Articolo disponibile anche in: Italian
Our love for the area and the history of our places lead us to search for an ancient road which can be found in the middle of the Scopeti forest, ner the town of San Casciano.
This was not simple because, although many have heard of this road, few have been able to discover its exact position. We tried and found it under a layer of earth, leaves and branches, thanks to indications from Alessio Ghiribelli.
We then asked a lover of Archeology, Alessio Salvini, to visit it with us. Salvini had also recently discovered an ancient Roman road between Bagno a Ripoli and Rignano. He is the author of various publications regarding his study and research of the roads of pilgrimage of the Middle Ages (Centro Studi Romei).
He studied digs and the environment at the archeological site of the Lago degli Idoli in Casentino, in the Magliano territory of Tuscany.
“The irregularity of the paving stones and the width of the roadway”, he tells us, “lead us to attribute this road to the 18 century when carriages were wider than 1.3 meters”.
Does that mean this isn’t an antique Roman road? “The road is probably much older but was retouched and widened over the centuries in order to accommodate wider means of transportation”, he continues.
“The direction towards south, parallel to the actual Via Cassia leads us to interpret the road as ‘antique’, perhaps Roman, when the width of secondary roads had to be 2.38 meters. Therefore, in order to date the paved road, we should use dating methods, but this is not easy. It would be more accurate to examine the remains of nearby homes”.
Unfortunately, this piece of road has been totally abandoned. It would be nice to be able to rediscover it in its entirety and to protect this piece of history before it is lost forever”.