Poppi: the Guidi Counts' Castle Few Visitors Discover in Casentino

Travelers chasing Florence, Siena and the Chianti across Tuscany rarely detour into Casentino, the upper Arno valley enclosed by Apennine ridges and centuries-old forests. Yet some fifty kilometers from Florence and thirty from Arezzo stands Poppi, a hilltop village home to one of the region's best-preserved castles and an arcaded old town that can be explored in near solitude even on peak-season weekends.

The Castle of the Counts Guidi

Poppi's skyline is dominated by the bulk of its castle, for four centuries the seat of the powerful Guidi family, who from here ruled much of Casentino. The structure's origins date back to the Lombard era, but it was in 1274 that Count Simone da Battifolle began the decisive expansion, completed by his son Guido; the building took on its present appearance between the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. In 1440, in the hall on the keep's noble floor, the last Guidi count, Francesco, signed the surrender to the Florentine Republic, effectively closing an era.

Inside, the castle preserves the Rilliana Library, with manuscripts and incunabula, and the Counts' Chapel, decorated with a cycle of fourteenth-century frescoes attributed to Taddeo Gaddi, a pupil of Giotto. Visitors enter through the Porta del Leone (Lion's Gate, 1477), flanked by Guelph-style crenellated walls, before discovering the inner courtyard with its dramatic fifteenth-century stone staircase supported by an unusual single column, and the Salone delle Feste (Banquet Hall) with its decorated wooden truss ceiling.

Dante and the Battle of Campaldino

A short distance from the village lies the plain of Campaldino, the site on 11 June 1289 of the decisive clash between the Florentine Guelphs and the Ghibellines of Arezzo. A young Dante Alighieri took part as a cavalryman, and later recalled the battle in Canto V of Purgatorio, recounting the fate of the Ghibelline commander Buonconte da Montefeltro. Inside the castle, the Museum of the Battle of Campaldino uses a scale model to reconstruct the deployment of the opposing forces that day.

The Village and Its Surrounding Nature

Poppi's old town, honored as one of "Italy's Most Beautiful Villages," is threaded by an arcaded street that invites a slow stroll past shops and churches. A few kilometers away lies the Parco Zoo della Fauna Europea, almost 50 hectares of centuries-old woodland where wolves, lynxes, otters and beavers can be observed in enclosures that recreate their natural habitat; it has been open since 1973, twenty years before the establishment of the nearby Casentinesi Forests National Park. The Casentinesi Forests themselves, along with the hermitage of Camaldoli, are within easy reach for those who want to extend their stay among beech woods and trails.

Getting There

Poppi can be reached from Arezzo (about 37 km) via the regional road SR71 "del Casentino"; from Florence the distance is around 50 km. It is also served by the secondary Arezzo–Stia railway line (Ferrovia del Casentino/Trasporto Ferroviario Toscano). Visitors arriving by car can explore the old town on foot, starting from the car parks at the foot of the hill on which the castle stands.