Exploring the Hidden Gem of Ravi: A Journey Through Tuscany's Historic Villages

Hello dear friends,

Today I want to continue a bit on the itinerary I left in the previous post. I had told you about the beautiful town of Gavorrano in the province of Grosseto, but when I was there, I couldn't help but notice that this beautiful municipality has a hamlet that is a small jewel of art worth visiting, in my opinion.

You know how much I value small places, small villages—they are something unique not just for Tuscany, but for all of Italy itself, like Ravi, this little hamlet located in the ancient mining center of the Grosseto area.
This hamlet is situated on the ridge of Mount Calvo and is about 3 km away from its municipality that we've already seen in the previous post, so you can easily combine these two excursions.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived was the church, the Church of San Leonardo, a parish church that, from the documents found, seems to have been built in the 15th century and has undergone modifications over the centuries that have given it its current appearance. This is something that often happens to churches, as they are sometimes modified or expanded to accommodate more worshippers.

Naturally, finding it open, I took a look inside—quite sober, I didn't notice any particular frescoes or altar pieces that caught my attention, so I stepped out and walked through the streets of the village in search of some architectural detail that might interest me.
Here too, the streets were truly winding; in these villages, they knew how to fit roads into every corner. I could hear every space, and where there wasn't space, they might have made the roads pass under the houses—very clever!

Like in other villages I've shown you here in the community, there was also a castle, the Castle of Ravi, an important stronghold documented as early as 784, but which now is integrated into other adjacent structures and houses that were built later. Actually, only some walls of the castle are recognizable today; unfortunately, not all of the main building remains.

I continued my stroll through the streets of Ravi and noticed a cat at the window watching me. It might seem strange, but as I've mentioned before, these places are full of these charming little animals.

One thing to note is that from the village, you can admire a beautiful panorama of the surrounding valley. Also, I noticed many houses under renovation; I think most are holiday homes or houses used mainly in the summer season. I didn't see much activity in the streets of this village.

In conclusion, I must say that I really enjoyed this exploration. My only regret is not finding the time to visit the nearby mining museum because indeed, there used to be a mine exploited for underground resources here, and in recent years, as I understand, it has been restored into a museum.

Thank you for reading the post; I hope you enjoyed the photos I shared and I hope you can visit these places in the future. See you soon!