The Casentino is the upper valley which the Arno river runs through from Mount Falterona to the vicinity of Arezzo where
it leaves the strait of the Appennino to flow into the plain and more peacefully towards Florence. The Arno springs at a short distance from the Tiber and flows parallel to it as if they shared a mutual greatness; they are kept apart only by a narrow mountain range on top of which La Verna and Camaldoli seem to guard both the valleys. But the upper valley of the Arno is more
charming than the Tiber: greener, less rough, a perfect balance of nature and the work of man who has inhabitated and cultivated it.
The first road, from North to South serves those coming from Florence, through the Pass of the Consuma, or from Arezzo through the Valley at Giovi. The second road comes from Romagna through the Pass of the Mandrioli. Going up the Arno from A rezzo the valley is narrow and winding as far as Bibbiena. Then it widens and remains like that as far as
Pratovecchio, in a perfect amphitheatre of gentle hills, with the ridge of the Pratomagno to West and to East the ridge of the Falterona, with Camaldoli, Mount La Verna and Catenaia.
Because of its location at the extreme North-Eastern edge of Tuscany it has always been a land of feudal possession rather than a simple land of passage, a coveted loot for the Florentines who fought against the inhabitants of Arezzo to keep it. The Guidi from Poppi were lords of cultivated lands
carefully looked after by their castles which, still today, crown the strongest and best locations: Romena, Porciano,Urbech,Castelleone, Castel San Niccolò, Borgo alla Collina, Montemignaio, Fronzola, all well known names most of which are mentioned by Dante.
Bibbiena and other lands belonged to the aggressive Tarlati and Ubertini from Arezzo. Then it was destined that a little north of Poppi, in the plain of Campaldino was fought the brutal battle which put an end to the century- long
fights between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines (1289).
But its peripheral location and mystical beauty have made the Casentino the idea place for prayer in mountains covered with forests where the roar of the conflicts echoed like a faraway high sea. St. Francis climbed La Verna and on the “rough rock” was given the stigmata, St. Romualdo founded his hermitage at Camaldoli where his only companion was the wind of the forest. Every site is beloved by Dante who was first a young Guelph
knight at Campaldino, then an exile. Clear fresh waters have been flowing into the Arno like the Archiano for centuries.
In the century-old forests of the mountains North of the valley lies the National Park of the Foreste Casentinesi. |
