What is Poppi known for?

Late twelfth-century Counts Guidi castle, model for Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, with frescoed chapel and the Rilliana library. Battle on the plain below the castle where Florence beat Arezzo and Dante fought in the Guelph front rank at twenty-four. National park east of Poppi covering the beech and fir forests of the Apennine watershed, one of the oldest managed in Europe.

Poppi is a comune in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany region of Italy, about 58 kilometers from Firenze.

Tuscany · Arezzo

Poppi

The Casentino borgowhose castle sat above the field where Dante fought the Battle of Campaldino in June 1289.

58 km / 36 mi

Nearest hub (Firenze)

5,823

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Poppi risesabove the upper Arno in the Casentino, the wooded valley between Pratovecchio and Bibbiena. The Counts Guidi held this hill from at least 1169, and the castle they built across the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, attributed in its older part to Lapo di Cambio and in the later upper section to Arnolfo di Cambio, became the model for the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. On 11 June 1289 the plain of Campaldino, directly below the castle, was the battlefield where the Guelphs of Florence beat the Ghibellines of Arezzo. Dante Alighieri fought on the Guelph side, twenty-four years old, in the front rank of the feditori. He returned later as a guest of the Guidi during his exile. The castle now holds a working library, a fourteenth-century chapel frescoed by the school of Giotto, and a hand-painted model of the Campaldino battle with more than four thousand tin soldiers.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Poppi fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

Gallery

4 photos · scroll →

Known for

Castello dei Conti Guidi
Late twelfth- and thirteenth-century castle of the Guidi family, model for the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, with frescoed chapel and library.
Piano di Campaldino
Plain below the castle where the Guelphs beat the Ghibellines on 11 June 1289, with Dante Alighieri in the Florentine front line.
Abbazia di San Fedele
Romanesque abbey church inside the borgo, with single nave and stone façade, dating from the early twelfth century.
Pieve di San Pietro a Romena
Twelfth-century Romanesque pieve a short distance from Poppi, dated 1152, built entirely of stone with three apses.
Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi
National park covering the forested ridges east of Poppi, one of the oldest managed beech and fir forests in Europe.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June brings the Casentino into clear sun, the beech forests in their first leaf and the upper Arno full from spring rain. July and August are pleasant at 437 meters, never coastal-hot, with the castle and library full of weekend visitors from Florence. September and October are the harvest and chestnut months: the Foreste Casentinesi turn orange in the high cuts above Pratovecchio. November through March is quiet, the castle on winter hours, the higher passes occasionally snowed. The Festa di Dante in mid-June and the Casentino Wool Fair in November are the two fixed dates on the local calendar.