Loro Ciuffenna

Among the various guided tours in Valdarno, Cortona Tourist Guide recommends a visit to Loro Ciuffenna, a lovely little medieval village built to serve the old Castle of Loro, which was constructed on a deep hole dug by stream Ciuffenna. The main points of interest in this village are a charming watermill, a unique Romanesque humpbacked bridge and the old Church of Santa Maria Assunta, where we can admire two significant paintings by Carlo Portelli, an eccentric Mannerist painter born in Loro.

Right outside the village we find the ancient Parish Church of San Pietro a Gropina, a religious building of rare beauty, one of the greatest examples of Romanesque architecture in Tuscany, which is decorated inside with finely sculpted capitals and an extraordinary pulpit richly adorned with zoomorphic figures and geometric shapes dating back to the 8th century.

Difficulty:

Easy (a means of transport is needed to get around in the town surroundings).