The Casentino is a long valley located in northeastern Tuscany.
Monte Falterona, at its northern edge, gives birth to the spring that becomes the principal river in the region, the Arno River, which goes through Florence and Pisa.
In the 1200s a great battle took place between Florence and Arezzo for dominance of the region. That battle, the Battle of Campaldino, determined the fate of the two cities for centuries to come.
Florence went on to become the ‘flower of the Renaissance,’ while Arezzo fell from grace.
The poet Dante had fought in the battle of Campaldino(1289), in which Guelph Florence prevailed against Ghibelline Arezzo.
Dante put much of this history and more than a dozen of the central characters of this drama in his Divine Comedy.
Poppi Castle was the most important of all the castles in Il Casentino and it still stands on its perch overlooking the valley.