Tuscany vacation : farmhouses, private villas, vacation homes, hotel, restaurant ... in Casentino, a tuscan valley.

CONTACTS

VILLAS

FARMHOUSES

RELAX AND SPORT

RESTAURANTS

HOTELS

The Casentino valley

The Casentino, which includes the first valley of the river Arno, surrounded by the range of Mt. Falterona which slopes down, to the west, to the sub-Appennine of Pratomagno and to the east reaches the Appennine ridge betweenTuscany and Romagna and the offshots of the alps of Serra and Catenaia, cannot be but associated, in the redear's mind, to the name of Dante who, by his poetical genius, was able to express its deepest and most fascinating natural, historical and cultural aspects. The imposing beauty of the mountains which enclose the valley, covered as they are aften by fir-trees, beeches and chestnut-trees and proceded by armonious hillocks and green and fertile planes. The memory of venerated places, such as the mountain of Camaldoli, chosen by St. Romuald of Ravenna to found there his Order of eremits or the bare rock of the Verna, where St. Francis received the stigmata. The mention fo istorical events such as the battle of Campaldino and personages more or less associated with the Casentino. All this can be found in Dante who has been able to introduce us to the heart of this region better than any other writer, thanks to his incomparable poetry. Inhabited by the Etruscans and then by Romans, during the long medieval period the Casentino centralized its life around the many catles which have been more or less preserved or have given their names to various places. Here rise the albeys almost everywhere in shady and solitary places, built in the severe Romanesque style; some parich-churches with a more complex structure and the plastic decorations of the capitals. And when the Middle Ages were almost over, and fights among various parties anded with the supremacy of Florence, in 1440 this town annexed the Casentino to its territory, by destroyng the secular power of Counts Guidi. Today, however, a geografic reasons has had the upper hand over any other. Since this first valley of the arno opens to the vast Aretine plane, it belongs to the province of arezzo and constitute a very important part of it for economical, social and cultural reasons. We hope that this web site, thanks to our database of farmhouses, villas, restaurant etc., may help those who visit this wonderful and interesting region, included in the larger region of Tuscany