From Castagno to Monte Falterona, for the Giogo di Castagno

On the pathways of Dino Campana

Castagno d'Andrea is reached by car from Firenze and Forli following highway 67 "Tosco Romagnola" until San Godenzo and from there follow the road signs.
Itinerary, "classic" climb to Monte Falterona from Castagno d'Andrea, crossing the luxuriant Beech woods which cloak the mountain. The downhill slope includes the ridge passage (of chestnuts), mentioned by Campana as one of his stopping points.
After visiting the little church of Castagno d'Andrea, with its "portico of little square columns each of one entire stone, bare and elegant, simple and austere, truly Tuscan", you follow the pathway sign n.16/GEA for Fonte del Borbotto, climbing until you meet the road ,unfortunately, recently asphalted, which rises towards the spring. Continue to follow the white and red signs which let you cut out a lot of turns making the route quicker and more pleasant. Reaching the Fonte del Borbotto pass by the bar which prevents cars from passing and proceed for a few hundred metres along the unsurfaced road, until reaching a point in which the pathway n.16 for Monte Falterona leads off to the right. Here, two alternatives are proposed : to immediately reach Piancancelli using the cart track, or to climb Falterona. The first route is in fact very interesting : other than going along completely inside the Beech woods, a passage under "the steep rocks of the Falterona" it is possible to see the "rocky canals which vein its sides". If, instead, you go up the mountain you will have the opportunity to admire "the solemn sadness of the Falterona which swells like a huge petrified horse, which leaves in its wake a cavalry of cracks, cracks and more cracks in the rocks until finally a sandy bubbling of hills down on the planes of Tuscany" and to rest "in the angelic limpidity of the high mountain". Then, from the top of Falterona follow the pathway signs n.00 CAI which takes you to the summit of Monte Falco.
Descending from the top, after a short time, you leave what appears to be the main crest to turn left, steeply downhill towards Piancancelli (wooden arrows). On reaching the unsurfaced road coming from Borbotto cross over and take, on the opposite side, the pathway n.00 CAI which first goes up into the woods and then down to the cart track for Pian delle Fontanelle. On this turn left and after a while, at a fork, carry straight on until you reach the refuge Pian delle Fontanelle, Here you turn left, on the pathway n. 00 which after a short level tract , begins to go steeply down toward the "Giogo di Castagno". The route remains constantly in the Beech woods and quickly looses height until it returns to the forest path, previously abandoned just near the "Giogo" (ridge). Here, on the left you find the pathway for Castagno d'Andrea. This, spectacular in its first rocky tact, lets you go down into the valley of Fosse di Falterona to go up again in a centuries old chestnut grove until you reach Le Casine and then by the cart track, Castagno d'Andrea (still following pathway n. 14/a CAI).

Text and picture: Cinzia Pezzani & Sergio Grillo
Translation: Jeremy Carden