Type: naturalistic, historical, and cultural
Approximate distance: 50 km
This itinerary moves between very different environments, connecting the engraved and severe landscape of the Radicofani area with the wooded slope of Monte Amiata. It starts from Radicofani, in a territory marked by calanchi (badlands), bare ridges, and rocky outcrops, where the landscape is not domesticated and the road follows sharp lines, shaped by water and wind over time.
Leaving this rougher dimension behind, the route ascends towards Abbadia San Salvatore, where the landscape gradually changes: the woods thicken, the air becomes fresher, and human settlement takes on a different character.
🕍 Abbadia San Salvatore: spirituality, power, and territory
The first radical change occurs at Abbadia San Salvatore, where the woods replace open surfaces and human settlement is structured around the Abbey of Santissimo Salvatore. Founded in the Lombard era, the abbey was for centuries a religious and cultural center of primary importance, as well as a reference point for territorial control and for the flows along the connecting axes between the north and south of the peninsula. Here, the monastic presence shaped not only the architecture but also the organization of the surrounding landscape.
⛏️ Amiata Mines: labor and industrial memory
Alongside the spiritual dimension, the productive one emerges, linked to the long mining season of the Amiata. The Mining Museum recounts the extraction of mercury, which radically transformed the economy, landscapes, and local communities between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Tunnels, plants, and worker settlements testify to a recent but decisive chapter in the history of the Amiata, which still contributes to defining the identity of this mountain today.
🌿 Parco Vivo: woods, springs, and active nature
The route continues in Parco Vivo, one of the most representative areas of the itinerary’s naturalistic component. Here the journey deliberately slows down: extensive woods, springs, trails, and humid environments offer an ideal space for short breaks in nature and for reading the Amiata as a place of biodiversity and active enjoyment, frequented today for trekking and outdoor activities in the summer season.
Why choose it
An itinerary designed for those who want to cross contrasting environments in the same journey: from the badlands and bare ridges of Radicofani to the woods of the Amiata, passing through medieval spirituality, industrial memory, and thermal water, with a deep reading of the relationship between man, resources, and territory.
