St. Francis Way - Anghiari

The trail continues weaving through mountains and forests passing a few isolated buildings to the mountain village of Badia Prataglia. The village is located within the Foreste Casentinesi, a national park that stretches out over 37,000 hectares. It has more than 600km of trail paths and 20 mountain biking routes. The area can also be explored on horseback, whilst in the winter it is open for cross-country skiing. In the village is a mid-19thC arboretum that was originally established for Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The arboretum has a museum that also includes the Duke's former villa.

Skirting around the small village of Rimbocchi (1,640ft/500m), I am back in the woods admiring the tall trees, densely packed as I gently climb up to La Verna (3,937ft/1,200m) to visit the Franciscan sanctuary where St Francis is said to have received the stigmata in 1224. The sanctuary is home to several churches, chapels and a monastery. The site was taken under papal protection in 1260. The main church took over a century to complete from 1348 to 1459. The monastery was partially destroyed in the 15thC, suffering desecration during the war of this time and it took three centuries to be fully restored. The friars suffered further in 1810 and 1866 when they were expelled from the monastery as part of suppressing religious orders.

The sanctuary is nestled within a spruce-beech forest with specimens as tall as 160ft (50m) and some with diameters up to 5.9ft (180cm). The forest floor teems with wildlife such as deer, boar and wolf, whilst above one can find eagles, owls and peregrine falcons.

Leaving the sanctuary, I descended through fields and farmlands to Caprese Michelangelo (1,969ft/600m), a small commune where Michelangelo, a Renaissance era painter, sculptor and architect was born in 1475. Michelangelo was baptised in the village's church, St John de Baptist and a museum in his honour has been established inside a fortress. The aim of the museum is to document his body of works with plaster casts. The collection also includes sculptures and paintings donated by artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The terrain steadies a little with gentle undulations until I reached Anghiari, a sprawled out, hilltop town overlooking the Tiber Valley. The town centre, however, is a fortified collection of stone buildings and labyrinth-like narrow streets. In this compact location are a handful of museums including the Battle of Anghiari Museum. The battle was a 1440 event between the Republic of Florence and Duchy of Milan. The battle, comprising of thousands of foot soldiers and knights took only one day and according to Machiavelli it resulted in only one death of an unfortunate knight who fell off his horse and drowned in a swamp. The battle ended with the Florentines winning and securing their domination over central Italy. Leonardo da Vinci depicted a painting of the battle which has since been lost. Fortunately copies existed inspiring Paul Rubens to sketch a replica of the original.

The terrace in the town centre with its fortified wall was a perfect place to indulge in some Tuscan food, overlooking the landscape and residential homes. My starter was bruschetta which was a slice of Tuscan bread generously rubbed with garlic, lavishly drizzled with green olive oil and lightly sprinkled with salt (at home I might have chopped up some tomatoes and added it to the mix). This was followed by a hearty slow-cooked stew called "spezattino" and finished it with a scrumptious sugar-coated, fried doughnut known as "bomboloni". No meal experience is ever complete without a café macchiato.

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