A8 - Medieval itinerary

The route winds through an area of ​​the park between the plain and the woods of the old hunting reserve on the hills which has been exploited for centuries by farmers and shepherds, and is now becoming naturalised.

We start by crossing a large olive grove planted a hundred years ago and still in use, framed by wooded hills. After a gate you pass into an abandoned olive grove in which, among now very dense bushes, a new forest is growing back. Soon you reach the stone wall that once divided the agricultural area from the oak woods of the hunting reserve. Here you begin to climb, between the woods and uncultivated land, up to the Piscina del Prete, a seasonal pond in which wild boars roll at night. The environment is that of a much older olive grove, which documents say was also a pasture. Once upon a time there were many people who came to live and work in these places from the beginning of autumn to the beginning of summer, when there was no malaria. They were farmers from the Amiata, transhumant shepherds from the Casentino area, woodcutters and charcoal burners also from the Marche and Pistoia areas, who lived in huts. The hill on the left, called "Spaccasasso", was already frequented in prehistoric times with a small cinnabar mine, a mineral from which a mercury-based red skin dye was obtained. In short, this territory is so solitary for the first time since prehistoric times.

From the Piscina del Prete you begin to descend gently, still among ancient abandoned olive groves, on what remains of a very ancient road, probably Roman. Looking around you notice the soil eroded by long exploitation for grazing, which in the right years however explodes into magnificent spring blooms of asphodels. The olive grove is now invaded by plants, with their blooms, and is used by wild boars, fallow deer, roe deer and porcupines. If it is left undisturbed long enough, one day it will return to being a holm oak forest, like the one you can see a little further up.

Continuing down, the forest seems to begin again, but it is actually a cork oak tree from the last century. Shortly thereafter we arrive at the plain, and today's agriculture and sheep breeding. The warning regarding sheepdogs reminds us that the wolf has returned here. From here you can return to Alberese using a route that passes on the other side of the Spaccasasso hill, which makes the route at least partially a ring, or you can continue by mountain bike, if you want, up to Talamone.