Discovering the Casentino: Natural, Religious and Historical Tuscany

Florence

You will depart towards the Casentino from the most famous place in Tuscany, the capital Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance and one of the most beautiful cities of art in Italy. You will experience a walk through the Oltrarno, Santo Spirito and San Frediano districts, among the last neighborhoods that try to maintain their typicality with still the presence of small artisan shops and Florentine citizens. Typical lunch in a historic tavern.

Address: Florence, FI, Italy

Impruneta

You will then move to the Municipality of Impruneta to visit the Florence American Cemetery, erected in honor of the American soldiers who lost their lives fighting on Italian territory in World War II. Dinner in a typical local restaurant and overnight stay.

Address: Impruneta, FI, Italy

Impruneta

Impruneta is a small town on the outskirts of Chianti famous above all for the artisanal production of terracotta, so during the morning you can visit the terracotta production at one of the historic kilns of the place.

Address: Impruneta, FI, Italy

Consumes

Departure in a north-easterly direction crossing the Passo della Consuma, located at 1050 meters above sea level, which divides the Valdisieve from the Casentino, known for the famous schiacciata with which you will have lunch while enjoying an incredible view.

Address: Passo della Consuma, Consuma, AR, Italy

Is

Arrival in Stia and walk through the village. If it’s summer, you can enjoy a relaxing afternoon in nature at the Parco della Rana where the locals cool off in the clear waters of the Arno River, which originates in this area and there is also an adventure park with guides for the little ones. / If it’s winter, visit the Wool Museum which recalls the times when the traditional art of the Casentino cloth, a typical and rustic colored wool, bright orange or green, also imposed itself on international markets. Dinner and overnight stay in the area.

Address: Stia, AR, Italy

Camaldoli

Visit this community of Benedictine monks founded a thousand years ago by St. Romuald, which is located at the gates of the Casentino Forest Park. Visit to the Old Pharmacy, whose apothecary is attested since 1331, still furnished with furniture from the 1600s, copper distillers, wooden presses and much more. Also visit the Monastery and the Guesthouse, up to the Hermitage of San Romualdo, founded in 1012 and still represents a copy of the lifestyle of a thousand years ago.

Address: Camaldoli, AR, Italy

Badia Prataglia

You will then move to Badia Prataglia, a small village within the Casentino Forests National Park, which was born from the aggregation of some houses around the church, the only remaining part of the ancient abbey. Even today, the culture of the locals is imbued with the centuries-old relationship between spirituality and forest, between the history of woodworking and the poor art of local artisans. Worth mentioning is the Park’s Visitor Centre dedicated to man and the forest and the nearby locality of Il Capanno from where the Nature Trail dedicated to the beech forest and the Path to Sonia start, equipped on a beaten track and with captions in Braille, accessible for all.

Address: Badia Prataglia, AR, Italy

Poppi

You will descend towards the medieval village of Poppi for a walk inside a rare “walled city” on which the Castle of the Guidi Counts dominates. Dinner with typical products of the area and overnight stay.

Address: Poppi, AR, Italy

Chiusi della Verna

Departure in the direction of Chiusi della Verna, a village linked to two historical figures, St. Francis of Assisi and Michelangelo Buonarroti. Visit to the Sanctuary of La Verna, where St. Francis received his stigmata, a place where he made and culture marry with the surrounding unspoiled nature. Lunch in the area.

Address: Chiusi della Verna, AR, Italy

Pieve Santo Stefano

Visit to the Piccolo Museo del Diario (Small Diary Museum ) created together with the National Diary Archive of PSS. The Little Diary Museum is an intense multisensory and interactive journey created to tell the story of the National Diary Archive of Pieve Santo Stefano and the precious autobiographical testimonies that it preserves. A museum itinerary that welcomes the visitor in an engaging and innovative way and leads him by the hand through the writings of ordinary people who have told the history of Italy from an absolutely unprecedented point of view.

Private memories that from individual and personal stories have become collective and universal stories, thus flanking History with a capital S and intertwining with it to the point of making people talk about “history written from below”. The story of a country that here finds its purest, most everyday, frank and honest identity. Stories, memoirs, letters and diaries that erase the filters of rhetoric and make us understand the world in which we live, our country, our society. Overnight in the area.

Address: Pieve Santo Stefano, AR, Italy

Anghiari

Visit to the village of Anghiari, a medieval village, site of the legendary battle painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, part of the club of the most beautiful villages in Italy and Orange Flag of the Italian Touring Club.

Address: Anghiari, AR, Italy

Arezzo

You will descend towards Arezzo to enjoy an underrated city that houses absolute artistic masterpieces, which gave life to Francesco Petrarca and Piero della Francesca, which offers green oases a stone’s throw from the center. You’ll enjoy a traditional local cooking class followed by a tasting lunch of the dishes being prepared.

Address: Arezzo, AR, Italy

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