IL PASSO DELLA FUTA - The Futa Pass
The first historical information about a road that crossed the Apennines dates from the Roman era. Hannibal had already discovered it in 217 B.C. Then, in his exhaustive History of Rome Livy, whose full name was Titus Livius, tells that in 187 B.C. after having “pacified” the Apennine peoples, the consul Gaius Flaminius had his legionnaires build a road that linked the plains on the far side of the mountains with Arezzo. It was, obviously, a military road, not more than four or five arms wide, but it was totally paved that allowed carts to climb slopes of even fifteen percent. The road was called Flaminia Minor. However, over the centuries, all traces of the road were lost. Neglect, natural events, destruction wreaked by man all contributed to concealing it until recently. It was only in 1977 that two scholars from Bologna, Cesare Agostini and Franco Santi began their studies, basing their efforts on the little information gleaned from Livy. They believed that some sections of the road, especially in the wilder and less settled areas must have been conserved even though they were now buried. And that was precisely the case. After digging and searching here and there along the ridge, looking for squared, well-aligned stones, in 1979 beneath the peak of Monte Bastione, under more than fifty centimeters of earth they found a first section of paving, eight Roman feet long. After more than twenty years of work, many sections of the road have been brought to light and can be seen today, and a book La Strada Bologna – Fiesole del II secolo a.C. (Flaminia Militare) [Flaminia Miltare – the Bologna – Fiesole Road in the II Century B.C.] about their archeological discovery is clear evidence of the importance of the roadway linking Florence and Bologna ever since ancient times.

Transportation and communications obviously did not come to a halt because the Flaminia Minor had been forgotten and neglected. The current route of Strada Statale n. 65 took shape in the Middle Ages, shortly after the year 1000. In addition to trade, other reasons such as pilgrimages, and later, the Grand Tour, made the Raticosa Pass with its nine hundred meters the contact point between Florence and Bologna, and between Rome and Europe. For the Jubilee of 1300, declared by Pope Boniface VIII, due to the huge numbers of pilgrims using the road, it became known as “Romea.” These places and paths were also frequented by others – of this world and beyond. One example is the case of Saint Zenobius, bishop of Florence who challenged the devil in person. The wager was who would be able to move an enormous rock to the pass. The saint won, as he managed to bring the Pietramore (today known as Sasso di San Zanobi – the rock of St. Zenobius) very close to the Raticosa Pass. Beelzebub failed, his rock slipped out of control, rolled down into the valley and shattered into a thousand pieces – the Maltesca, that can still be seen in the upper valley of the Idice. Even today Zenobius is celebrated with a religious ceremony, called Santo al Sasso, on the first Sunday in July to commemorate the passage and his probable encounter in 400 with St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan. Up to the start of World War II there was still a little chapel dedicated to the Florentine bishop, but it was destroyed when the battles were fought nearby.

Up about one hundred years ago, the “fires of Pietramala” offered proof that spirits did indeed gather in the area. This natural phenomenon struck the imaginations of the people and led to the most interesting conjectures. It was Alessandro Volta who offered the first scientific explanation in September 1780, when he experimentally demonstrated that the gases released by the fires were similar to those he had studied two years before at Angera on Lake Como.

But, during winter nights travelers sitting in their coaches would see flames released from the slopes and they never really accepted this positivist version. For centuries people believe that the “burning” ground was the mouth of a volcano hidden in the bowels of the earth. In the past, and this is told by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, people found gold coins, pagan amulets and idols near the site of the flames, that wayfarers had probably thrown as propitiatory offerings. Volcanoes were considered openings leading to Hell and the coins were for the souls of the dead so they could pay Charon his fare. However, since drilling for oil and natural gas was begun about a century ago the flames are no longer visible. In fact, it was the “inflammable air of the swamps” according to Volta’s definition, the methane that escaped from crevices in the clayey ground that would burn during lightning storms that created the fires. Or at least, that is how it seems.

But the Futa Pass has other stories to tell. For example there was the Abbess Lucia, later the Blessed Lucia of Settefonti. A romantic legend has it that after her death Lucia miraculously saved a young Bolognese nobleman from prison in the Holy Land, who had usually climbed the impassable ridge to the convent of Santa Cristina to guide her during religious services.
The road changed over the centuries: the Lorraine rulers and Napoleon, the popes and the grand dukes of Tuscany all modified the route in their own interests. It was also rebuilt between 1715 and 1717 and in good weather it was possible to go as far as Pianoro by coach, and from that point on it was a “road for saddle animals and carts.”

Many popes crossed the Futa, Pius II, Pius VII returning from Paris where he had crowned Napoleon in 1805, then Pius IX in 1857 returning from a disappointing voyage to the legations. And there were other travelers who wrote about the pass: Casanova, the Marquis de Sade, De la Platerie, Da Ponte (who wrote librettos for Mozart’s operas), Stendhal, Prince Metternich, and Goethe who wrote about the inn where he stayed in his Italian Journey.
The next century brought the great wars, and in World War II, the Futa Pass was the site of the Gothic Line. The towns along the road were irreparably damaged and mortar and cannon fire echoed through the valleys. The German Military Cemetery with over thirty thousand graves is proof of the fierce fighting that took place.

In more recent days the Futa Pass has made way for bicycles and the Mille Miglia car races. During the ‘fifties Moss and Villoresi conquered the pass as did the cyclists who chose it as their training ground, from Gino Bartali to Gastone Nencini who was a native of the area to Gianni Bugno who in 1991 won the timed uphill race.

The Flaminia Minor watches it all in silence. Toponymy changed it and then changed it back: there are those who call it the Via degli Dei – the road of the gods – and history still lives along its winding curves.