The "Alta Valdera" is a homogeneous territory South-East of Pisa close to Volterra next to the Florence and Siena provinces, which is consequently strategically located within a special artistic background. The hot springs (Casciana, Uliveto and Montecatini), and the coast resorts are easy to be reached trom here.The landscape is varied and uncontamined: from pleasant plains we pass to hills rich with secular woods, chestnut woods and the typical Tuscan vegetation that according to the seasons changing do characterize the panorama with charming effects. At the foot of these hills the Era river windingly flows. Capannoli, Chianni, Lajatico, Palaia, Peccioli, Terricciola, each with its own traditions and cultural peculiarity, enriched by small villages, still full of human and artistic witnesses, are important mosaic tesseras that give pleasant opportunity to the demanding visitor. Many itineraries can be made: especially the artistic one is characterized by the old Romanesque Parish Churches in which the land is rich (Palaia, Fabbrica, Peccioli, Chianni) and by the contemporary art works by national or foreign artists.To this you have to add the pleasantness of a staying in Farm Holiday resorts of this area, that complete the characteristic Tuscan food with high quality wine and oil. During some moments of the year tourist is granted the visit to cellars and the tasting ot the local Chianti D.O.C.G. and S.Torpé wines and is given the opportunity to take part to the manifestations concerning the tradition and the typical products of this land beaten by the seasons rhythm. For they who like to make sport in the nature, itineraries ere availabie to be covered by foot, MTB and horse going through the Valdera territory.The landscape is characterized by the numberous country­houses, which were Pisan and Florentine noble families' residences, some of which still belong to them. Amusement and cultural deep studying moments are possible by visiting the prehistoric park, the zoological museum, the astronomical observatory and the museums of the paesants' civilization and work. These are some of the characteristic aspects of the Alta Valdera , a land rich with human and artistic witnesses within an enchanting and serene environment which assures an unforgettable holiday.

Widespread in the relaxing green of our hills, prestigious Romanesque Parish Churches witness with their presence the religious and spiritual history of our past. Countless churches located in secluded countryside spots, plunged in a charming landscape, stand lonely in an atmosphere of special spirituality. Each building e worth being visited because of its artistic prestige and historical meaning. It is sufticient to quote the particular Baroque-style Church of San Pietro Apostolo in the centre of the small Libbiano suburb where past and present live in symbiosis. In the Chapel of Santa Caterina in Legoli, on a hill surrounded by cypresses, valuable frescoes of 1479 contained in four niches, witness Benozzo Gozzoli's passing by throughout this countryside, when escaped from Pisa further to the pestilence. Palaia is also interesting thanks to its Parish Church of San Martino, a national monument where ere periodically held important musical and song manifestations.
The Romanesque Parish Church of SS.Maria Assunta in Fabbrica is also valuable since collecting the bright ceramica by Della Robbia. In the opposite side of the Valdera, the one towards the sea, we find the particular Parish Church of San Donato in Chianni. It ofters by itself a small-sized door contained between the walls and the square pavement. Only the apse does stand in an imposing way over the below countryside. Where the spontaneous vegetation announces the proximity to the seaside, the Pietracassa fortress with its proud features dominates thanks to its privileged position over the hills. Contemporary works of art ere to be added to this which over recent years have enriched the artistic patrimony of Peccioli and Terricciola. This union between ancient and modem embellish the Valdera by offering to it an additional reason not to be forbidden.

Small villages strew the land by alternating with a cultivated and flowering country with spontaneous vegetation spots which are still uncontaminated. The rural land is regularly marked with very nice houses, periodical residence of aristocratical Pisan and Fiorentine families. Each of them has its own history and architecture, old houses drawn by small fortresses, often rich with art works inside; they are a remarkabie sign of the farm organization based on the share­cropping that has characterized the Valdera over the past years; high-class houses they were datum points in that economical organic cycle. Surrounded by very wonderfui parks they converse with the landscape that exalts their architecture. The farm homesteads mark the space between a property and another one.
The houses area distributed in a homogeneous way in the Valdera and the choice while looking for an example is not easy: from the splendid house of San Marco, rich with history, to the prestigious Alessandria House in Cedri; from the precious Medici Corsini House in Spedaietto fo the proud Monti’s House. And how can we not quote the delicious house of Celli or the architectectural building compiex in Usignano, in Collelungo, in Villa Saletta, in Fratello or in Casanova? The many campaniles that rise over the territory, almost always of valuable building, inividualise the many human settlements that already in a remote age had made the landscape anthropized. They witnesses which are still offered are a lot, above all concerning the medieval epoch: the urbane structure, the narrow alleies branching out from the main streets, some stokes of old stone-paved, the house façades in fired bricks, the arches of the old entrance doors to the centres. The landscape is completed then by the delicious villages, small farm houses agglomerated. In the typical hilly landscape the areas of Chianni, Rivalto and Orciatico stand out, where because of the high altitude, the suburb almost becomes a mountain village.

The "Alta Valdera" is particular within the Tuscan background being it an area of special cultural and scientific interest, the most important aspects ot which have been studied andi organized so to propose a didactic perspective through the making of innovative facilities andi open spaces, as well as intelligent urban episodes: sclentiflc centres, museums and parks. A type of initatives carried out within a social and territorial outlook based above all on the efficiency of the services, the museums, the cultural animation laboratory in connection with a precise planning of the area on the matter. The cultural didactic pole of the Alta Valdera favours meetings and socialization being it located in an especially pleasant geographical background. The pupils and their families can make use of a new fruition logic that makes it possible to make a trip in the culture and in the time of the different ages that have organized the ternitoty. Here it is the prehistory thanks to Peccioli park which is dedicated to it, the history through Capannoli zoological museum, the contemporary history with the museums al the paesants' civilization and agricultural tools in Palaia and in the end the astronomical observatory in Libbiano and the mofette in Orciatico. Over the last decade very interesting has been the finding of many archaeological sites which date back to the Etruscan epoch and not only, which are widespread all over the Valdera. Capannoli is seat of the archaeological "Tectiana" group with an important documentation centre.
Prehistoric park: immediately next to the Peccioli town is equipped with a wide parking; the prehistoric animals are made in glass-resin, in natural size, are set in a pine-trees and holm oaks place; the park's owners, guides and interpreters, go with studente and fans through this trip in the time.
Museum of work and of rural civilization in San Gervasio: in the small San Gervasio centre in Palaia we fìnd the museum set in a farmhouse of the XVIIIth century; separate rooms give hospitality to the background of the farmer reality, the food, the bedrooms, the forge, the stable, etc. The library and the documentation centro offer the material concerning the social, religious and daily life of a civilization to be remembered.
Exhibition of the paesant's civilization in Montefoscoli: an old farm complete with oil-mill, pan rooms, barn, give hospitality to the exhibition of the paesants' civilization. The court and the cellars of the palaces have made it possible to create 14 rooms equipped wlth tools and catalogued instruments.
Astronomical observatary in Libbiano: the observatory is in an old water system rooms and in an ex primary-school; the cultural training centre, the planetary and the dome with its telescope are a cultural promotion point with practicing, didactic and popular purpose; efficacious means to show the foundamental concepts of the celestial mechanics.
Zoological museum: in Capannoli in a house with baroque and neoclassical motifs we find the zoological museum; the taxidermists busy with this activity have given lite to original pieces of any animal kind, living and extinct ones, rebuilt in their habitat; the environments recreated are about 130 and give hospitality to more than 1400 exemplaries among mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibious and insects.
Mofette in Orciatico: In the Lajatico commune, in the thick wood in "Borboi" locality, for 8 years a mofette has been active, that is a kind of blow-pipe causing natural emissions of carboni dioxide of geothermal ontgin. The mofette is studied by the most important universities of the world, from San Diego State University to the Basel one in Switzerland, from Wageningen in Netherlands, to the Sheffield one in Great Britain and to Vienna one too.