The Elsa River amazes. For a good stretch of its 60 kilometers it is an almost dry riverbed, even in spring if the season is incredibly dry like this year. Then suddenly, just before Colle Val d’Elsa, the river captures veins of abundant thermal water. The water then becomes an intense turquoise, flows copiously building travertine architecture similar to stables: here begins what they call the Elsa Ricca.
The path begins in an urbanized world of houses, roads, roundabouts and sheds: as in the wonderful Alice’s land you go down next to an old mill and you come out in an unexpected world, made of turquoise water that flows abundantly between trees and rocks in a blaze of nature, and the world of men has disappeared, no longer visible nor audible up there beyond the trees and hills.The river path called Sentierelsa winds along the turquoise waters of the Elsa Ricca, passing over travertine promontories and caves carved out by the water. On clear afternoons people crowd the first few stretches and then gradually decrease as you get further away from the entrance point, near the church of San Marziale, south of Colle Val d’Elsa. A couple of steep but very short ups and downs, as well as allowing us to get around some rocky ridges, act as a filter for the lazier holidaymakers, making the next stretch quieter.
The trail continues and crosses the river several times through nice fords made with blocks of rock and facilitated by ropes as handrails, easy despite vague appearance of the wild forest of Borneo.
From time to time we meet a small beach, a rock jutting into the river, a stop at the foot of waterfalls, even a large waterfall 10 meters high, the waterfall of Diborrato.
Towards the end the path reaches the ruins of the ancient Ponte della Spugna (Sponge Bridge) and here, under the more recently built bridge, there is a beautiful little garden of fruit trees which is also the home of the scarecrow Gino, who shows us the end of the path: from there we retrace the same route back to San Marziale.
