In the environs
We are in Valgraziosa, a small land of Tuscany.
Calci is nestled at the bottom of the Monte Pisano, overlooking on the Arno’s valley, staring at the sea on the horizon.
In the hillside chestnut trees and olive trees are the overlords, merging with wide tract of Mediterranean scrub and pine grove.
It is a varied landscape, natural or grown by men, but genuine as well.
It is the land of the olive tree and of the oil.
Calci shows a little-known Tuscany area, consisting in rural parish churches, in hermitages and cloisters, in fortresses and monastery, in large country houses and steading farmhouse, in mills and olive oil mills, in paths among the mountains and bikeways in the valley.
It is a town consisting in a center -the Pieve (meaning parish church)- and several hamlets: Montemagno, Tre Colli, Villa, Il Colle, Castelmaggiore, San Donato, Nicosia are all places were the soul finds itself and man interact strictly with the surrounding nature.
In the hearth of the country stands the greatest parish church of the area, dedicated to the Saints Giovanni and Ermolao and built between 1.080 B.C. and 1.111 B.C. in Romanesque style of Pisa.
Smaller, in Romanesque style as well, there is the San Bernardo Church, on the way climbing on the Monte Serra.
In Nicosia, instead, a cloister from the second half of the XIII century stands out: although it is partly abandoned nowadays, the atmosphere of the past life is still present.
From the cloister starts a path that climbs to the Rocca della Verruca (Verruca’s stronghold): from this site, when the sky is clear, you can admire the whole Arno Valley, the sea and the islands too.
In addition to this one, many paths go through all the Valgraziosa and the Monte Pisano, linking Calci to the nearest towns: by pleasant hiking by foot, by mountain bike or by horse, it is possible to reach, for example, the Torretta di Caprona (the small tower of Caprona), the San Michele archeological digs under the Verruca, to arrive to the Campo Lake – where a naturalistic route shows the flora and the fauna of the area, and to get to the Fonti di Asciano, Vicopisano, San Giuliano Terme or even Pisa and Lucca. A way to learn about the flowers and the trees, aromatic herbs and mushrooms, or simply enjoy the landscape and the walk.
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