The Gulf of Baratti and Populonia, from Follonica

Getting there

From Follonica you take the Variante Aurelia north and leave it for Piombino, on the state road 398 of the Val di Cornia; from the state road the signs for Populonia and Baratti take you onto the Caldanelle provincial road, which arrives near the junction with the strada della Principessa, the coast road from San Vincenzo. There the municipal road down into the gulf begins, and that is where in summer the motorhome stops.

• The ban for motorhomes: according to the order of the Comune of Piombino on traffic at Baratti and Populonia, of 2 May 2022, from 1 June to 30 September vehicles wider than two metres cannot use the road between the provincial road and the Casone car park, the park's car park; and from the Casone upwards, towards Populonia Alta, they never get through. Almost all motorhomes are wider than two metres, so in summer you cannot drive into the gulf: the park operator sends motorhomes and caravans to the Caldanelle car park. From 1 October to the day before Easter, and from Easter to 31 May on weekdays, wide vehicles can reach the Casone from 10:00 to 16:30 to visit the park
• The Caldanelle car park, at the start of the road to Baratti, on the Caldanelle provincial road, has according to the operator 200 spaces for cars and 70 for motorhomes and caravans, with free water filling and emptying, open at all hours on the days when the car park is charged. For motorhomes parking is charged from 28 March to 4 October 2026, from 8:00 to 20:00: 3.20 euros for the first hour, 12.50 euros for four hours, 15.65 euros for five hours, 26.50 euros from the tenth hour upwards, at the parking meter (coins, cards, phone) or with the EasyPark, MooneyGo and bmove apps. For cars the Caldanelle car park is free
• The shuttle: line 15E, Eco Baratti Bus, of Autolinee Toscane, ran in 2026 from 11 June to 14 September, every day from 8:40 to 19:45, from the Caldanelle car park to Baratti and to Populonia Alta, with stops in between; it is free, paid for by the Comune of Piombino. It takes you both to the visitor centre and to the acropolis. From Caldanelle to the visitor centre it is also two and a half kilometres on foot along the road, which with children and in the heat is not worth doing
• Populonia Alta: the village is closed to traffic, except for authorised vehicles, and according to the same order, from 15 June to 15 September, from 19:00 to 23:00, not even they can enter; the car park below the village is private, charged, and for cars only. You go up on the shuttle, or on foot from the lower city along the Via della Romanella, two and a half hours of demanding path
• Cars in the gulf: the car parks of Baratti (Villini, Edicola, Pinetina, Fontina) are for cars only, and in 2026 they cost 2.90 euros for the first hour and 24 euros from the tenth hour; the Casone car park is free for park visitors, for the time of the visit, and you show the park ticket on the way out
• In summer arrive early: the shuttle runs from 8:40, more than an hour before the park opens, and on August days Baratti fills up. Arriving at Caldanelle early in the morning you swim while the beach is still empty, and you go into the park when it opens, before the heat

Practical information

You buy the ticket at the visitor centre on the gulf or at the acropolis ticket office, or online on Ticketlandia. The guided tours leave at fixed times during the day and are included in the ticket; you can go into the Tomba dei Carri only with the guide.

Contacts

Where it is

Baratti e Populonia, Piombino · Toscana

You set off from

Notes

• The 2026 opening hours, from the operator's calendar: in July and August the park is open every day from 10:00 to 20:00, and on Sundays from 15:00 to 21:00, for the Archeo-Sunset, the sunset tours; in September from 10:00 to 19:00 until the 13th and from 10:00 to 18:00 after that, closed on Mondays; until 18 October from 10:00 to 18:00, closed on Mondays; from 19 October onwards only on Saturday, Sunday and a few public holidays, from 10:00 to 17:00. Without a guide, the last entry is an hour and a half before closing at San Cerbone, two and a half hours before at the Grotte (in summer by 17:30, on Sundays by 18:30) and two hours before at the acropolis (by 18:00, on Sundays by 19:00). With a weather alert the visits may change
• The 2026 tickets, from the operator's price list: the full visit, acropolis, Grotte necropolis and San Cerbone necropolis, 27 euros, reduced 22 euros from 6 to 14 years and over 65, family 65 euros for two adults and at most three children under 18; two visits of your choice out of the three 20 euros, reduced 16, family 50; the acropolis only 14 euros, reduced 10; one necropolis 11 euros, reduced 9. For free admission the operator refers to its service charter. In 2026, on the first Sunday of the month, from June to October, the park was free for Una domenica archeologica, "an archaeological Sunday", the Region's initiative. Anyone with an Autolinee Toscane pass or a ticket valid that day gets a 20% discount, and Coop members get a discount
• The San Cerbone necropolis is the lower part of the park, next to the visitor centre, between the gulf and the hill: the princely burial mounds, domes of earth on a stone drum with the chamber inside; the aedicule tombs, little stone houses with a pitched roof, like the Tomb of the Bronzetto di Offerente, the little bronze figure making an offering; and, later, the chest and sarcophagus tombs. Together they tell how the tombs of Populonia changed between the seventh and the fifth century BC. You go round on your own with the panels or with the guide, and during the tour, with music from the past, you go inside the Tomba dei Carri, reopened in July 2022 after restoration, which can be visited only with the guide
• The Via del Ferro, the iron trail, an easy hour and a half, winds among the burial mounds and the iron-working structures of the industrial quarter, and you do it on your own, also while waiting for a guided tour
• The Via delle Cave and the Grotte necropolis: from the visitor centre the path crosses the Campo dell'Arpia, a gently rising meadow, and enters the wood of holm oaks and cork oaks, with a viewpoint over the gulf. At the top are the quarries from which the Etruscans cut the panchina, the stone of the tombs of San Cerbone and of the acropolis; in the fourth and third centuries BC, when San Cerbone had become the furnace quarter, they dug the chamber tombs into the walls of the quarries. At the Grotte the guide waits on the spot, at fixed times. The whole route takes two hours
• The acropolis of Populonia, above the village of Populonia Alta, can be visited with the guide included in the ticket or on your own with the panels, in an hour and a half: the paved sacred way, the remains of the Roman temples looking onto a large square, with the base of one rebuilt, the Edificio delle Logge, a great terrace with the baths above it, where the excavations are continuing and you see the mosaico dei Neri; then the Roman house with mosaic floors, the public cistern and the Casa del Re, the King's House, the hut of the first settlement rebuilt at full size. Higher up, towards the top of the promontory, the route runs along the walls. From the terrace of the Logge you see the gulf, the coast to the north and Elba. For children from 6 to 12 there is a trail with ten panels at their height and a Mappa Gioco, a game map, with Lucio and Fulvia, with picture puzzles, crosswords and hidden words to solve to complete a nursery rhyme
• The other paths of the park: the Via del Monastero, two and a half moderately demanding hours, goes from the visitor centre, by way of the Via delle Cave, to the Benedictine monastery of San Quirico, and can also be done starting from the acropolis; the Via della Romanella, two and a half demanding hours, starts from the lower city, passes the remains of the walls and climbs to the acropolis on an ancient paved road
• The workshops for children: the Centro di Archeologia Sperimentale Davide Mancini, the centre for experimental archaeology, is in the meadow of the Campo dell'Arpia, on the way to the Grotte. In 2026, in July and August, every day except Sunday from 14:30 to 17:30, at the Centre and at the Casa del Re on the acropolis, there was L'archeologia nelle tue mani, "archaeology in your hands": children from 6 shape a little clay pot and decorate it with tools of wood, bone and metal, weave marsh grasses, write the words of the Etruscan alphabet with inkwell and ink, compose a mosaic like those of Populonia, and take home their own souvenir of the day. The workshop is included in the full visit ticket and in the two-area ticket; with the San Cerbone necropolis only it costs 15 euros, reduced 13, and a second workshop in the same week 4 euros
• The tours of summer 2026, from the operator's programme: every Sunday in July and August the Archeo-Sunset, the park open from 15:00 to 21:00 with sunset tours among the tombs and the sea, in August devoted to Etruscan civilisation; every Tuesday in July and August at 18:00 themed guided tours of the acropolis; from 10 June to 22 July, on Wednesdays at 16:30, Gli Archeologi raccontano, "the archaeologists tell", the visits to the acropolis excavations with the archaeologists of the universities of Pisa, Siena and Tübingen, by booking and for at most 45 people. On 11 and 16 July 2026 the Orchestra della Toscana played in the evening in the necropolis, with the Sotto il cielo degli Etruschi tours, "under the sky of the Etruscans", in the calendar of the Comune of Piombino
• The beach of Baratti is the long arc of the gulf, below the pine wood: dark, reddish sand, where fragments of the slag from Etruscan iron, the studies on the coast write, are still found today, and clear water. According to Visit Tuscany it is almost all free beach, with two beach establishments and facilities for the day, a sailing school with weekly courses for all ages, and the little harbour from which boat trips round the promontory leave. For dogs there are banned stretches and allowed stretches, marked on the beach: according to the orders of the Comune, from 15 June to 15 September, and on public holidays in May, June and September, dogs may not go between the little church of San Cerbone and the slipway of the little harbour, nor on the long stretch to the north as far as beyond the La Perla restaurant, while they are allowed on the 130 metres north of the excavations of the Fonte di San Cerbone
• The village of Populonia Alta is the medieval village enclosed by walls above the acropolis, rebuilt in the fifteenth century by the Appiani, lords of Piombino, who built the Rocca, the fortress: from the Rocca you climb to the top of the tower, and on clear days, writes the operator of the village, you can see Corsica and Capraia. Above the village gate is the dragon, the coat of arms of the Appiani. In the village there is also the Collezione Gasparri, a small private museum with the Etruscan and Roman finds from the area and from the sea in front, and a few taverns and shops among the alleys
• The Museo archeologico del territorio di Populonia, the archaeological museum of the Populonia area, is in Piombino, in the Cittadella facing the sea, and it completes the visit: there are the Roman mosaic of the fish, found at the Logge, the silver amphora of Baratti, fished up in the 1960s by a fisherman, the new display of the so-called Celeste chariot, and the sounds of the reconstructed ancient instruments. In 2026 it is closed on Mondays; the ticket, from the price list of 2 May 2023, costs 8 euros, reduced 6, family 18. In 2026, every Friday in July and August, there were themed guided tours at the museum, and the car park in via Senni is free with the parking disc

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