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DOCUMENT CENTER
The countryside of Valdarno is a landscape of deep contrasts. The typically Tuscan hills of the San Miniato area are covered in olive groves and peppered with medieval towns and villages, while the valley floor is noted for its thriving production and business activities featuring some of Tuscany's foremost industrial and craftwork districts.
The area is steeped in tradition and history and to this day holds traces of the longstanding rivalry between Pisa and Florence for possession of these lands and the old Via Francigena trail, an early pilgrimage route that is still perfectly intact in parts.
This part of the country offers a highly varied landscape with green hilltops and wooded areas teeming with wild fauna giving way to heavily farmed rolling hills dotted with large church-like structures called "tabaccaie", mainly seen in the San Miniato area, attesting to the intensive tobacco farming and working that has been practiced here since the end of the 1960s.
The hill system of the Cerbaie, consisting primarily of broad-leaf and maritime pine woods, the wetlands of former Lake Bientina, a refuge for swamp animals and a conservation spot for ecological and biological diversity, and the Montefalcone Nature Reserve, on the last buttresses of the Cerbaie, are of particular natural significance.
A visit here or a few days holiday is an opportunity to stay in characteristic centres steeped in history, in the depths of the countryside with daily trips that can whisk art lovers off to the nearby Tuscan cities of art and beach enthusiasts to the beaches of the Tyrrhenian Sea, without forgoing excursions through the lush green landscapes teeming with small, characteristic villages, villas, little churches and castles, where visitors can taste the most genuine produce of the area in the excellent traditional eateries: wines, oil, cured meats, cheeses, truffles and pastries.
The valley bed is distinctive for its bustling productive and commercial activity. This area is home to one of the primary industrial and craftwork districts of Tuscany: the Comprensorio del Cuoio, the Italian leader in the production of sole leather, real leather and footwear leather.
The Pisan part of the Comprensorio del Cuoio includes the municipalities of Santa Croce sull’Arno and Castelfranco di Sotto. In recent years it has been distinctive for the progressive and constant refinement of the quality of the hides, of the finished leathers, in addition to the renewal and expansion of the productive premises, the technological innovation and development.
There are 800 small and micro industrial and craftwork businesses spread throughout the district engaged partly in the tanning sector and partly in the production line sector: leather goods industry, chemical industry and leather working machines industry, of which around 40% of the production is bound for overseas.
The area is steeped in tradition and history and to this day holds traces of the longstanding rivalry between Pisa and Florence for possession of these lands and the old Via Francigena trail, an early pilgrimage route that is still perfectly intact in parts.
This part of the country offers a highly varied landscape with green hilltops and wooded areas teeming with wild fauna giving way to heavily farmed rolling hills dotted with large church-like structures called "tabaccaie", mainly seen in the San Miniato area, attesting to the intensive tobacco farming and working that has been practiced here since the end of the 1960s.
The hill system of the Cerbaie, consisting primarily of broad-leaf and maritime pine woods, the wetlands of former Lake Bientina, a refuge for swamp animals and a conservation spot for ecological and biological diversity, and the Montefalcone Nature Reserve, on the last buttresses of the Cerbaie, are of particular natural significance.
A visit here or a few days holiday is an opportunity to stay in characteristic centres steeped in history, in the depths of the countryside with daily trips that can whisk art lovers off to the nearby Tuscan cities of art and beach enthusiasts to the beaches of the Tyrrhenian Sea, without forgoing excursions through the lush green landscapes teeming with small, characteristic villages, villas, little churches and castles, where visitors can taste the most genuine produce of the area in the excellent traditional eateries: wines, oil, cured meats, cheeses, truffles and pastries.
The valley bed is distinctive for its bustling productive and commercial activity. This area is home to one of the primary industrial and craftwork districts of Tuscany: the Comprensorio del Cuoio, the Italian leader in the production of sole leather, real leather and footwear leather.
The Pisan part of the Comprensorio del Cuoio includes the municipalities of Santa Croce sull’Arno and Castelfranco di Sotto. In recent years it has been distinctive for the progressive and constant refinement of the quality of the hides, of the finished leathers, in addition to the renewal and expansion of the productive premises, the technological innovation and development.
There are 800 small and micro industrial and craftwork businesses spread throughout the district engaged partly in the tanning sector and partly in the production line sector: leather goods industry, chemical industry and leather working machines industry, of which around 40% of the production is bound for overseas.
