By Alessia Benelli
In spring and summer, the Mugello offers dozens of walking routes among the mountains and rolling hills of the green heart of Tuscany.
“Walking for me means entering nature. And that’s why I walk slowly, I hardly ever run. Nature for me is not a gymnastics field. I go to see, to hear, with all my senses”. Whoever says this has built his entire existence on the relationship between nature and the challenges it presents us, that is the philosopher and mountaineer Reinhold Messner. Taking a walk immersed in nature is good for our body and gives us a feeling of tranquility that is difficult to find. It is a panacea for our health and our mind.
And just think, in Mugello there are paths that retrace the footsteps of the great artists to whom it gave birth. We are talking about the path of the painters Giotto and Cimabue conceived and designed by the Vicchiese Hiking Group (Gev) and created in collaboration with the municipal administration of Vicchio. An evocative path for its uncontaminated and precious nature because it leads to visit the places where these famous painters lived. The path constitutes a natural path linking the center of Vicchio (Piazza Giotto) and Giotto’s house through a secondary road network of great environmental and historical-cultural value such as the hamlets of Pesciola, Pilarciano and Vespignano, the Cimabue bridge, the Ponte a Vicchio, the museum of sacred art and Giotto’s house. Each stop on the trail is steeped in history. The Cimabue bridge, which crosses the Ensa river, is so called because legend has it that at the end of the 13th century in this point the meeting took place between the painter Cimabue, now an adult, and the young Giotto, who was intent on drawing on a stone on the bank of the stream. While Giotto’s house stands right in the place where the painter was born.
The path consists of two basic circular itineraries that can be partially overlapped, both starting and returning to Vicchio: itinerary A (Cimabue) is the complete itinerary, about 14 km long and with an estimated walking time of 4 hours. It reaches Giotto’s house crossing the hamlets of Pesciola and Vespignano and then returns to Vicchio crossing the Cimabue bridge and following the eco-tourist trail along the Sieve up to Ponte a Vicchio, from where it goes up towards the historic centre. Deviating from the eco-tourist track towards the hamlet of Cistio, it is possible to connect to the path della Memoria and then to the park of Monte Giovi. Itinerary B (Giotto) is the shortest route, about 9 km long and can be covered in about 2.5 hours. Finally, Itinerary C (Beato Angelico) leads to Moriano, the birthplace of the painter.
OTHER ROUTES – Mugello is dotted with paths that combine natural beauty with history. Below we present the main ones.
THE PATH OF THE GOTHIC LINE – Ring itinerary starting from Passo del Giogo which allows you to visit the most interesting and significant places and structures of the Second World War clashes.
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC HUNTING TRAIL – Short itinerary equipped with huts, roof terraces, perches for observing and photographing wild animals, near the Abbey of San Pietro a Moscheta.
THE PATH OF THE ROVIGO WATERFALL – A non-binding walk which, crossing the splendid Val d’Inferno, leads to the Rovigo stream up to the waterfall, an obligatory stop in both winter and summer.
THE GIOGO COLLA ROUTE – Easy and pleasant route that runs along the forest road 00 connecting the Giogo Pass to the Colla di Casaglia Pass, always in the shade of a cool beech forest.
THE NATURE TRAIL FOR EVERYONE – Short flat route that can also be used by the disabled, starting from Casa la Giogo. Along the way you will find thematic panels and a hut for observing wildlife.
THE CASA D’ERCI ROUTE – Ring route around the Casa d’Erci Museum of Rural Civilization, with descriptions of the plants present and historical reconstructions of agricultural and woodland environments.
THE BIODIVERSITY PATH – A splendid round trip with facilities for observing fauna and information stops to learn more about some aspects of biodiversity in the Apennine environment.
TREKKING – In Mugello we also find paths designed for trekking. In fact, here is SO.F.T. (Sorgenti di Firenze Trekking): a large hiking ring designed to underline Florence’s bond with the valleys and ridges that give the characteristic aspect of its landscape. Florence is surrounded by a large amphitheater of mountains formed by the ridges of the Apennines and for this very reason the SO.F.T. it consists of a main loop and 22 secondary loops that can be covered in one day. The main ring runs along a section of the Apennine ridge (Passo della Futa-Monte Falterona, coinciding with the G.E.A.), watershed between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic domains and the ridge that separates the Mugello basin from the FlorencePrato basin and the Val di Bisenzio. Overall, there are about 500 km of paths which often overlap with other itineraries and/or paths.
Info: www.mugellotoscana.it