The Tuscan countryside
of the Upper Cecina Valley |
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The territory of the Upper
Cecina Valley, in the southern part of the Province
of Pisa, bears the traces of a millenary human presence
and activity in a very peculiar natural context.
The landscape is marked by the signs of the ancient settlements,
still perfectly visible: the castles high on the hill-tops
surrounded by villages, churches,
farms and country houses.
The monuments and the works of art are to be found in Volterra,
the unquestioned centre of the whole area. All this in an
ever changing landscape: the typical scenery of the Tuscan
countryside with its cypress alleys, vine yards and
olive groves against a backcloth of seasonally changing colours,
alternating with stark and forbidding crags and ravines; and
the boric-acid fumaroles of the geothermal area, steaming
jets now harnessed to produce electrical power.
And to complement all this, as if to make a everlasting impression
on the nature lover, the vast wooded areas, the rivers and
minor water courses, true wildlife sanctuaries like the Forest
of Monterufoli and Berignone
with their unforgettable naturalistic intineraries.
In short: a region whose attractions transport the visitor
to a distant and less frenetic world than today's.
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