Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EASTERN TUSCANY
From the forests of the Mugello and the Casentino to the heights of
La Verna, this is an area of outstanding natural beauty. Hermits
and mystics have long favoured its more remote reaches, where
ancient monastic orders continue to flourish. Only this part of Tuscany
could have produced an enigmatic artist like Piero della Francesca,
whose celebrated frescoes decorate San Francesco in Arezzo.
Eastern Tuscany's main
transport route, the A1
Autostrada, channels speed-
ing traffic southwards along
the Arno valley towards Arezzo
and Rome. Away from this
busy artery, Eastern Tuscany is
a little-visited region of steep hills
cloaked in beech, oak and sweet
chestnut trees. It is particularly attrac-
tive in autumn, when the huge forests
of the Mugello and the Casentino take
on fiery shades of red and gold. This
is also the season when mushrooms
and truffles abound. Driving through
the region at this time of year, you'll
see them for sale at roadside stalls.
The tiny mountain pastures to the
east of the region are grazed both by
sheep, whose milk is made into
cheese, and by beautiful white cattle,
which were once highly prized by
the Romans as sacrificial beasts.
This is also a land of saints,
hermits and monasteries.
The mountain-top sanctuary
of La Verna is reputed to be
the place where St Francis
received the stigmata - marks
resembling Christ's wounds.
The 11th-century hermitage at
Camaldoli was intended as the site for
a Benedictine order who wished to
live in complete isolation, but proved
so popular with religious day-trippers
that a visitors' centre soon had to
be built nearby. The monastery at
Vallombrosa has such glorious wood-
lands that John Milton was moved
to describe them in his epic poem,
Paradise Lost
(1667).
For art-lovers, eastern Tuscany is the
region of Piero della Francesca. His
frescoes in Arezzo, largely ignored
until the late 19th century, form one
of the world's greatest fresco cycles.
Pieve di Santi Ippolito e Donato in Pratovecchio, between Poppi and Stia
