MONTAIONE  Montaione, situated to the west extreme of the province in Florence, to the border with that of Pisa, he/she offers one of the most suggestive panoramas in Tuscany. Sets on a hill to 350 ms. on the level of the sea, horse is found to among the valleys of the Egola and the hilt.
The morphology of the zone is that typical hilly: from the country of Montaione sweet hills, partly cultivated, partly wooded, forgives rapidly him. The arboreal formations of this band are constituted by conifers what the pine of Aleppo and the domestic pine, from the cypress and from different kinds of oaks, what: the roverella, the farnia, the oak and the cerro, besides lecci, holly and laurel. Among the bushes: the heather, the lentisco, the myrtle, the corbezzolo (with the characteristic colored fruits, that detach in the woods in the winter season), the juniper, the broom (you give perfumed yellow flowers that bud in May) and the fillirea, besides the chestnut tree, installed by the man for obvious economic-alimentary purposes.
In the zone monumental plants are found what:
a leccio plurisecolare (over 750 years) and of particular beauty in the place Give birth of it;
a twin oak in proximity of the Roman cistern: stately oak formed by the fusion of two stems;
an imposing roverella in the zone of Iano (place Casicello): stately sample whose trunk reaches the diameter of almost four meters.
Interesting, from the naturalistic point of view:
an oak sughera in the place St. Leonardo, near St. Vivaldo: interesting for the fact that, normally, alive in the other geographical zones;
hundred plants of rate in the zone of Iano is considered one of the rare natural populations of this kind, for the consistence and the geographical position. The rate is sadly famous as "the death's tree" as the bark, the leaves, but above all the fruits, of a beautiful bright red color, they contain poisonous substances for the man, but harmless for the livestock.
In the woods we can meet the fauna typical of the zone: wild boars, roes, fallow deer, porcupines, foxes, squirrels, hares, pheasants, magpies and jays besides rapacious what the hawk, the gheppio or the buzzard.
The country, of origins etrusche, is today a calm town with its characteristic well preserved historical center. The urbanistic plant, she has cried typical of the countries medioevali: a central road with a plaza and two parallel (Suburb than Above and Suburb of Under) streets and many alleys that open in attractive piazzette. Unfortunately he/she remains, well few of the ancient surrounded building, partly englobed from the houses built then by the Seven hundred one in, partly destroyed by the German militias in retreat in 1944, together with the towers and to the doors (Porta Florentine and Porta Pisana).
Interesting:
ü the Building Pretorio (century XIV), today center of the town Library and the Museum of natural History, ü the church of St. Rule, of the XIII century, but reconstructed in 1635, that preserve one "Madonna and Child" of the XIII century, attributed to the school of Cimabue. The church, once devoted to St. Bartholomew, in 1816 it happened to the title to the ancient Parish of S. Rule, posts out around 1 km some country. The façade is framed by two buttresses, among which the radiant wafer of S. is inserted Bernardino; on the right a headstone remembers an illustrious montaionese: Francis Chiarenti, studious of medicine and agriculture. The inside he introduces according to the remaking financed by Scipione Ammirato the Young one in 1635, buried under the altar; the time, to barrel lunettata, is articulated by mouldings in serene stone. The gallery, built in 1602, it was decorated from Caesar Maffei in 1954, under of it, in the central part, the SS is found. Crucifix (wood policromo of the XIII century, that according to the tradition, it participated in the crusades): here a relic of the preserves also him "Vera Croce." In the company, to the side of the church, a beautiful table of the 1584 of Francis Rosselli is noticed, with Virgo in throne among St. Giovanni Battista and St. Rule and another valuable picture with Tobia and the angel, of Flemish (XVII century) area. The Madonna of the seven pains, on the altar (1773) you/he/she is brought in procession on Fridays Saint.  In the medioevo, Montaione was famous for the production of the glass. Historical and archaeological sources attest that in the Valdelsa, already in that epoch, the production of the glass was one of the activities qualifying, so much that the bicchierais of Montaione and Gambassi were known in Italy. Today, the principal economic resource of Montaione is the "green tourism", developed him thanks to the recovery of old shed farms in the country, or straight, of small suburbs, abandoned in the sixties, for the passage from the rural economy to that industrial, while the production of the glass, stopped to Montaione, he is still more qualified to Hill Valdelsa, where a good crystal produces him.
Tourist receptiveness is notable for the a lot of ones "Agriturismo", also of particular merit, shed in the outskirts of the country; many are endowed with swimming pool and tennis fields. Interesting: the net for the trekking, that crosses the whole territory and the field from sweater to 18 holes in the place Castelfalfi. In the proximities: Ø San Vivaldo, known for the whole chapels and tempietti that it is found in the wood of overlooking Camporena the convent, denominated "Sacred Mountain." The complex is characterized from 18 chapels (in origin they were 30, before an earthquake and a movement franosos destroyed a part of it). The chapels preserve the greatest complex to the world of Renaissance sculptures in "cooked" that they reproduce, in a version "ancient" of the places in Jerusalem, the life and the Passion of Jesus. Ø Castelfalfi, ancient suburb, partially restored, endowed with a good tourist receptiveness and of a beautiful sweater field from 18 holes. Ø Gambassi Thermal baths, known for his/her thermal plant. Ø Castelli, numerous castles of various epoches can be visited on the territory of Montaione. For the tourism "you do from you", in Nunziatina Plaza it is installed a grit of unloading for caravan and camper (free service, always active). As it is reached: Ø Da Florence: 1. exit of Hilt Bridge of the speedway Florence-Pisa-Livorno, he continues in direction of Castelfiorentino and Montaione, 2. exit of Broom F.na of the speedway Florence-Pisa-Livorno, he continues in direction of Montespertoli, Castelfiorentino, Montaione; Ø Da Pisa: exit of St. Miniated of the speedway Florence-Pisa-Livorno, he continues in direction of St. Miniated and Montaione; Ø Da Siena: exit of Poggibonsi of the speedway Florence-Siena, he continues in direction of Certaldo, Castelfiorentino, Montaione. |
