CORTONA:  Landscape

Built on a spur of the Monte Sant’Egidio, Cortona is surrounded by powerfull walls,smoothed down by centuries end winds, along which the ancient gates open in correspondence to the roads coming up from the valley. The visitors looking araund from the topo walls can admire one of the widest and harmonius views in Italy. The rich and immense Val di Chiana, limited on the horizon by the Siena mountains, foremost the Amiata and the Cetona; and closer up the wide expanse of the Trasimeno lake.

Cortona’s Etruscan power is witnessed by the still standing imposing segments of the city walls: Several Etruscan tombs were found in the valley.

Of high price is the civilian architecture with Medieval and Renaissance buildings. Splendid the many churches.

PARCO DELL FORESTE CASENTINESI: Luoghi

The speldid “ Casentino Forest Park” is the Heart of one of the most actractive landscapes in Tuscany, where spirituality and natural beauty meet in a context of sublime tranquillity, there are small medieval hamlets, monasteries and Renaissance sities, and provides an ideal starting point for excursions through the area.

LA VERNA: The majestic Sanctuary of San Francesco, a site of constant pilgrimage over the centuries and religious centre known all over the world

CAMALDOLI: It is said that San Romualdo, in 1012, arriving in these places of the Casentino with some disciples “.. somewhat firm standing leaning on the stick that he wore: looking hora in this hora in that part, because you could not see if the sky is in the ground other than tall trees …. “and here he built the first five cells of the monastery and a small chapel: From that first settlement the great Camaldolese monastery became a religious reference point of international importance, a destination for visits and pilgrimages. Starting from the serene atmospheres of the Monastery we climb to the Hermitage, of great mystical suggestion, where we can still today visit the cell of San Romualdo and the chapel where he had mystical visions