High Valdarno Valley, a Landscape modeled by time

 

I’m happy to announce this excellent guest-post by La Mia Bella Toscana, a blog about the lovely High Valdarno Valley in Tuscany owned by Sandro Fabrizi. He writes almost everyday about his land with passion providing lots of useful information as well as great pictures (as you can see here). So if you know a bit of Italian I recommend you read this blog too. So let’s have a look at this enchanting region with Sandro!

A Landscape modeled by time

The High Valdarno Valley in Tuscany is a small valley that is 40 km long and 20 km large, located between the provinces of Florence and Arezzo.
Its origins date back to ancient times about 2 millions of years ago when the area was completely covered by a large lake during the Pliocene Era. Over the centuries the lake has been draining leaving behind an incredibly beautiful landscape, characterized by the “Balze“, cliffs. These are peculiar clay relief colored with a slightly yellow that transforms the landscape into a unique panorama.

Even Leonardo da Vinci was stroke by this particular landscape, that he used as the background for his most famous artwork, Gioconda, as you can read in this post here. In order to prove this theory there is an interesting book by Anselmo Rotondi that has been just released called “Il Paesaggio de’ La Gioconda – un’indagine iconografica“.

The Valdarno Cliffs can be admired by several panoramic points, but I think that the best spots are the one near Castelfranco di Sopra in the province of Arezzo. These cliffs are locally called “dell’acqua zolfina“, literally of the sulfur water, because of the sulfur spring nearby. From the town’s center you can easily walk following the CAI hiking path about 3 km long. For more information read more about my excursion.

If you love the round hills of Tuscany, you won’t be disappointed by Valdarno. The ancient and large lake modeled the landscape and transformed it into a gentle panorama with round hills that you can admire from the small village of Piantravigne, within the municipality of Terranuova. This small looks almost suspended over the Balze, but when you get there you simply get stunned from the incredible landscape that looks fake because of its beauty.

And Valdarno is in Tuscany and in addition to an extraordinary landscape you can taste local products and I suggest you taste Tarese, a kind of pork-underbelly with a savory and delicate taste. The traditional recipe comes from local farmers and is included into Slow Food lists. It’s pretty hard to find it, since just a few producers make it, but if you find it you’ll 100% satisfied.

I really hope you liked my suggestions and come to discover my lovely Tuscany, the High Valdarno Valley!