The Montalbano is a valuable natural area. It offers a variety of paths in the green, to immerse yourself in the beauty of this countryside-garden.
The Montalbano is a mountain range characterized by a system of hills adjacent and degrading with slopes rather gentle up to the plains that surround it. However, there are many rather steep descents.
The area covers 16,000 hectares between the provinces of Florence, Pistoia, and Prato. It is located in a strategic position, between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Tuscan Emilian Apennines, not far from the art cities of Florence, Pisa, Lucca.
The landscape is dominated by the cultivation of vines, in the terraces and in the plains, and olive trees, on the slopes. Chestnut woods cover the peaks.
Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, about 4,000 hectares were allocated by the Medici to the construction of the Barco Reale Mediceo, a large area used as a hunting reserve of which only short stretches of the perimeter wall remain today.
The area is crossed by an extensive network of pedestrian and cycle paths that reach hilly locations surrounded by greenery, archaeological sites, ancient woods, such as the holm oak of Pietramarina. But you can also follow eno-gastronomic routes such as the Road of oil and wine.
In the landscape stand stately villas, elegant farms, and numerous farmhouses, located on the various farms. For this area, in consideration of the decisive intervention of man on the environment, the appropriate definition of countryside-garden has been used, to emphasize the significant importance of the action of man, which has made this area even more beautiful and productive through terraces, vineyards and olive groves arranged on hilly lands.
Today Montalbano is a destination for slow and ecological tourism, and food and wine, involving the activities devoted to the production of oil, wine, honey, cheese, jams, medicinal herbs.
Click here for the map of the Montalbano paths.
