La Verna

In May 1213 the count Orlando Cattani of Chiusi in Casentino made a gift to San Francesco of Monte della Verna. It is the beginning of the story of one of the most deeply mysticistic places in the West.
Even if we want to ignore – and it is impossible – the imprint of San Francesco and history, La Verna is an extraordinary place. The calcareous cliff culminating in Monte Penna – at the top of whose western walls overlooks the monastic citadel – rises abruptly from the bed of clay on which it floats: the rocky rock emerges, and is covered, by the forest, preserved in its rich variety for almost eight centuries of Franciscan management that saw the forest as part of the creation through which the work of God was manifested, and as such to be respected and venerated. Therefore in La Verna the forest has largely remained as it was: a magnificent mixed forest of large beech and white fir trees, and a rich undergrowth that includes holly and yew trees.