If you have nothing better to do and you want to destroy your legs, feet and breath, we recommend a nice trek starting in Monte Lori and arriving at the Croce del Pratomagno, all 6 hours of walking (round trip) 🚶.
Let’s get started! 🤗
The most evocative part of the mountain between Valdarno and Casentino is undoubtedly its ridge where the most beautiful path of the Pratomagno is located. It is the Cai 00 path which starts from Monte Lori and reaches the Croce del Pratomagno 🌄.
The round trip is about 17 kilometers long to be done quite easily in a day of walking with several stops 🙄. It passes by Cima Bottigliana and Poggio Masserecci, two of the highest peaks in the mountain.
Departure on foot is from the Pian dei Lavacchi rest area on Monte Lori. After the first stretch inside the woods, the path immediately begins to offer its generous views.
After about 4 kilometers an arrow indicates the short detour to see the Sword in the Rock on a plateau, whose history is linked to an ancient local legend ⚔.
Legend has it that Excalibur was a sword that belonged to the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire Flavius Romulus Augustus and that ended up set in a huge rock from which whoever managed to extract it would become king of all England.
The walk resumes on the CAI 00 path well marked among the wide grasslands of the ridge while the view widens to 360 °. If the sky is clear, you are lucky enough to enjoy views over a beautiful part of Tuscany as far as Abetone, Lake Trasimeno and Monte Amiata 🗻.
The Cima Bottigliana, 1548 meters high, halfway along the walk, is perhaps the most scenic of the entire ridge. Here the altitude path overlaps for a short stretch with the n ° 22 which descends towards La Trappola. Still endless prairies on Poggio Masserecci at 1455 meters that transmit a sense of peace and wonder, before arriving at the Croce del Pratomagno, the reference point of the whole mountain.
The most beautiful path of the Pratomagno foresees various quite challenging gradients. It starts from 1250 meters at the starting point up to 1592 meters at the arrival point, but the beauty of the landscape amply repays the efforts.
When you have arrived at the Croce del Pratomagno you can better appreciate the beauty of the ridge you have covered as if it were a green highway.
In addition, there is the memorial stone of Bert Hinkler 💀, the Australian flyer, in the post-war reissue after the original plaque, placed in 1933 by the Aretino Aero Club, was destroyed. Hinkler, for unknown reasons, crashed nearby during the first London – Brindisi leg of the new flight to Australia in January 1933 but was found only at the end of April, after the thaw had occurred, by the local charcoal burners. In the meantime, they had looked for him everywhere, including the Alps. A newspaper of the time places the discovery of the wreck in Pian dei Ciliegi, an area between the Man of Sasso and Cetica, on the Casentino side, with the body of poor Bert thrown a hundred meters. While the Italian page of Wikipedia reports only a couple of lines, the one in English is much richer, which outlines a character of considerable depth, endowed with great experience, brilliant inventiveness and strenuous vitality 🛬.
Tiring but rewarding. For those who are nearby, we highly recommend taking this path 🤗.
