The Bonifica Trail from Arezzo to Chiusi

Say Tuscany and you picture rolling hills, rows of cypresses and medieval villages on every knoll. The Valdichiana is the exact opposite, and that's precisely why few travellers seek it out. It's a broad, flat plain, reclaimed over the centuries with painstaking patience, where the water flows inside one great straight canal and the embankments become roads for bicycles. The Bonifica Trail runs along the Canale Maestro della Chiana and crosses a rural, agricultural, silent Tuscany, light years from the crowds that besiege the Val d'Orcia and the Chianti.

Along the canal

The route links Arezzo to Chiusi following the entire course of the canal, and its charm lies in its simplicity. You start in the Arezzo area and descend gently along the embankment, with the water on one side and the fields on the other. The canal is a feat of hydraulic engineering that transformed a once marshy, malarial land into one of the most fertile agricultural plains in Italy, home of the Chianina cattle breed and of an orderly countryside of farmsteads, cottages and rows of vines. Along the way you come upon the small settlements of the valley and the hydraulic works that regulate the waters, witnesses to this history of reclamation.

The trail has its lakes at the southern end, near Chiusi. Close to one another, Lake Chiusi and Lake Montepulciano are wetlands of great natural value, reserves where waterbirds stop over and where the landscape becomes a mirror of water and reeds. Chiusi, a city of very ancient Etruscan origin, closes the journey with its wealth of history, among museums, necropolises and underground galleries. Along the way, on the heights that fringe the plain, you can make out in the distance the profiles of the more famous hill villages, but the trail stays down in the valley, faithful to its flat and secluded nature.

The lakes and Chiusi

From a cycling standpoint it's one of the most accessible itineraries imaginable. It runs almost entirely on the embankment, with a surface mostly of packed gravel, on the absolute flat: the elevation gain is negligible for the whole length, which makes it truly suitable for anyone, families included, provided you have a sturdy bike such as a hybrid, gravel or mountain bike, and rather unsuited instead to the thin tyres of a road bike. There is a total absence of traffic, because the embankments are closed to cars: you pedal in peace, without dangerous junctions, with only the sound of the water and the wind in the poplars. Here too, as on any open plain, the wind can be the day's only real hardship.

When to go

The ideal window runs from spring to autumn, roughly April to October. In spring the countryside is green and the fields are dotted with blooms, temperatures are perfect for pedalling without sweating and birds throng the wetlands of the lakes; in autumn the light softens, the summer heat fades and the colours of the valley turn golden. Midsummer, here on the plain, can be sultry and unappealing. In every season the advantage is the same: while the tour buses unload thousands of people onto the postcard hills a few kilometres away, on these embankments you'll meet almost no one.

A practical tip

A practical tip: plan your return. Since this is a linear route between Arezzo and Chiusi, it pays to make use of the train, because both cities are well served by rail and this lets you pedal in one direction without having to retrace your steps. Check in good time that your chosen train accepts bikes. And along the way don't miss the chance to stop at a country trattoria: here Chianina beef and the valley's produce are the norm rather than the exception, and a stop at the table in a reclamation village is the real Tuscany, the one that doesn't end up on postcards.

Practical guides for Arezzo

• Where to stay in Arezzo
• What to see in Arezzo in 2 days
• Where to eat in Arezzo
• How to get to Arezzo