Always especially attractive to mystics was the eastern part of Tuscany, where old monastic orders have existed through time. No wonder that a mysterious artist like Piero della Francesca has his roots in this area; his fresco cycle gracing San Francesco in Arezzo is regarded as one of the most beautiful in the world. Only few travellers discover the wooded hills off the well-travelled main road Florence-Rome even though this area is especially charming in autumn when the woods of Casentino change their colour to golden red, when the mushroom and tartufo-season starts. These regional delights are on sale all over the region on streets and on menu cards in restaurants. In the pastures up in the hills in the east, sheep and white cows graze. Their milk will be processed into delicious cheese.This part of Tuscany is the land of the holy, the hermits and monasteries. In the monastery La Verna up on the hill the holy Francesco is said to have lived the wonder of stigmatisation. The monks of the benedictine order of Camaldolili (11th century) originally wanted to live in seclusion. However, so many belivers came that soon more buildings had to be built near the abbey. The forests surrounding the Vallombrosa abbey became famous with John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' epic.
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