Loro Ciuffenna
Loro Ciuffenna, overlooking the Ciuffenna river, is located on the north-western slopes of Pratomagno mountain, in an area of ancient Etruscan and Roman settlements; Livy already praised the wealth of wheat and cattle of the Etruscans settled between Fiesole and Arezzo. The name itself has Etruscan origins, derived from cefa, hind, or Gropina, where there is the ancient parish church of early Christian origins (V c.), whose name derives from the Etruscan Krupina, village, small town.
Loro Ciuffenna is located between the Arno and the hills that prelude to the slopes of the Pratomagno, which oversees a Tuscany of forgotten villages and Romanesque churches. The stone houses built overhanging the gorges of the river Ciuffenna, cobblestone streets, dark and winding streets, the old bridge, all those signs warn that the Middle Ages has left deep scars, also etched on the faces of the Madonnas in churches and obscure symbols carved in stone Pieve di Gropina.
A castle existed here as early as 900. The first written upon them dates back to 1059, in a document in which the Counts Guidi, important Lombard feudal family of the place, give it as a sub-fief to a certain noble Ugo, perhaps of the Ubertini family.
In 1306 the inhabitants of the Loro castle are the first ones of the area to bow to the Florentine Republic. In 1462, Loro gives itself an autonomous municipality and its own statutes, then increases its economic importance under the rule of the Medici.
The town is steeply overhanging the river Ciuffenna, in which, from 1100 aC, a wide millpond was formed to create a mill, that is still perfectly preserved and visible, built on a rock in the bottom of the gorge. This is probably the oldest working mill in Tuscany, complete with shovel and even gears.
The typical weekly market on Monday morning is worth a visit.
Loro Ciuffenna is included in the list of “Borghi più belli d’Italia” (the most beautiful villages in Italy)!
