The Orange Flag (Bandiera Arancione) is a brand created to promote and ensure the environmental touristical quality of the Italian inland towns with a maximum of 15.000 inhabitants. The quality brand, born in 1998, is released exclusively by the Italian Touring Club (the biggest Italian non-profit tourist association).
To get the Orange Flag, the candidated towns must respect some specific impositions given by the Italian Touring Club, such as:
the valorization of the cultural heritage, environmental protection, hospitality, easy access and use of resources, the quality of accommodation, catering and local products.
The project has encountered such a great success to become the only Italian project, in the tourism area, to be included among the worthy of note programs of the World Tourism Organization (an agency of the United Nations dedicated to tourism policies).
Nowadays the towns that obtained an Orange Flag, thanks to an offer of excellence and a quality welcome, are 184 in total.
Tuscany, with its 35 Orange Flag towns, is the most awarded Italian region.
The Tuscan Towns with an Orange Flag are:
- Anghiari
- Barberino Val d'Elsa
- Barga
- Casale Marittimo
- Casole d'Elsa
- Castelnuovo Berardenga
- Castelnuovo di Val di Cecina
- Castiglion Fiorentino
- Certaldo
- Cetona
- Collodi
- Cutigliano
- Lari
- Lucignano
- Massa Marittima
- Montalcino
- Montecarlo
- Montefollonico
- Montepulciano
- Monteriggioni
- Murlo
- Peccioli
- Pienza
- Pitigliano
- Pomarance
- Radda in Chianti
- Radicofani
- San Casciano dei Bagni
- San Gimignano
- Sarteano
- Sorano
- Suvereto
- Trequanda
- Vinci
- Volterra