Mount Amiata Guided Tour
Mount Amiata guided tour: beyond the classic landscape of Tuscany
You have to visit the Monte Amiata. Here between cypresses and golden fields, there is an place where nature is still wild, barren, and from the low altitude of the hills you have to climb towards peaks where you can discover the history of men and their millenary civilization.
We will start with our journey from Bagno Vignoni, a thermal village known since Roman times and frequented by eminent personalities such as Caterina of Siena and Lorenzo the Magnificent. Here we will visit the space of an ancient pool from which still rises sulphurous water, a truly enchanting image that did not fail to impress the Russian filmmaker Andrej Tarkovskij.
From the pool we will move towards the Mill Park, a complex system of canals which by the exploitation of the kinetic force of fall water, allowed until a few decades ago the operation of some mills, used in the Middle Ages by the inhabitants of the surrounding countryside .
The Ancient Passage of Via Francigena
We will then reach the hill village of Radicofani, a military outpost frequented in the Middle Ages and an important point of control over the ancient passage of the Via Francigena. The village, with the characteristic dark colors given by the basanite, the local volcanic stone, welcomed in its Castle an out of law of the Republic of Siena, remembered in history as the Robin Hood of Val d’Orcia: he was called Ghino di Tacco.
Through the stories that I will have to tell you about him, they will make you discover why he was identified with this singular appellation.
The monuments preserved in the territory, such as the Church of San Pietro, the church of Sant’Agata and the Fortress, show well the nature of this village as a border outpost.
Between ancient Baths and Abbeys
From Radicofani we will descend towards the valley to reach Bagni San Filippo, another famous thermal locality. Here you can admire the White Whale, a rock shaped by the sulphurous water spillage that acts as a “white beach” for many who stop here to take a bath in hot water.
The last stop on this route to discover the border of the region will be the village of Abbadia San Salvatore, a center that developed in the Middle Ages around the homonymous abbey, and one of the most fascinating historical centers both for its intact appearance and for the architecture that is very reminiscent of the buildings of upper Lazio, due to their proximity to that region.
We will visit the abbey church, today still managed by a community of Cistercian monks. You will be fascinated by the Church’s crypt, a masterpiece of architecture that dates back to the Longobard era (eighth century AD). The large series of columns of this suggestive environment will bring you back to the time when the monks prayed in this space.
Discover this magic corner of Tuscany
On the way back home you will see the blurred line of the horizon, undefined as the time line on Monte Amiata seems to have stopped, where the nature and the history of this pleasant place will make you discover a corner of Tuscany that you would never expected.