Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli: charm amidst thousand-year-old forests

The Foreste Casentinesi are a magical place, dating back millennia, in which you can sample a piece of the ancient world, where men and nature seem to bear the signs of a past that still pulsates. The forests were developed along part of the Tuscany-Romagna Apennine mountains, straddling the provinces of Arezzo, Florence and Forlì-Cesena. As you walk through them, even on a short hike, you may only see the sun rarely, through a thick mantle of branches and leaves, and you will roam around large parts of terrain blanketed in lush green. The forests are worth an extended visit in and of themselves, but in the Casentino area you can also find castles, Romanesque parish churches, ancient villages and some of the most fascinating Italian monasteries. Among these, surrounded by a forest of white pine trees, having stood for thousands of years and revealing itself in its quiet essentiality, you will find in Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli, with its associated monastery just 3 kilometers (almost 2 miles) away....