A journey through the villages of the Livornese hills along CAI trails 100, 121, 115 and 111

The excursion will take us to the eastern side of the Monti Livornesi through two villages nestled on the hills that slope towards SR 206 – Parrana San Giusto and Parrana San Martino – connected to each other – and with the summit of Valle Benedetta – by an ancient historical road that we will mostly walk on.

The starting point is located on Via della Sambuca (CAI 100) near a large gate always open on the outskirts of the Valle Benedetta settlement. We climb a short section of this trail and then turn left to take CAI 121. After 1.3 km, we leave the junction with CAI 111 to the left and later the one with CAI 113 to reach a beautiful panoramic point near Poggio Stipeto. We continue downhill towards the village of Pandoiano, which we reach at km 3.4. Now we have a downhill stretch of asphalt along a very scenic road with practically non-existent traffic, but along which we need to pay attention to the very narrow road surface.

Once we reach Parrana San Giusto, we continue to the left towards Ceppeto until we take CAI 115, which, after crossing the dry bed of a stream, leads us to the right on a short stretch of medium-height Mediterranean scrub on a very narrow path that needs to be followed with care. We exit this wooded section onto a wide clearing that we descend while keeping the long forest on our right, and then continue on a slight incline until we reach an ancient quarry/cave from which stones were extracted for the construction of the Leopoldino aqueduct. From there, still following CAI 115, we reach the Ponti Grandi, one of the most beautiful sections of the aqueduct with its double series of arches crossing the Rio Corbaia. We then arrive at the village of Parrana San Martino, from which we take CAI 111 at km 6.9. The ascent is quite strenuous but the trail, with a rocky and sometimes loose surface, is still passable without any particular difficulties.

At km 9.1, we rejoin CAI 121, previously followed on the way, and thus return to the starting point.