Francigena Gravel

It is a path that revolves around the historic Via Francigena, to savor the small wonders scattered along a route where pilgrims of all times, rich and poor, have left their footprints. 

The Arbia Brdge is at the center of the Via Francigena and, thanks to a small hostel, is the ideal place to get your bearings along the stretch that allows you to get to know the hidden corners of the Val d'Arbia.

You move immediately past the bridge over the Arbia River along the Cassia, as did the Archbishop Sigerico centuries ago.

A legend, which has however serious historical basis, says that in 1313 a friar from the Buonconvento convent poisoned Henry VII of Luxembourg, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, during communion.

Since then, referring to the Valdarbia village, people like to say, "Good convent but bad friars." From Serravalle, where Emperor Henry VII died, you take the Via Francigena heading north and then back south along the Cassia and turning again toward Monteroni on a nice, easy dirt road to finally arrive at the village of Poggio Cipressino.

You take the route to find Cuna, an ancient early medieval town where a large hospital stood for the hospitality of pilgrims and merchants passing along the Via Francigena. Today it is possible to admire the Church and the Grancia, one of the best-kept fortified farms around Siena.
Leaving Cuna, you move forward in the direction of Ponte a Tressa and then, further inland, you reach Radi, a lonely agricultural village of very ancient imprint, first Etruscan and then Roman and finally medieval. From nearby Campriano, with a beautiful church and castle, you can admire a vast landscape, from the Crete, to the Val d’Orcia and Amiata as far as the profile of the Chianti.

The following village, Vescovado, can be reached through a rather challenging road. You are in the middle of the Etruscan area where you can see the remains of the Poggio Civitate settlement and the famous Antiquarium in Murlo.

From Vescovado you travel along a beautiful paved road in the direction of Buonconvento to take, after a few kilometers, the dirt road that leads to the Piana farm, which looks today like a brick villa and once was an imposing fortified building with a medieval grange. You thus return easily to Ponte d’Arbia, always following the track on the dirt road of the Francigena.

Itinerary by sweetroad.it