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The Mount Falterona |
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With a top height of 1.654 m, Monte Falterona is among the highest peaks
in this part of the Appennines, but it owes its fame to the fact that the
river Arno, the most important river in Tuscany and the river flowing
through Florence and Pisa, springs from here.
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The environment
The Monte Falteron is part of the “Parco Nazionale delle Foreste
Casentinesi, Monte Falterona, Campigna” and represents one of the most
interesting areas from an environmental perspective. For centuries, it’s
been the best known mountain resort for the people living in Florence, who
own summer houses in the village of Castagno d’Andrea (San Godenzo), the
natural gateway to the mountain.
The side of the mountain where Castagno d’Andrea lies has steep, sheer
cliffs covered with beech and chestnut trees, where roe deer, wild boars,
deer, wolves and eagles live: an unique place a stone’s throw from
Florence.
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 History
To the Etruscans, Monte Falterona was one of the holiest mountains,
both because of the Arno’s source and because of a small lake that exists
nearby. This lake is called “Lago degli idoli” (“Lake of the idols”)
because during the 19th century 600 small votive statues dating 6th-4th
B.C. were found on its bed. Etruscans used to throw such offerings into
the lake in order to invoke their Gods’ benevolence. Most of them are now
exhibits at foreign museums.
Monte Falterona was so important to Florence that even the town’s
contemporaneous chroniclers would tell events and stories about it.
It is through their chronicles that we’re informed about the landslide
that in 1335 destroyed the village of Castagno or about the uprising of
the local dwellers against Domenico Guidi, a local lord, who ordered their
houses to be set on fire as a retaliation for their disobedience.
The mountain supplied the town with trees to produce charcoal and timber
and witnessed one of the saddest defeats of the guerrilla against the
fascists who, for mere retaliation, killed dozens of unarmed civilians and
set the villages of Castagno and Vallucciole - on the other side of the
mountain - on fire.
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Itineraries
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