For twenty years, from 1828 to 1848, he obstinately and restlessly persisted in his fight against malaria, thwarted by thousands of problems, the most serious being the constant expanding of marshes at each brief work interval.
Through the years the marshes, even if at a slow rate, began to diminish and the resulting areas of land could then be given to smallholders who were bound to cultivate it and to build farmhouses.
Thanks to this reformation, in 1841 a new road was built to connect Piombino and Campiglia, to the advantage of the fertile lands of the surroundings.
Due to the favourable measures set out by Leopoldo II, the Maremma region quickly became populated by farmers, with rich citizens willing to complete the draining of vast areas, such as Count Rosselmini Gualandi of Pisa, who surveyed the Casone of Scarlino and the Gualdo at Punta Troia.