In Montevarchi's palaeontology museum, the Valdarno elephant stares back: tusks two and a half metres long, fished from the Pliocene clays of these hills, where the Accademia Valdarnese has collected fossils since 1804. It is the unexpected treasure of a market town, grown on the Arno between Florence and Arezzo around the Cassero keep and the porticoed centre.
At the table, the Valdarno chicken — a proud-crested Slow Food presidium — is the local pride; nearby, the designer outlets have added pilgrims of another cult. Fossils, chickens and fashion: the Valdarno is never boring.
Near Montevarchi
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
