Tuscany beyond its greatest hits

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Dreaming of Italy? You're probably thinking of Tuscany. Cypress avenues zigzagging up rolling hills? Vineyards spilling down toward the valleys? Medieval hilltop towns keeping watch over it all? That's all here, in Italy's most famous region.

Of course, being popular isn't always a good thing. Perhaps you don't want to line up with everyone else to see the galleries in Siena, where the early Renaissance began. Perhaps you don't want the same old Instagram shots of San Gimignano's towers as the rest of your social network. Perhaps you don't want to bring home the same old wine. Or maybe you've already been there, done that, and assume it's time to move on to another region.

Not so fast. Although the busy parts of Tuscany are busy, this is a big region -- the third largest on the Italian mainland. So, while everyone else heads west of Florence to Chianti, you can go east -- and find yourself in the ruffled hills of the Casentino area, where Florentines spend their weekends. Poppi is a classic Tuscan hilltop town, crowned by an enormous castle. An hour or so north is San Godenzo, a tiny village wedged into a mountain cleft. It's the gateway to the Foreste Casentinesi National Park, whose beech and chestnut trees are a symphony of color in the fall.

Instead of "doing" San Gimignano and Volterra, dip south to the Val di Merse area, where ancient towns like Radicondoli teeter on the hilltops, and a ruined Gothic abbey, Abbazia di San Galgano, sits on a mountain-wrapped plain. To the far west are the beaches of Maremma. East of Arezzo, meanwhile, the rumpled hills are topped by fairy-tale towns like Anghiari and Monterchi, both of which have monumental artistic legacies -- Michelangelo was born near the former, while one of Piero della Francesca's most famous works, the "Madonna del Parto," sits in the latter.

Then there's the Val d'Orcia -- home to those cypress-studded hills that launched a thousand postcards. Towns like Pienza and Montepulciano are busy, but even here you can escape -- just hit the strade bianche, gravel roads that carve directly through the landscape. Everyone may know of Tuscany, but that's how to really get to know it.

Tuscany is stunning year-round, but spring is particularly colorful, as wildflowers such as poppies bloom between the vineyards. Fall is also exceptional -- the foliage colors in the mountainous areas give New England a serious run for its money. October is the month for "olio novo" -- the first olive oil of the season, which has such a spicy kick that it feels chile-laced. Summer is music festival time, with the Puccini Festival every July-August and Pistoia Blues in July. The same month, Andrea Bocelli performs an annual outdoor concert at his hometown's hill-swaddled amphitheater, the Teatro del Silenzio in Lajatico.

"Tuscany is one of the world's most extraordinary places and my spiritual home, but I advise leaving the cities to explore the beaches. I've loved Forte dei Marmi, a seaside town on the Versilia coast since 1990, when we were renting nearby and I gave birth to my third baby, Eliot. We spent many days taking our older kids to the beach, which is filled with restaurants on the sand. You can rent a sunbed or cabana for the day at any of the beach clubs -- the seafood pasta at the Augustus hotel is off-the-charts great. Forte dei Marmi is surrounded by mountains covered in white marble -- the very same marble that Michelangelo used to create his works of art. Head over to the town's center in the late afternoon -- there are art galleries, beautiful linen shops and Michelin-starred restaurants."

Local Fabio Firli and his wife Suzanne Simons have transformed a rickety old farmhouse into a six-room rustic-chic retreat, with exposed beams, original brick flooring and a sun-dappled breakfast room overlooking the vineyard. This is a great location -- it's just across the hills from the Val d'Orcia, but right off the freeway to Florence and eastern Tuscany.

Heather Fulbright/CNN

Tomatoes are Tuscany's star ingredient. Let them shine in this classic soup, taken from Stanley Tucci's cookbook "The Tucci Table."