A trek to discover the two most impressive and suggestive convents in the Province of Florence

We will begin our adventure with an exterior visit to Montesenario, to learn about its history and the events that have most characterised the life of this monumental hermitage. Its history began in 1234, when seven Florentine nobles decided to renounce worldliness and dedicate their lives to Our Lady, friendship and community life. Initially they built a small oratory and a dwelling that can still be visited in part today. In 1404, a vigorous architectural intervention expanded the structure, which at the time was led by Antonio da Siena. Cosimo I de Medici also financed new buildings and improvements in 1539, but it was the 17th- and 18th-century reconstructions that drastically altered the original form of the sanctuary. We will continue our walk along path 00, a stage of the famous Via degli Dei, for about an hour, until we reach the Badia del Buonsollazzo, which towers dramatically over the Mugello valleys. Built, according to tradition, at the behest of the Marquis Ugo of Tuscany, for many centuries it housed monks of the Benedictine order. Until it passed to the Cistercians in 1300, when it became the first Trappist abbey in Italy in 1705. Packed lunch on the panoramic lawn in front of the abbey and resumption of the walk towards the starting point.