An itinerary for discovering the National Park of the Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna

Following the Arno upstream you enter the district of Casentino surrounded by mountains to the north and the east. Here the National Park of the Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna offers a uniquely moving and unforgettable experience: that of discovering one of the oldest forests in Europe. Imposing forests, centuries-old fir copses, woods of beech and sycamore, maple, linden, ash and chestnut cover almost the entire territory of the Park, to the point that you can cross it in its entirety without ever emerging from the luxuriant green mantle that cloaks it.

Attractive forests that allow you to experience real and profound sensations, enchanting in their colours, with all the shades of green that in autumn explode in suggestive hues of amber and red. Another spectacle not to be missed is the spring flowering in the beechwoods, before the leaves on the crowns open and darken the underwood. In a second, meditative silences can be transformed by surprising rustlings, giving you the opportunity for sightings and encounters with roebuck, fallow deer, red deer and wild boar. And then again, the tawny owl, the blue tit and the nuthatch who use the hollows of the old tree trunks for their nests. In these sites the wolf too – the pre-eminent predator of the Apennines – has found a safe refuge.

Following the roads and the footpaths that cross the forests of the Park is like following a long Ariadne's thread which, over the course of the centuries, has connected the existences of so many men, humble and powerful, saints and knights, merchants and pilgrims. Ancient tracks, as illustrated by the strong stone bridges that still today enable the visitor to reach the hamlets, churches, hermitages and convents “at walking pace”, rediscovering the pleasure of the passing of time dictated by its own rhythm and the traces of a past rich in history and art. There were men touched by faith who, fascinated by the mysticism of these forests, stopped here to found hermitages and convents. St. Romuald, who decided to withdraw from the world at Camaldoli, and gave life to the Order of the Camaldoli Monks who modelled their Rule on the conservation and management of the forests. St. Francis who, after long periods of sought-for solitude and prayer, received the stigmata on the mountain of La Verna amidst beech trees, and then left the green-clad cliff to his brethren who, in their “ecological” vision left the wood untouched, sustaining its natural evolution.

The protected area can be visited through delightful excursions on foot and by mountain-bike or on horseback along 600 kilometres of footpaths. To facilitate the visit to the protected area, the Park has set up 10 Nature Trails—short routes offering a guided observation of nature that helps visitors to discover features and elements that frequently escape our attention. In the Province of Arezzo you can find those of Camaldoli “Trees and Wood”, of Badia Prataglia “The Beechwood” and of Chiusi della Verna “Nature, History and Spirituality”. Two short itineraries “A footpath for all …senses” in Campigna, and the first stretch of the nature trail at Badia Prataglia, are equipped with panels written in braille, which allow all visitors to enjoy discovering the protected area.

Managing Bodies
Ente Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona e Campigna
(Body for the National Park of the Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna)
Ph: +39 0575 50301

Fax: +39 0575 504497
www.parcoforestecasentinesi.it

Visitor Centres
Badia Prataglia
Man and the Forest
Via Nazionale, 14/a
52010 Badia Prataglia

Poppi
Ph: +39 0575 559477

Fax: +39 0575 559054

Chiusi della Verna
Religion and Nature
Parco Martiri della Libertà, 21
52010 Chiusi della Verna
Ph: +39 0575 532098

Fax: +39 0575 599139

Serravalle
The Exploration of Nature
Via Coselschi - 52010

Serravalle - Bibbiena
Ph: + 39 0575 539174

Stia (with planetarium)
Water, energy for Man
Via Montegrappa, 2

52017 Stia
Ph/Fax: +39 0575 504596