Checking into the country hotel Villa il Tesoro outside Massa Marittima one afternoon, I stepped into the reception room to deafening noise and people shouting to be heard on the other side of a door.

FORBES: The Other Tuscany

Alain Ducasse has opened a sumptuous hotel, L'Andana, here, in a 16th-century former hunting lodge of the grand duke of Tuscany, and there is a small but impressive echelon of destination restaurants--like Caino, in the medieval village of Montemerano, and Ristorante Bracali, in a former corner tobacco store near Massa Marittima--where local chefs are rising to Michelin stardom by (profoundly) rethinking local dishes.

FORBES: The Other Tuscany