Castiglione della Pescaia is a town with about 7500 inhabitants situated along the Tyrrhenian coast in Grosseto province. For the quality of the sea and the beaches, Castiglione della Pescaia is an important touristic destination, it was rewarded, in 2005, by Legambiente and Touring Club as first bathing locality, in Italy, for tourist and enviromental quality. With the town name of Lacus Prilius the marshy zone at the shoulder of Castiglione della Pescaia was indicated since ancient times, sometimes identified with the Etruscan Hasta and Roman Portus Traianus. The “pescais” from which it derives its name was already active in Roman times and was conceded in 814 by Emperor Ludovico il Pio to the Abbey of Sant’Antimo Castiglione remained for a long time under the jurisdiction of the Abbey, but in a privilege of 1163 emanated by the Imperial Arch Chancellor Rainaldo di Dassel, it is understood that the castle, caused by the decadent state of the Abbey, was occupied in the meantime by the guild of the Lambardi di Buriano. From the end of the XII century the political dominion of Pisa was progressively confirmed over Castiglione, who governed it by assigning the Podesta Office to members of eminent families like the della Gherardesca, the Gualandi, and the Lanfranchi. The dominion by Pisa ceased in 1404, two years before the end of the autonomous republic of Pisa, with the commitment of the Castiglione inhabitants to Firenze. Conquered by Alfonso d’Aragona in 1447, the castle was occupied by the militia of the King of Napoli until 1460. In the same year through the mediation of Pope Pio II it was sold for 50,000 florins to Antonio Piccolomini d’Aragona (nephew of the Pope) who in his turn in 1464 conceded it to his brother Andrea. Conquered by the Franco-Turkish militia and subsequently by the Spanish during the war with Siena, it was sold in 1559 to Eleonora di Toledo, wife of Cosimo I dei Medici and on her death was incorporated in the Grand Duchy. In the period of the Lorenese dominion over Toscana, the Grand Dukes Pietro Leopoldo and Leopoldo II undertook numerous land reclaim works and redevelopment with the construction of aqueducts and sluice gates. In the surrounds of Castiglione, Vetulonia is of notable historic interest with the castle of Buriano.

The history of this place winds down through the centuries. It has left precious traces in the Etruscan necropolises of Vetulonia and in findings from the Roman age, in the locality of Paduline - the medieval village, with the fortress that dominates the port and the expanse of sea; the naturalistic area of Diaccia Botrona, risen on what remains of a vast swamp (extending between Castiglione and Grosseto), a residue of ancient Lake Prile; the signs of the reclamation of the swampy area begun by the House of Lorraine in the 18th century and continued up until the 19th century; the pine woods and the beaches, that have made a take-off possible in both the economy and tourism during recent decades. All of these contribute to making Castiglione one of the most interesting places in the Grosseto coastal area. The present locality was once the small Roman town identified with the name of Salebrum, traces of which were lost in the Middle Ages. After the Neolithic (7,000-4,000 BC), with the passage from nomadism to sedentariness, and the introduction of stock breeding and agriculture, the 3rd millennium brought the opening of the Metal Age, marked by the birth of a primitive metallurgy~ In Etruria, the period of time between the 12th and l0th centuries BC (called the late Bronze Age) coincided with the phenomenon of protourbanisation, that is, the birth of small villages, that arose in naturally-protected places from which the historical Etruscan cities were to develop in time. The initial phase of the Etruscan civilisation, called the Villanovian period (9th-Sth centuries BC) saw in Etruria the development of habitative settlements both on the Tyrrhenian coast and in the immediate hinterland, in the vicinity of fluvial or lacustrine basins, above all in zones that could be exploited for mining. Vetulonia, one of the most important cities in Etruria (today, a hamlet in the Commune of Castiglione), responded to these characteristics. Located in the valley of the Bruna and gravitating around the area of Lake Prile, Vetulonia had immediately manifested a mining vocation, extending its influence towards the hills known as the Colline Metallifere [i.e. metalliferous hills] as far as Lake Accesa. With its name changed during the Middle Ages to Colonna di Buriano, that of Vetulonia was given to the place only in the 19th century, when - thanks to the finding of some coins - archaeological excavations confirmed the exact site of the Etruscan city. Vetulonia is mentioned in the historical work of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (l st century BC) and in the epic poem of Silio Italico (1 st century AD). In particular, the latter related that it was from Vetulonia that the Romans borrowed the symbology of power, including the coastal strip and the curule chair. The locating of the oldest tombs on the rises around Vetulonia gives us reason to believe that two settlements originally existed, that were then combined around the 7th century BC. The archaeological findings turned up inside the monumental tombs (jewels, metal objects, and imported manufactures) testify that the maximum splendour of the city dates back to the historic phase known as the 'orientalising period': it witnessed the solidifying of a commercial network between Etruria, Greece and the Orient. The following century (6th century BC) was marked by a clear-cut decline of the city, that lost control over the Colline Metallifere. During he course of the 4th century BC, there was possibly a 'refoundation' of Vetulonia, which progressed to the point of coining its own money for the first time. The fortification of the walls, which can be seen within the medieval village, also dates to this epoch. The clash between the Roman civilisation and the Etruscan civilisation, that had already begun around the middle of the 4th century BC, saw the progressive absorption of the latter. The Vetulonia of the Roman age always remained a centre of little importance.