Village guide Casentino, Arezzo, Italy
Castel Focognano
An Etruscan altar under a Christian church
Rassina is the busy part, down on the valley floor by the Arno, and the old castle of Castel Focognano is up on the hill keeping an eye on it. The reason to come is a few minutes away at Socana, and it is one of the strangest things in Tuscany.
- Comune
- Castel Focognano
- Where
- Open in maps
What to see
- The Pieve di Sant’Antonino a Socana A Romanesque church built directly on top of an Etruscan sanctuary. The Etruscan altar is still there, outside the apse, in the open air, where anyone can walk up and put a hand on it.
- The castle of Castel Focognano The medieval core on the hill, with the tower and the view down the Arno.
- Rassina The everyday town: bars, the river, the bridge, a place to buy what you forgot.
- The Arno itself Here it is already a proper river, wide and brown and unbothered.
What to eat
Valley cooking without ceremony: pasta, grilled meat, and a house wine that is a jug rather than a list.
When to come
Any dry day. Socana takes twenty minutes and rearranges your idea of how old this valley is.
The Etruscans put their altar there because it was already the right place. The Christians agreed with them and built on top. Nobody has ever moved it.
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