A4 Cala di Forno

You can reach the path to Cala di Forno either on foot from the Casetta dei Pinottolai, crossing the Grand Ducal pine forest along the Scoglietto canal and then climbing to the Collelungo olive grove, or by bicycle from Marina di Alberese or from Alberese, along the road of olive trees.

Alongside the monumental olive grove of Collelungo, after a small wooden gate the path

it enters the integral reserve, the Mediterranean scrub, among large, highly scented cistus and rosemary bushes. We are in the "Valle Calda", on the southern side of the Uccellina hills, the hottest and driest, beaten by the sun for almost the whole day.

On the right the panorama opens onto the "Paduletto" below, an area behind the dune of Collelungo beach which turns into a swamp from autumn to spring. As in all wetlands, the great biological productivity makes it a refuge and feeding area for many animals, especially wild boars and deer, who find something to drink there even in summer thanks to the presence of some springs at the base of the rocks.

The path climbs only for a few tens of metres, very gently, always in the bush and almost always in sight of the sea: there are very few places where you can see such a long and above all so intact sandy coast from above. Once you reach Cala Rossa, the path enters a valley, with the most beautiful close-up views of the woods on the southern side, and continues into a higher holm oak forest.

A final descent into a grove of Aleppo pines and junipers, and you arrive at the small sheltered inlet of Cala di Forno.

Today Cala di Forno is an almost always deserted place, frequented mainly by deer and wild boars, as can be seen from the most common tracks on the sand of the small beach. Looking towards the sea you can see kilometers of coastline without any buildings, apart from the ancient watchtowers. Behind the beach, however, is the long customs building of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, built at the end of the eighteenth century, which reminds us of a very different past. Cala di Forno was the port of the Abbey of San Rabano in the Middle Ages, and then remained an important landing place, reported on the main Italian maps since the Renaissance.