Scorpions in Italy: What Hikers and Travellers Actually Need to Know

Sooner or later, a guest lifts a stone and sees a small dark shape with claws. Then comes the question: are there scorpions in Italy?

The fear is understandable. The reality is calmer.

Yes, there are scorpions in Tuscany, and Italian scorpions can sting. But a sting from a Tuscan scorpion is closer to a mild bee sting than a medical emergency.

They are shy and nocturnal. They want to escape you, not sting you.

Jumpy about scorpions before your Tuscan trip? Get a local’s honest read in a written Expert Brief.

Which Scorpions Live in Italy and Tuscany

Most scorpions in Italy are small members of the family Euscorpiidae. Their venom is mild. For a healthy adult, a sting feels like a bee sting, not a danger.

People picture the venomous giants of desert films. Italy has nothing of the sort on its hills.

In Tuscany you are likely to meet two:

• The common Tuscan scorpion (Euscorpius italicus): dark brown to nearly black, small, usually under 5 cm.
• The yellow-tailed scorpion (Euscorpius flavicaudis, recently reclassified as Tetratrichobothrius flavicaudis): paler legs and tail, more often near the coast.

The family that produces the world’s dangerous scorpions is the Buthidae. Italy’s only record of it is Buthus trinacrius, described in 2013 from nineteenth-century museum specimens labelled as Sicilian. A 2025 taxonomic revision questions that origin and suggests a labelling error or an introduction. There is no confirmed record from Tuscany.

Where to Walk With Me from Lucca

If the scorpion question came up because you’re planning a first walk here, the Nottolini Aqueduct is where I’d start you. You set off in Lucca, a short way from the train station and the city walls, and follow the 460 arches out across the plain toward Monte Pisano. Past the last arch we keep going on quiet lanes to the source at the Parole d’Oro, then come back the same way.

It’s 9.1 km with about 50 metres of climb, so the day is easy on the legs and there’s time to stop. You don’t need a car.

Private guided hike

Nottolini Aqueduct

The aqueduct doubles as a sundial. Once a day the light runs straight down its corridor of arches, at a time that shifts through the year.

• About 3 hours
• €165 per group
• Reachable by train
• Longer route to a view over Lucca, on request

Easy · 9.1 km (5.7 mi) · 50 m (164 ft) ascent

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How to Identify One

Italian scorpions are easy to place once you know the signs:

• Size: small, usually under 5 cm, often less.
• Colour: dark brown to near black, with paler legs and tail on the yellow-tailed kind.
• Shape: broad, heavy claws and a thin tail.

That last point is the most useful rule of thumb. Worldwide, fat claws and a thin tail signal mild venom. Thin claws and a thick tail signal the dangerous species. Tuscan scorpions sit firmly in the harmless group.

Are Italian Scorpions Dangerous or Poisonous?

First, a small correction. Scorpions are venomous, not poisonous. Poison is something you swallow or absorb. Venom is injected, here through the stinger in the tail.

Now the answer most people want. A scorpion sting in Tuscany almost always stays local: pain, redness, a little swelling. It feels like a mild bee or wasp sting, and the pain tends to fade within an hour or two.

There are no recorded deaths from Italy’s native scorpions. Serious reactions are rare. The scorpions that kill people live in North African and desert regions, and none of them live here.

I’d rather be precise than glib. Reference databases describe the venom of these scorpions as harmless, and when doctors at the hospital in Cuneo wrote up three stings in Piedmont in 2010, they found no real poisoning in any of them. One case doesn’t fit that picture. In January 2019 a ten-year-old boy in southern France was stung on the hand by a yellow-tailed scorpion, and it went well beyond a bee sting: pain up to his shoulder, a weak and tingling arm, sweating, stomach cramps. It took three days to clear. The Bordeaux poison centre’s report on him has a fair title, “not lethal but not harmless either”. So the honest version: harmless for a healthy adult, with extra care for children and anyone prone to allergies.

As with any sting, the biggest risk is an allergy. A few people react badly to scorpion stings, just as some do to bees and wasps. That’s rare, and it’s the one case where you call 112 straight away.

Where You Actually Meet Them

This part surprises people. You are more likely to meet a scorpion indoors than on the trail.

These scorpions love old stone. Drystone walls, cellars, woodpiles, and the cool cracks of old buildings are their favourite homes. An old farmhouse or agriturismo in the countryside is exactly their kind of place.

They hunt at night and hide by day. They are not aggressive. A scorpion stings only when trapped against skin. That usually means a hand in firewood, a foot in a shoe, or a roll onto one in bed.

Private guided hikes

Looking for private hiking in Tuscany?

Browse my full collection of small-group, fully private hikes across the region.

Acquedotto Nottolini

Close to Lucca, Pistoia, Pisa

Lago Scaffaiolo

Close to Pistoia, Lucca, Prato, Florence

Marmifera del Corchia

Close to Lucca, Pisa, Viareggio

Acquerino-Cantagallo

Close to Pistoia, Prato, Florence

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What to Do If You Find One

Found one indoors? Do not crush it. Cover it with a glass, slide a card underneath, and carry it outside. It eats the insects you like even less.

In scorpion country, a few habits remove almost all the risk:

• Shake out boots and shoes before putting them on.
• Check bedding and towels left on the floor overnight.
• Wear gloves to move firewood or shift stones.
• Carry a light around an old house at night.

If you’re stung, most of the care happens at home:

• Clean the spot with soap and water.
• Cool it with a cold pack wrapped in a cloth, for the pain and swelling.
• Ease symptoms with a painkiller or antihistamine if needed; for a child, only what’s approved for their age.
• Check your tetanus is up to date, which Italian health authorities advise after a scorpion sting.
• Watch how it develops over the next few hours.

Call 112 at once for allergic signs: spreading hives, a swollen face or throat, trouble breathing, or faintness.

Call a doctor, or the Guardia Medica out of hours, in any of these cases:

• the pain is still strong after a couple of hours, or it’s getting worse;
• the swelling spreads beyond the sting;
• symptoms show up away from the sting, such as tingling up the arm, sweating, stomach cramps or vomiting;
• the person stung is a small child.

Tuscany’s poison control centre, the Centro Antiveleni at Careggi hospital in Florence, takes calls about stings too. If you can, trap the scorpion under a glass or take a photo of it. A doctor who can see it’s one of the native species knows what to expect; with an unknown scorpion, they’ll want to keep you under observation for longer.

Most stings never get that far and fade on their own.

The Bigger Picture

A scorpion under a Tuscan stone is not a threat. It is a sign of an old, healthy landscape. These animals lived in these hills long before the farmhouses they now shelter in. They keep insect numbers down and feed larger predators.

The fear they cause is mostly imported. It belongs to deserts and films, not to a drystone wall in the Apuan Alps.

On the trail I give scorpions the same calm respect as the vipers and the spiders. Look, do not touch, and let them pass. For the wider list, see my guide to the dangerous animals of Tuscany. And if you are planning to walk here, start with hiking in Tuscany.