Via Ghibellina from Firenze to La Verna
This is an ancient way, and this is testified by the high number of “spedali” which is an ancient word for an hospital, where pilgrims could get a warm place to rest, food and therapies if they were sick (“il fuoco, la luce ed il dormire”). Some of them such as the Antico Spedale del Bigallo, and the one in Rignano dedicated to Saints Jacopo and Filippo, have remained in use till XVIII century; other abbeys had the same function for pilgrims. Also, you will find on the way some cobbled stretches, which testifies that they were busy roads travelled by foot, horses, and carts.
The highest point is at the Croce Vecchia (1200 m), at the merging with the Roman Via Florentia, which comes from Strumi.
Also, you are sure you are walking through history when you cross the beautiful Medieval bridge on Pistiano stream, never crossed by cars, and go on walking on a magnificent, cobbled road. The still working Mulino Grifoni (a water mill) activated by the Torrente Solano, in the mills’s valley is worth a detour.
You will then walk on the asphalt road until Strada in Casentino, dominated by San Niccolò dei Conti Guidi Castle, where all its inhabitants where murdered, after the long Niccolò Piccinino’s siege, at the orders of the Visconti family. There you can also find one of the most important Romanic churches of the Casentino area, the Pieve di S. Martino a Vado, built from the beginning of the XI century.
You will then arrive in Strumi, fascinating location where the Abbazia di San Fedele had the duty of giving food to 10 pilgrims passing from there. In Campi you will start climbing to the La Verna Sanctuary.
- 4 Days
- Age 15+
- Via Ghibellina
