The Mugello is the basin of the upper Sieve, 30 km from Florence and a ridge away from Emilia-Romagna. Three Apennine ranges close it in, a river runs through it, a lake mirrors it back. Nature here isn't behind a gate with a ticket: it's the woods that begin behind the house.
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The Mugello is a Pliocene tectonic basin closed by three Apennine ridges: to the north the Futa and Giogo di Scarperia (the border with Emilia-Romagna), to the east the Vicchio ridge and Monte Giovi, to the south-west the Calvana and Monte Morello toward Florence. The valley floor sits between 200 and 300 m; the ridgelines reach 1,200 m.
Through it flows the Sieve, the largest right-bank tributary of the Arno: 62 km from Acquapartita, above San Godenzo, down to Pontassieve. It's the river that gives the valley its name and shapes its terraces, olive groves and vineyards (DOC Pomino, Chianti Rufina). Higher up, oak and chestnut woods up to 900 m, beech forests above. From the cultivated chestnut groves comes the Marrone del Mugello PGI (see the cuisine page).
Lake Bilancino is a 5 km² artificial reservoir, opened in 1996 on the course of the Sieve at Barberino di Mugello. Its dual purpose: regulating Arno floods (after the disaster of 1966) and providing water reserve for Florence. Blue Flag since 2004, swimmable from May to September. An 18 km cycle-pedestrian loop circles it. 20 km from the property by car.
The northern ridges — the Futa, the Giogo, the Osteria Bruciata pass — were Apennine arteries linking Tuscany and Romagna in the 19th and 20th centuries, before the Autostrada del Sole chose the Futa in 1960. Today they form the heart of the Via degli Dei (Bologna–Florence, 130 km, 5–6 stages) and the CAI trail network rediscovered by slow tourism. To the east, Monte Giovi (992 m) is the Mugello's "home of the Resistance" (see the history page): a 14 km CAI trail (about 4 hours) leaves from the property. The Giogo is 25 minutes by car from the property, the Futa 35.
La sera scende dalla cresta alpina e si accoglie nel seno verde degli abeti.— Dino Campana, Canti orfici, La Verna · Campigna, foresta della Falterona (Marradi, 1914)
Podere Ovosodo sits at 350 m on the hills south-east of Borgo San Lorenzo, with a panoramic view over the Sieve. Mixed oak-and-holm-oak woods around the house, terraced olive grove on the south side. A CAI trail to Monte Giovi (14 km, 4 hours of walking) starts from the gate, and the cycle paths along the Sieve are a quarter of an hour away.
The beech forests of the Futa–Giogo ridge begin 18 km north; the Via degli Dei passes 8 km away, through Sant'Agata. The Foreste Casentinesi National Park is over the Falterona ridge, in another valley: 45 minutes by car, well worth the trip but already Casentino, not Mugello.