A VISIT TO LA VERNIA 
his bitter invective against the dwellers on its banks, 
describes as peopled alternately with curs, wolves, 
and foxes; in other words, Aretines, Florentines, 
and Pisans. 
In the Casentino it is still a clear mountain stream, 
flowing quietly along its rocky bed, spanned here and 
there by bridges with raised arches telling of winter 
seasons when the now slumbering waters reach a 
perilous height. 
As we proceed onward up the hill towards Bibbiena 
in the Casentino, we are reminded at every step of 
Dante s minute description of these scenes which he 
knew so well. From the green slopes on either side 
descend those glittering rills, the cool waters for which 
the forger Adam of Brescia thirsted in the flames of 
hell. To our left is the mountain of the Pratomagno 
dividing the Casentino from the lower valley of Arno j 
to the right that “ great yoke of Apennine,” which 
forms the water-shed of Tuscany and Umbria, and 
separates the streams which flow into the Arno from 
those which join the Tiber. Before we began the 
last steep ascent into Bibbiena our vettuTino , pointing 
with his whip to a lofty fir-clad crest towering high 
above a desolate ridge of bare cliffs, cried out “ Ecco 
La Vernia ! ” There, before our eyes, was the moun¬ 
tain where the strange monk of old sought out a 
solitude far removed from the haunts of men. La 
Vernia, whose barren rocks and pine forests have been 
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