Travale is a village in

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...

, central

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, administratively a

frazione A ''frazione'' (: ''frazioni'') is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' ('municipality') in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidat ...

of the

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

Montieri Montieri is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Grosseto in the Italian region Tuscany, located about south of Florence and about north of Grosseto. Among the churches in the town is the 14th-century church of Santi Michele e Paolo w ...

province of Grosseto The province of Grosseto () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Grosseto. As of 2013 the province had a total population of 225,098 people. Geography The Province of Grosseto completely ...

, in the area of

Colline Metallifere The Colline Metallifere (), or the Metalliferous Hills ("Metal-bearing Hills"), are a mountain-hill group in the Tuscany, Tuscan Antiapennine, in central Italy. They occupy the central-western part of Tuscany, divided between the province of Liv ...

. At the time of the 2001 census its population amounted to 84.Popolazione residente - Grosseto (dettaglio loc. abitate) - Censimento 2001

Istat The Italian National Institute of Statistics (; Istat) is the primary source of official statistics in Italy. The institute conducts a variety of activities, including the census of population, economic censuses, and numerous social, economic, a ...

Travale is about 60 km from

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and a ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the province of Grosseto and the main city of the Maremma region. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the ...

and 6 km from

, and it is situated in the Natural Reserve of Cornate and Fosini.

Main sights

* ''Santi Michele e Silvestro'' (14th century), main parish church of the village, it contained a '' Crocifisso'' of 13th century. * ''Oratorio della Compagnia'', ancient chapel of medieval origins, it is situated next to the main church. * Walls of Travale, old fortifications which surround the village since 12th century.

The ''guaita'' of Travale

The village is well known in

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

because of its ''guaita'', a phrase reported in a document of 1158 («''guaita guaita male, non mangiai ma' mezo pane''»), said by Malfredo di Casamagi, keeper of the castle, complaining about the bad treatment of the guards, who were deprived even of bread. The sentence is considered one of the first known examples of Italian vernacular language.

References

Bibliography

* Aldo Mazzolai, ''Guida della Maremma. Percorsi tra arte e natura'', Le Lettere, Florence, 1997. Frazioni of Montieri {{Grosseto-geo-stub

Main sights

The ''guaita'' of Travale

See also

References

Bibliography