C2 Poggio alle Sugherine

The route begins by climbing gently, between very tidy rows of olive trees, from the plain to the fence that protects the crops from the incursions of wild animals. Climb over the fence with a ladder, you enter the woods by quickly climbing to the Lower Tower, built in 1100 by the Aldobrandeschi and part of a Collecchio Castle that has now disappeared. From here you go up a valley covered by a beautiful holm oak forest, following the signs for path C1.

A little more than half way, after a small spring called "Vasche di clay", now a haunt for wild boars, you come across the ruins of a small medieval settlement inhabited between the 11th and the end of the 14th century. In the undergrowth you can recognize the remains of a small Romanesque church joined to a small house by high stone walls that enclosed a protected courtyard. Nearby there are the remains of a hut and a stone bread oven made by charcoal burners with materials from the collapse of the church. For many centuries the Uccellina woods were the kingdom of charcoal burners, who came from the Amiata or the Apennines here every autumn to stay until spring. Everywhere along the slopes you can still find the "piazzale", the small flat shelves where they built the charcoal pits and the huts in which they spent the winter.

From here the climb into the woods becomes more challenging, but is ultimately rewarded by the arrival at Poggio delle Sugherine, where there is a wooden roof terrace from which you can enjoy a splendid 360 degree panorama, over the interior up to Amiata and over the sea to distant Corsica.

You then descend along a comfortable forest road to the Carbonaia crossroads, where you turn towards the sea through a stretch of regrowing forest. Then the descent begins, steep at times, between stretches of woods and scrub. Here we note the transition to the warmer and drier side of the Uccellina chain. In the last stretch the scrub turns into low garrigue, and the scent of rosemary now mixes with that of the ever closer sea. The path reaches a small road that runs north just above the sea until the entrance to the steep path with steps that goes down to the beach.

Salto del Cervo is a long cove, narrow by the cliff, with a small strip of sand, large piles of wooden trunks bleached by the sea, and low rocks that enter the water. Very few come here today, and if there are no boats in sight you can enjoy a timeless Mediterranean sensation.

The return begins with a nice climb, but it can be shortened by taking, at the Carbonaia crossroads, path C1 which takes you back to the Bassa tower and Podere Giulia.