Foreste Sacre – Stop 4: Campigna – Camaldoli

On the fourth day from Campigna go up to the Calla Pass following the path that crosses along the hairpin bends of the road. From the pass, take the comfortable forest track that runs near the ridge between the integral reserves of Sassofratino and Pietra, in an enchanted forest setting. The wood is a compact and continuous expanse, from which you can only exit to the grassy and very panoramic island of the top of Poggio Scali (1520 m). After the Porcareccio Pass you cross some marshy clearings before meeting the larger opening of Bertone meadow; here you leave the ridge to descend through the tall fir trees that accompany the path to the perimeter wall of the Sacred Hermitage, an extraordinary island of recollection and prayer for ten centuries in the wild vastness of the forest. From the hermitage you descend towards Camaldoli along the path that crosses along the numerous hairpin bends of the road. After a pond that was once used as a fishpond by the friars, there are three wooden crosses that in the past marked the limit of the hermit's cloister. Going down beside the Camaldoli ditch in the humidity of the woods you will find a couple of stone chapels and shortly after you will arrive at the homonymous monastery, mother-houses of the order founded by San Romualdo in 1024. The vast stone buildings are elongated around the main nucleus which houses the guesthouse, the library and the old pharmacy; a beautiful fountain with the Camaldolese symbol of the joined doves watches over the entrance.