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Track 4

Sport and leisure > Country tracks for mountain bike and trekking

S. Leonardo > Pietrina > palagio > Iano > Marrado

It doesen't present any particular difficulty and it is coverable in wintertime too. The three parts described below run through wood areas and charming landscapes.

1. San Leonardo > Palagio (Pietrina)

Distance	DIFFERENCE IN LEVEL	TIME
Km 2.8	- 70 mt	1 h

From San Vivaldo take "Ecce Homo" streest. Pass Marrado and find on a big curve the farm of San Leonardo. There, it begins this track. The large track which is also practicable by bike, runs along a street used by woodcutters during deforestation. It is advisable to follow the main track, as the secondary ones are used by woodcutters to reach the most impassable paths of the wood areas.

At the end of the gently slope, at the beginning of the track, you can admire on your right a big cork-tree and reach a glade bordering a pinewood. Going further you reach a plate shed, from which, on your left, you can admire the big artificial Cipressini lake, formed by the Defizio torrent; on your right instead you can see the Cipressini hill.

 

At the second kilometre, next to the track, there is a high-voltage line and after it a glade from which, if you go right you find a steep slope which goes to Palagio. If you go straight on, through a thick Mediterranean vegetation reach in strawberry-trees, you reach the Pietrina Sanctuary.
The Sanctuary is formed by a beautiful church and castle ruins, which date back to the late Middle Ages. It lies on a rocky hill from which you can have a beautiful view of the valley till Volterra hills.

2. Palagio > Casicello > Iano

Distance	DIFFERENCE IN LEVEL	TIME
Km 2.3	- 40 mt	1 h

From the track which goes down to Palagio, take the narrow asphalt road towards Iano, which runs along the Cipressini hill. Next to the California Villa, there is a big oak tree, whose trunk has a diameter of around 4 metres.

 

 

Going right you reach the asphalt road in Torn, which gently goes up to lano; Going left you reach instead Casicello, a little group of houses. Pass under a barrel vault next to the little chapel, which is now part of the buildings walls, and go along a young pine wood. You will come again on the provincial road, which goes back to lano, running next to a abandoned mine.

3. Iano > Marrado

Distance	DIFFERENCE IN LEVEL	TIME
Km 2.3	- 40 mt	1 h

From the sports ground of Iano, which is around 500 metres far from it, you reach Pian delle Querce from a track, which goes through a thick brushwood. At the high-voltage line' there is a glade from which, on your right, you can have a wide view of the countryside and, on the left, you can see the steep slope, which goes down to an open quarry.

The track runs through the wood, where there are several shooting boxes. Once in Pian delle Querce, walk along the house on your left and take viale dei Pini, where there is the crossroad to Marrado. Next to some water tanks of the municipal aqueduct the track runs back into the wood. From here you can easily reach the asphalt road which goes back to the starting point.

3. Iano campo sportivo > Pian delle Quercie

Distance	DIFFERENCE IN LEVEL	TIME
Km 1.5	+ 115 mt	45 min.

If you take the street next to the Church of St. Jacopo and Filippo in Iano you can reach Pian delle Querce too. This truck is practicable on foot in every season. Following the indication to Pian delle Querce you go up to a cave and then to an electric box. Going left along the track next to the electric box you will reach Pian delle Querce. Before the slope you can have the chance to see native yew trees.