Fucecchio

All roads lead to Rome, but first, they might perhaps pass through Fucecchio. Two major Roman Roads certainly pass through Fucecchio: the Via Francigena and the Tuscan-Emilian section of the Romea Strata, known as the Romea Nonantolana Longobarda. More precisely, the two pilgrim routes converge here, since this is the point where the Romea Strata joins the Francigena. Since the 10th century, when the town was formed, its inns and churches have witnessed the arrival of pilgrims from the farthest corners of Europe, united by the desire to pray in Rome at the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul.

Little remains of those distant times. The most evident medieval heritage is represented by the towers of the Rocca, built by the Florentines in 1323 on the older Salamarzana Castle, while the Collegiate Church of San Giovanni Battista, built at the beginning of the 12th century, was rebuilt in the 18th century and now has a neoclassical interior. About a hundred metres away, the sixteenth-century Palazzo della Volta is home to the Montanelli Bassi Foundation and preserves memories of the journalist Indro Montanelli (1909–2001), a native of Fucecchio. Nearby, on Piazza Vittorio Veneto, is Palazzo Corsini, home to the Fucecchio Museum: inside, there is a gallery of sacred art, an archaeological section and an ornithological section.

The reason is simple, we are in the town of the Fucecchio marshland, the largest inland wetland in Italy, about 2000 hectares, stretching between the provinces of Florence, Prato, Pistoia, Lucca and Pisa. A birdwatching paradise.