Let's dispel the myth that Monument Valley is only in the United States. In Tuscany, in the splendid Upper Valdarno between the provinces of Florence and Arezzo, we can be moved by the Valdarno Cliffs, a small, totally Italian monumental valley of evocative beauty.
Here the panorama, truly unique and of notable naturalistic and geological interest, is drawn with majestic needles with unpredictable shapes that stand proudly (reaching heights close to, in some places, one hundred meters) among green expanses of olive trees and vineyards.
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The Balze, whose ocher yellow color contrasts with the blue of the sky and the green of the field, are real sculptures chiseled by nature, pinnacles, ravines, pointed pyramids that, at times, seem to want to defy the force of gravity. Formed by stratified clays, sands and gravels, they are interspersed with deep gorges and, due to their surprising spectacle, are reminiscent of the rock structures of Colorado and Arizona.
The result of the erosion, over millennia, of the lake sediments of the Upper Valdarno by atmospheric agents and water courses, these incredible rock formations have always stimulated the imagination of the inhabitants of the valley, who have nicknamed them with the most various names: blades, clods, landslides and even, as in a fairy tale, fairy pyramids.
and they look alike background of a fantastic landscape, the Balze, as you travel the roads of the Pratomagno slopes, between the Resco torrent and Ciuffenna: bold natural works of art that stand out in the heart of a green landscape and illuminate orange at dusk, kissed by the last rays of sun.
The most beautiful formations are known by the name of pillars of Poggitazzi and Piantravigne: The latter is a picturesque town embraced by erosion walls and connected to the rest of the territory thanks to bridges that cross the narrow gorges with vertical walls.
It is not surprising, then, that Leonardo da Vinci He was impressed and fully understood the rare beauty of this incredible natural spectacle in Tuscany, to the point of wanting to immortalize it in many of his paintings, such as, for example, in one of his masterpieces, "The Virgin of the Rocks." ": if you look closely, you can see how the rocks really resemble the striking Balze del Valdarno.
But not only that. Look at the background behind the famous Mona Lisa: don't the rock formations that appear on the horizon remind you of something?
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