IN AND AROUND PISA

LAJATICO

Lombard origin, Lajatico castle of the counts was then the bishop of Volterra Pannocchieschi before being conquered by Pisa and then Florence.

Lajatico has become an international tourist destination as the birthplace of the famous tenor Andrea Bocelli. Each year in July, in the evocative setting of the Theatre of Silence, held a concert in which it participates, together with the same Bocelli international artists. The theater, founded in 2006 to host one show a year (hence the name), is a natural amphitheater that uses the shape of a hill just outside of the country.

Another symbol of the area is the imposing fortress of Pietracassia, built in the Lombard period to monitor the roads leading to the copper mines of Montecatini. Abandoned for centuries, is considered one of the most important examples of medieval architecture in Tuscany. The name is due to a crack opened up a huge limestone rock that rises from the ridge ("cash" means split).

Nearby, the Mofette Borboi is an area with geothermal phenomena arising from the carbon dioxide from the underground and the subject of research conducted by the CNR with international universities. Continuing we get to Orciatico, whose nucleus has been recently restored houses a rock a tower with a splendid view of Monti Pisani and Era. Orciatico is famous for chestnuts and the presence of two windmills built in the late seventeenth and still in good condition. The water mills in the area were in fact more limited for the low flow of streams, especially in summer.