| Mugello | |
 | |
| State | Italy |
|---|---|
| Region | Tuscany |
| Tourism site | |
Mugello is a territory of the Tuscany
To know
The Mugello valley, commonly known as Mugello, is located near Florence and is renowned both for its international racetrack and for its characteristic Tuscan towns and villages rich in historical culture, culinary and more.
These lands gave birth to artists of the caliber of Giotto and Beato Angelico, but above all it is here that the Medici family has its roots.
Geographical notes
It is a valley that corresponds to the upper course of the Sieve river in the stretch that flows from the northwest to the southwest, up to the point where it changes direction, assuming a northeast-southwest orientation orthogonal to the previous one. Located south of the Apennine watershed marked by Passo della Futa, Passo del Giogo di Scarperia, Passo della Colla di Casaglia and Passo del Muraglione, Mugello is separated from the Arno valley and Florence by the ridges of Monte Giovi, Summit the Crosses, Monte Senario and the Crosses of Calenzano, historically known as a whole as the Mugellani Mountains.
Today, therefore, Mugello is substantially identified with the ancient lake of marine origin which was barred towards the valley. The barrier can still be easily guessed today from the shape of the hills of the surrounding landscape. In fact, those on the left side of the river "close" with those on the right side, about three km before the town of Dicomano, roughly at the height of the railway bridge that crosses the Sieve river, in what are commonly known as the Balze di Vicchio. From this point up to the confluence with the Arno a Pontassieve, the river flows in what is called Val di Sieve.
Since the nineties of the twentieth century it has become a characteristic feature of the Mugello landscape Bilancino lake, an artificial reservoir created with the primary purpose of regulating the flow of the Sieve and guaranteeing the water supply to the Florentine area, but also exploited for tourism purposes.
Background
Tradition has it that the Ligurian Magelli tribe first inhabited the area, but certainly, when they arrived there, before the Etruscan invasion, other peoples already resided permanently in the area. Near Galliano, Barberino di Mugello, Londa is San Piero a Sieve, in fact, some human settlements have been found that date back to the Paleolithic. If anything, scholars agree in relating the name of this tribe with the origin of the term "Mugello" already used in literary sources of the sixth century AD. to identify the region. The Etruscans then followed the Magellis who, with great probability, drew a first sketch of the road network of the area. A series of paths that originally united Fiesole to Felsine (the current Bologna) and which then expanded and improved by the Romans have had a great importance in the history of Mugello.
Numerous traces of the Etruscan people remain. The Roman settlement in Mugello dates back to the III-IV century BC. It too was quite widespread in the area as evidenced by the discovery here and there of numerous archaeological finds. However, the Mugello in this period did not have a central role in the context of the empire, probably the hilly environment did not adapt to the extensive crops typical of the imperial age and therefore remained a marginal area.
In 476, with the fall of the Western Roman Empire, all of Italy suffered the invasions of the Germanic peoples and the news about Mugello became vague. Much of northern and central Italy will fall under Lombard rule, with the exception of some territories still in the hands of the Byzantines. Therefore Mugello is now in a border area, subject to strong tensions and continuous coups by the two enemy armies. And if once it was an important communication route to the north, now the instability of the area advises the Lombard kings to use a safer passage to the west, through the Cisa, for their travels, thus increasing the importance of the road. which, coming from Milan is Pavia passes through Piacenza and flows south beyond the Apennines to Sarzana. The so-called via Francigena which will then become the main axis of communications between the countries of North-West Europe e Rome. The capital of the Lombard Duchy of Tuscany will become Lucca, crossed by this road and this will relegate Florence, and together with it the Mugello which in the following centuries will largely share its fate, still playing a secondary role. At least until the Carolingians conquered the Lombard kingdom.
A proclamation by Charlemagne in 801 confers on the Ubaldini family the "lordship of the joyful town of Mugello". Early medieval Tuscany and with it also Mugello, was characterized by this feudalism also testified by the flourishing in this period of numerous fortified centers.
In the 12th century Florence was becoming an independent city-state. Mugello was a must for all the goods and merchants who went to Emilia and in Lombardy and therefore a nerve center for trade to the north, which resulted in a long and ruthless struggle between Florence and the Ubaldini family. At the beginning of the fourteenth century the Florentine Republic founded two "New lands": Castel San Barnaba, which later became Scarperia is Castrum florentia, Firenzuola to atalize the friendly forces scattered over the territory and at the same time to steal those of the adversary. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the region went through a long period of relative prosperity, also due to the numerous landed properties of important and wealthy peasant families, among which that of the Doctors. With the subsequent Grand Duchy of Lorraine the Mugello was affected by an economic revival, finally, in 1860, following the plebiscite, the Mugello (with all of Tuscany) was annexed to the kingdom of Sardinia with which the most recent history of the territory begins.
Culture and traditions
A fine artisan product but definitely niche are the knives of Scarperia which consolidated its fame already in the 15th century.
Territories and tourist destinations
Urban centers
How to get
By car
The main road communication routes, in addition to the A1 Autostrada del Sole which runs parallel to the western border with the motorway exits of Barberino di Mugello, Firenzuola is Roncobilaccio, are the former State Roads 65 della Futa and 302 Brisighellese-Ravenna, which are now Regional, the 67 Tosco-Romagnola and the 551 Traversa del Mugello (now Strada Provinciale), which follows the valley floor of the Sieve.
On the train
Mugello is also crossed by a railway line, the Faentina, which unites Florence to Faenza. A derivation of this line unites Borgo San Lorenzo to Pontassieve along the Sieve valley.
How to get around
What see
Mugello is known for hosting an international racetrack, where the Italian Grand Prix of motorcycling. The circuit, owned by Ferrari, is the usual site of tests and trials and is used for the races of numerous motorcycle and car championships.
The museums of Mugello are organized in the cultural project "Diffused Museum" which brings together different realities present in the territory and is divided into 4 systems: naturalistic, demo-ethno-anthropological, historical-cultural heritage and archaeological heritage.
Each pole includes museum points, educational workshops and itineraries.
- Museum of the historical landscape of the Moscheta Apennines (Naturalistic system) (Location Moscheta a Firenzuola). Housed in the premises of the Vallombrosian Abbey of Moscheta, it illustrates the main phases of landscape transformation from the Middle Ages to today.
- Museum of grapevine and wine (Demo-ethno-anthropological system) (In the Villa of Poggio Reale a Rufina). The museum is dedicated to the understanding of "wine" in its various aspects: production and harvesting, winemaking and aging, finally trade, according to the management methods of an activity that was initially a heritage of the rural world, then converted into a internationally renowned production.
- Museum of cutting tools (In the Palazzo dei Vicari a Scarperia). The permanent collection of blades in the Museum traces the local history of the traditional handicraft manufacturing of Scarperia knives which dates back to the sixteenth century.
- Serena stone museum (Fortress of Firenzuola). The museum illustrates the ancient techniques of extraction and processing of pietra serena, it preserves artifacts of art and of common use.
- 1 Museum of mountain people, Piazza Ettore Alpi, 1 (In the Palazzo dei Capitani a Palazzuolo sul Senio), @[email protected]. A collection that brings together more than a thousand objects that tell the story of a territory and a mountain and border community, restoring the memory of a now extinct rural world.
- Museum of peasant civilization of Casa D'erci (Location Grezzano a Borgo San Lorenzo). In an old farmhouse immersed in the Grezzano wood, there is a collection of objects and documents of the rural and sharecropping Mugello culture.
- Faini mill (Location Grezzano a Borgo San Lorenzo). Dating back to 1400, owned by the homonymous family since 1780.
- Museum of artisan and peasant life with moving characters of Leprino (In the Multipurpose Center in Sant'Agata). Settings and moving characters designed and created by Leprino, aka Faliero Lepri, who with his automatons brings Sant'Agata back to life when he was a child.
- Civic Museum of the Chini Manufacture (Historical-artistic heritage system) (In the Villa Pecori Giraldi a Borgo San Lorenzo). Works of ceramics and stained glass by the Chini family, in the manufactories of "l'Arte della ceramica" and the Mugello factory "Fornaci San Lorenzo". The Liberty itinerary also winds through the streets of the historic center, a route marked on the traces of the decorative and architectural interventions of Galileo Chini and other members of the family.
- Beato Angelico Museum of Sacred Art and Popular Religion (TO Vicchio). It houses the heritage found in the abandoned churches and parishes of the area, from works of art to small objects of devotional worship.
- Collection of sacred art Sant'Agata (In the parish church of Sant'Agata). It preserves the numerous works from abandoned tabernacles and churches in the Santagatese area.
- Giotto's house (In the Colle di Vespignano a Vicchio). In the place where the famous medieval painter was born, interactive multimedia stations and a laboratory where life and art are explored.
- Alto Mugello Archaeological Museum (Archaeological heritage system) (In the Palazzo dei Capitani). Collection of artifacts ranging from prehistoric times to the Renaissance that testify to human frequentation in the Upper Mugello since ancient times.
- Center of archaeological documentation of Sant'Agata. Cloister of the Pieve di Sant'Agata. Exhibition and laboratory with the archaeological finds of western Mugello, from Prehistory to the Middle Ages.
- Archaeological Museum of Mugello, Alto Mugello and Val di Sieve (TO Dicomano). Collection of archaeological and historical evidence, the results of over thirty years of archaeological investigations in Mugello, Alto Mugello and Val di Sieve.
What to do
In the1 international circuit of Mugello it is possible to carry out free trials of cars and motorcycles according to the calendar proposed by the circuit.
The local hiking system is called "SO.F.T." (acronym for "Source of FlorenceTrekking") and connects the mountains of Mugello to the hills of Val di Sieve. It is a system of routes divided into a main ring and twenty-two secondary rings connected to it and recognizable by special signs with white and red triangles. The main ring runs through a section of the Apennine ridge (Passo della Futa - Mount Falterona), the watershed between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic dominions and the ridge that separates the Mugello basin from the Florence basin.Meadow and from Val di Bisenzio (Monte Giovi, Passo Croci di Calenzano, Calvana).
In addition to the trekking roads that can also be traveled with the mountain bike, a "Mugello in Bike" cycling district has been active in Mugello since 2013. It is an integrated system of road routes and climbs where, thanks to the totems positioned along the itineraries and a personalized card, it is possible to register one's passage and obtain the "Climber's License", after having climbed the 7 climbs equipped with player, or that of the "Grand Tour", after passing by all 13 totems positioned along the route. The card made available by Mugello in Bike is completely free and allows access to all the services offered by the cycling system, such as accredited hospitality and refreshment points.
At the table
Safety
Around
- Money order - Geographically located between Mugello and the hills in front Florence, over the years it has been administratively part of Mugello several times, even if it is not a municipality in Mugello. In Pratolino there is a Medici villa.
