Holiday apartment in Poggiolo: landscape, trails and culture

Holiday apartment in Poggiolo between settlement and landscape

A holiday apartment in Poggiolo takes you to an agricultural settlement that has more recently been partially converted, predominantly for residential purposes. As a settlement and with its buildings, Poggiolo forms part of the landscape heritage of the Province of Arezzo. The village also has a chapel. The settlement character, architectural classification and this sacred connection give Poggiolo several specific points of interest.

Trails around Poggiolo

A hiking route leads from Camprena via Bosco di Marena, Castello di Gressa and Poggiolo back to Camprena. A ridge road between the Archiano and the Torrente Vessa passes through Marena, Poggiolo and Gressa and climbs through the Corsalone valley. In addition, the Soci–Biforco–Soci cycling loop runs from Soci towards Poggiolo, crosses the Torrente Gressa at a ford and follows the shores of Lago di Marena di sopra.

The road connections also place the settlement in its geographical context. From the Fattoria di Poggiolo, a farm road leads to the vicinal road to Molino di Gressa. A vicinal road leads via Terruzze and the Podere Lombardelli to Marciano. The farmsteads, crossings and destinations add to the picture around Poggiolo.

Castello di Gressa stands on the summit of a rocky spur at the eponymous ravine, a tributary of the Archiano. It was built between the 10th century and the beginning of the 11th century at the instigation of Bishop Elemperto. Its location and date of origin give this waypoint a clearly recognizable historical dimension.

Cultural destinations in Bibbiena

Santa Maria del Sasso in Bibbiena is considered the only Renaissance architectural complex in Casentino and was declared a national monument in 1899. The complex includes a friars’ monastery with an adjoining pilgrims’ hospice, as well as a Dominican nuns’ monastery.

Chiesa e Chiostro di San Lorenzo in Bibbiena combines a church built on the site of an earlier oratory in the second half of the 15th century with a 17th-century cloister and the former rooms of a Franciscan monastery. The side altars house two glazed terracottas by Andrea della Robbia depicting Cardinal Dovizi and Pope Leo X; the works portray the Nativity and the Descent from the Cross.

Photography and archaeology provide further highlights in Bibbiena. CIFA, the Centro Italiano della Fotografia d’Autore, is housed in a renovated former 19th-century prison building. On the ground floor of Palazzo Niccolini, the Museo Archeologico del Casentino presents the development of the Casentino Valley from prehistoric times to the Late Roman Imperial period in six rooms. A separate exhibition area is dedicated to the Etruscan sanctuary of Socana and includes a reconstruction of its layout as well as ceramic terracotta decorations.

Holiday apartment in Poggiolo and your travel interests

When choosing a holiday apartment in Poggiolo, you can therefore decide whether routes and landscape orientation or cultural destinations in Bibbiena should be the focus of your trip. For families with different interests, outdoor activity, local history, photography and archaeology can be presented as separate focuses alongside one another.

Further destinations for your planning: Banzena, Soci, Farneta, Partina

For the higher-level travel overview: Bibbiena.