Road of the Seven Bridges (Strada Setteponti)

Roads and bridges
 
   
  Back

During its lengthy presence in the territory with various names, Via dei Sette Ponti has constituted the reason for existence and for prosperity of the lands that today give life to the Community of Pratomagno – i.e. Castiglio Fibocchi, Loro Ciuffenna, Castelfranco di Sopra, and Pian di Scň – all of them distributed along its route.
With a layout, in the Commune of Loro, that is not too dissimilar to the present one, with parallel tracts downstream from the Etruscan, then Roman, road, the Cassia Vetus had, in fact to integrate and progressively replace the ancient road, constituting the true alternative to the new Cassian Way along the left bank of the river Arno.
Adapted over the centuries to the necessities that came to be manifested for the population, built on a terrain that was not an easy one, and interrupted by rivers, streams and watercourses, to be crossed with a succession of bridges –subject to floods and to destructions caused by the wars that for centuries had these places as their battleground - this road did not lose its importance nor the charm given to it by the panoramas offered upstream and downstream, even after the reclamation of the valley bottom and the definitive transfer of the economic and political axis to Florence, to the detriment of Arezzo.
Still today, the Via dei Sette Ponti marks the boundary between the Commune of Loro Ciuffenna and that of Terranuova Bracciolini.

Travelling the route from one end of the territory of Loro to the other requires 40-60 minutes.