THE “SENTIERO DEI PRINCIPI ETRUSCHI”

The path owes its name to the burial mounds (locally known as “Meloni” due to the shape of their hemispheric earth-covering) dotted across the countryside between Sodo and the nearby town of Camucia and thought to have been the resting place of prominent Etruscan princes. The track includes two distinct routes, running respectively from Sodo along the banks of the Rio di Loreto and from Camucia along the banks of river Esse; at Molinaccio, both streams flow into stream Mucchia which, in turn, flows into the Canale Maestro della Chiana linking the Sentiero dei Principi to the Sentiero della Bonifica. Other than the burial mounds at Camucia and Sodo (and more in particular the “Melone II” with its monumental stone terrace-altar), sights and places of historical, archaeological and landscape interest along the route include a number of distinctive farmhouses known as “leopoldine”, one of the last reamining rammed earth houses in the Valdichiana as well as wetlands and waterways forming unique wildlife corridors.