Castagno d'Andrea is reached by car from Firenze and Forli following highway
67 "Tosco Romagnola" until San Godenzo and from there follow
the road signs.
Itinerary, "classic" climb to Monte Falterona from Castagno
d'Andrea, crossing the luxuriant Beech woods which cloak the mountain.
The downhill slope includes the ridge passage (of chestnuts), mentioned
by Campana as one of his stopping points.
After visiting the little church of Castagno d'Andrea, with its "portico
of little square columns each of one entire stone, bare and elegant, simple
and austere, truly Tuscan", you follow the pathway sign n.16/GEA
for Fonte del Borbotto, climbing until you meet the road ,unfortunately,
recently asphalted, which rises towards the spring. Continue to follow
the white and red signs which let you cut out a lot of turns making the
route quicker and more pleasant. Reaching the Fonte del Borbotto pass
by the bar which prevents cars from passing and proceed for a few hundred
metres along the unsurfaced road, until reaching a point in which the
pathway n.16 for Monte Falterona leads off to the right. Here, two alternatives
are proposed : to immediately reach Piancancelli using the cart track,
or to climb Falterona. The first route is in fact very interesting : other
than going along completely inside the Beech woods, a passage under "the
steep rocks of the Falterona" it is possible to see the "rocky
canals which vein its sides". If, instead, you go up the mountain
you will have the opportunity to admire "the solemn sadness of the
Falterona which swells like a huge petrified horse, which leaves in its
wake a cavalry of cracks, cracks and more cracks in the rocks until finally
a sandy bubbling of hills down on the planes of Tuscany" and to rest
"in the angelic limpidity of the high mountain". Then, from
the top of Falterona follow the pathway signs n.00 CAI which takes you
to the summit of Monte Falco.
Descending from the top, after a short time, you leave what appears to
be the main crest to turn left, steeply downhill towards Piancancelli
(wooden arrows). On reaching the unsurfaced road coming from Borbotto
cross over and take, on the opposite side, the pathway n.00 CAI which
first goes up into the woods and then down to the cart track for Pian
delle Fontanelle. On this turn left and after a while, at a fork, carry
straight on until you reach the refuge Pian delle Fontanelle, Here you
turn left, on the pathway n. 00 which after a short level tract , begins
to go steeply down toward the "Giogo di Castagno". The route
remains constantly in the Beech woods and quickly looses height until
it returns to the forest path, previously abandoned just near the "Giogo"
(ridge). Here, on the left you find the pathway for Castagno d'Andrea.
This, spectacular in its first rocky tact, lets you go down into the valley
of Fosse di Falterona to go up again in a centuries old chestnut grove
until you reach Le Casine and then by the cart track, Castagno d'Andrea
(still following pathway n. 14/a CAI).
Time required |
5/6 hours |
Vertical height |
1070 m |
Maps |
Multigraphic 1 :25.000 n. 30/31 |
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