlari
- Quercialuce
- La Cava
The Anello del Vino.
A 46-kilometre cycle touring route between the wineries of Riparbella. You ride, you taste, and you play along with an interactive web app that goes with you as you pedal.
The woods
a stone’s throw from the sea.
The Giardino Scornabecchi forest estate covers 632 hectares between Riparbella and Montescudaio, on the first hills looking towards the coast: oaks, Mediterranean scrub, wild boar and roe deer, five kilometres from the town and a few from the sea. But it is not just a wood to walk through — within the same perimeter six very different ventures live side by side.
- 632 ha Regional Agricultural and Forestry Estate
- 290 ha of wildlife area for game and other species
- 65 km of trails and routes, on foot and by mountain bike
- FSC certified forest management, PEFC too
Six ways to be in the woods.
Each activity is run by a different organisation, with its own opening times and prices. The woods, the trails and the land art remain free and always open.
Paesaggi Cosmici
A permanent land art trail devoted to the Universe, with soundscapes to listen to via QR code along the path.
02Il Giardino Sospeso adventure park
Eleven ropes courses suspended among oaks and cedars, from 90 cm tall upwards, plus instinctive archery.
03Green Riders Experience
Onewheels and e-bikes in the woods and the wind farm, courses for young people and families, excursions and wine trekking.
04BiodiverCity
A hectare of animals where care is the method and disability a resource: workshops, summer camps, volunteering.
05Bike Park
A trail area inside the woods: no runs cut into the hillside, but single track that follows the shape of the ground.
06Osteria del Cinghiale
The only place to eat in the estate, where the trails end: game, mushrooms and wild herbs.
One event a month
,
all year round.
From the spring of Ripafiorita to the Christmas of RipaChristmas, by way of the Sagra del Cinghiale, the Anello del Vino and La Collina delle Fiabe.
