"Lies this hermitage, a true oasis of peace, surrounded by numberless fir-trees", so run two verses of Varchi. And Camaldoli, solitary and secluded, is very quiet holiday resort, but mainly a place of prayer and meditation, being the heir of that medieval monastic life, which was, at the same time, contemplative and very active. The origin of Camaldoli, which includes the monastery with the nearby houses, the Hermitage at about three kilometers away from it and the forest all around, goes back to 1012, when St. Romuald, having received this territory from Count Maldolo of Arezzo as a gift, had the first nucleus of the Hermitage buildt here and after a few years the Forest. In 1027, when the saint died, the Congregation had developed. In 1080 the Blessed Rodolfo codified the usages of the Order. Today the Congregation which includes the Camaldolese Monks of the Benedictine Order, practises the comntemplative life, but balancing the heremit's life with that in common.