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Day trips by car / Forlì and Cesena

Full day Faith Nature History Villages

La Verna, Poppi and Camaldoli: the sanctuaries of the Casentino

The sanctuary where St Francis received the stigmata, the castle of the Guidi Counts in Poppi, and the Monastery and Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli in the forest

Beyond the ridge, in Tuscany, the Casentino is the valley of the infant River Arno and the Casentino Forests National Park. In the morning, the Sanctuary of La Verna, clinging to a cliff above the woods, where St Francis received the stigmata in 1224. After lunch, Poppi, with the castle of the Guidi Counts, and Camaldoli, where St Romuald founded a monastery and hermitage amongst the fir trees a thousand years ago, tended by monks ever since.

Santuario della Verna
Photo: Tulumnes, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
  • Length from Marotta11 h 30 Full day
  • Driving6 h 05 · 417 km there and back
  • Visits and stops4 h 25
  • When to goApril to October; in winter there may be snow on the mountain roads

The plan from Marotta

  1. Leave Marotta for Sanctuary of La Verna2 h 20 driving, 189 km
  2. Sanctuary of La Verna1 h 50 of visits: The Sanctuary and the Chapel of the Stigmata, The Sasso Spicco and the forest
  3. Lunch in La Verna1 h 00 of visits: at La Verna or along the road to Poppi: potato tortelli, Casentino ham, mushrooms, pecorino cheese.
  4. Drive on to Poppi50 min driving, 32 km
  5. Poppi1 h 00 of visits: The Castle of the Guidi Counts
  6. Drive on to Monastery of Camaldoli25 min driving, 14 km
  7. Monastery of Camaldoli45 min of visits: The Monastery and the ancient Pharmacy
  8. Drive on to Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli10 min driving, 3 km
  9. Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli50 min of visits: The Sacred Hermitage
  10. Drive back to Marotta2 h 20 driving, 178 km
  11. Back in Marotta

Times are a guide: driving times are worked out without traffic, then come the visits and ten minutes at every stop to park. In summer towards the coast and at rush hour allow extra time.

What you will see

1Sanctuary of La Verna

The Sanctuary and the Chapel of the Stigmata 60 min

In 1213 Count Orlando Cattani gave Mount La Verna to Francis of Assisi, so that he could pray there in peace. Here, in September 1224, the saint received the stigmata, the wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side. On the spot stands the Chapel of the Stigmata, where every day the friars' procession arrives along the Corridor of the Stigmata. In the Chiesa Maggiore and the chapels are the great white and blue ceramics by Andrea della Robbia, among the finest he ever made.

Free admission; respectful dress and silence.

The Sasso Spicco and the forest 20 min

Below the sanctuary the rock splits into deep crevices: the most famous is the Sasso Spicco, an enormous boulder suspended over the gorge, where Francis would withdraw to pray. Around it lies the forest of beech and fir trees of La Verna, protected for centuries by the friars and now part of the National Park. From the Piazzale del Quadrante you can see the whole valley.

The Sasso Spicco is reached by a stairway cut into the rock: wear comfortable shoes.

2Poppi

The Castle of the Guidi Counts 40 min

It dominates the valley from the top of the town, with its tower and battlements: it was the home of the Guidi Counts, the lords of the Casentino, and for its shape is often compared to the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. In the courtyard there's a stone and wood staircase, inside the frescoed chapel and the Rilliana Library with its ancient manuscripts. On the plain below the castle, in 1289, the Battle of Campaldino was fought between the Florentines and the Aretines: among the Florentine cavalry was the young Dante.

Admission charge.

3Monastery of Camaldoli

The Monastery and the ancient Pharmacy 30 min

In the forest, at over 800 metres, stands the monastery of the Camaldolese monks, founded as a guesthouse and hospital for those climbing to the hermitage. Next to the church is the ancient Pharmacy, with its sixteenth-century wooden shelves and the monks' jars: you can still buy the liqueurs, herbal teas and soaps that the monks make from the forest herbs.

Free admission; the Pharmacy is a shop.

4Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli

The Sacred Hermitage 35 min

St Romuald, a monk from Ravenna, came up here around 1012 and founded the hermitage: a church and, behind a wall, about twenty small houses where each monk lives alone, with his own vegetable garden, in silence. St Romuald's cell can be visited. Around it is the forest of silver firs that the monks have tended and replanted for centuries according to written rules, one of the first forestry laws in Europe.

You can visit the church and St Romuald's cell; the other cells are inhabited.

Tips

  • The Casentino roads have many bends: if you suffer from car sickness, sit in front and take something before you set off.
  • On 17 September, the feast of the Stigmata, La Verna is full of pilgrims.
  • It's cooler in the mountains than at the seaside even in summer: pack a jumper.

The same trip from other towns

How long it takes from each town, the drive back included. Tap a town to see the plan from there.

Ravenna, Faenza and Cervia

Rimini and the Riviera

Forlì and Cesena

Bologna and its province

Comacchio and its beaches

Pesaro and Fano

With your own car

Almost every old town has a limited traffic zone (ZTL) with cameras: park outside and walk in. The fine reaches your home, abroad too. ZTL and car parks town by town

This trip with a driver

Romagna Transfer picks you up at your hotel, drops you in front of every stop and brings you back: no parking, no ZTL, and the wine is yours to enjoy.

Ask Romagna Transfer

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