VILLAGES AND OTHER PLACES

Journey through the villages and places of the Casentino

In the early 20th century, the English sisters Ella e Dora Noyes went on a journey through Italy, which was very popular at the time. Born in a wealthy family and considered a little bit extravagant and eccentric, they did not choose to visit important attractions such as the cities of art, but they preferred an almost unknown territory: Casentino. They reached this land passing through the Passo della Consuma, the historical communication mountain route between Casentino and Florence. Their first visit of this Tuscan land was therefore from above, which let them gain a clear idea of its geographical conformation. Approaching Casentino, they surely spotted three castles: Romena, Porciano and Poppi, unmistakable identifiers of the valley to this day.
On the horizon, they saw from the very beginning - and constantly during their visit of Casentino, a spur coming out from the linear profile of the Appennino: the Mount Verna.
Dante Alighieri remembers this place as a “raw stone between Tiber and Arno” where Francis of Assisi received the stigmata in 1224 and that “his limbs wore for two years”.
Spirituality is one of the relevant aspects of Casentino. La Verna, a very notorious place, is certainly the most significant example. Also very important in this regard are the hermitage and the monastery of Camaldoli. Places with unique charm surrounded by secular forests that supply the green lung of the National Park. You can as well encounter an atmosphere of ancient spirituality in the famous Romanesque churches of the valley, monuments built in the mid-12th century in an austere, sumptuous and fascinating architecture.
Casentino is also synonymous with splendid landscapes where there are many towns and small villages, almost all of medieval origin, built where once there was a castle. This valley, the first bathed by the Arno, is squeezed between the Tuscan-Romagna Apennine ridge where the Casentinesi Forests National Park is located and the Pratomagno massif, another mountain that offers beautiful naturalistic aspects and incredible views from its long grassy ridge . The list of places and villages on this page traces a path that does not start from the Passo della Consuma, as the Noyes did, but from the source of the Arno on Monte Falterona. A journey that leads to Arezzo, a Tuscan city of Etruscan origin.