Capo d’Arno

And I: “Through midst of Tuscany there wanders
   A streamlet that is born in Falterona,
   And not a hundred miles of course suffice it;

From thereupon do I this body bring.
   To tell you who I am were speech in vain,
   Because my name as yet makes no great noise.”

“If well thy meaning I can penetrate
   With intellect of mine,” then answered me
   He who first spake, “thou speakest of the Arno.”

Purgatorio, canto XIV (16 – 24)

We are on Mount Falterona, at the source of the Arno River, which flows through ‘half of Tuscany’, linking the Casentino to Florence and Pisa.

As well as for its springs, this place is also important as an archaeological site. Numerous finds from Etruscan times have been discovered here, testifying to the valley’s ancient roots.