Today this beautiful experience with Porsche Cayenne GTS comes to an end! In the last article we said goodbye to Poppi with its beautiful castle and today we continue with another one located in Romena.
After few kilometres we reach this lovely town and its castle on the hill overlooking the valley of Casentino and the small town of Pratovecchio. While we are driving we encounter the Church of San Pietro a Romena of the twelfth century. This church is impressive and I’m pleased to see that many tourists have come to visit.
It ‘very nice to get on this hill, the road gets narrower and the landscape of fields and trees are in full Tuscan style. Our journey continues to the castle where a road with cypresses gives us some amazing shots. The landscape around us is very different from those seen since this time, in fact we are not anymore in the famous forests of Casentino and this allows us to have a better panorama, also because of the height from which we observe this amazing view.
I will tell you a story about the Romena Castle: between 1200 and 1300 a blacksmith’s Castle, for commission of the Guidi family, falsified florins of the Republic of Florence and, for this crime, he has been captured and executed a few kilometres away in a location that then became known as Omomorto (in Italian means “dead man”). This fact is also told in Dante’s Divine Comedy and the author has been a guest of the castle for a while too.
We go down from the hill heading to Stia, an other town quite famous in the Casentino. Parked our Cayenne GTS we allow ourselves a break for lunch before returning to Pontassieve. We walk in Piazza Tanucci, famous in Italy for having been filmed several times in the movie “Il ciclone” made by an Italian actor called Pieraccioni.
It is also famous for the production of wool and in particular the “Panno del Casentino”. The central square is very pretty but the parked cars really clash with the historic architecture that can be admired. We start the Porsche Cayenne GTS’ engine again, driving to the Passo Della Consuma, loved by those who seek the pleasure of driving, either by car or motorbike.
This car gives us strong emotions driving in the hairpins, the large torque delivered from the 3.6 twin turbo engine allows us to drive agile in the corner exits favoured by the 295mm 21’’ tyres and the four-wheel drive with sports suspension. Once at the top of the pass we suggest you to stop and buy the famous “Schiacciata”, a great snack with a beautiful panorama.
We continue to Pontassieve. A few km of road after the Passo della Consuma we turn towards Vallombrosa. This path will lead us back into the forest on a stretch of road that will remind us what seen around Camaldoli. Vallombrosa is famous for the homonymous Reserve, which with its trees becomes a destination for the Florentines in search of fresh air during the summer period, and for the Vallombrosiani monks’ Abbey.
We stop near it for the last photos before returning to Pontassieve. The lake nestled in the forest next to the monastery is definitely beautiful, we are happy to find the perfect place to relax after so many kilometres travelled in these days! I take the advantage of these moments of relaxation to speak with Marco about this Cayenne.
Surely we drove a versatile car, as rightly pointed out in his article Leonardo. If you want a sport driving or facing a dirt track the response of the car is always on high standards. Of course is reasonable to expecting a similar result with an SUV of this value and equipped with an engine like this.
The optional allows you to travel in a good security level, thanks to the lane change assistant or the cameras system with Surround View which really leaves us surprised for how make this car moving with agility. My only complain is about the Tiptronic. Sometimes in manual mode is irritating when downshifting, when you hard braking and you would like to select the lower gear it not immediately let you do that, especially in the transition from the third to the second gear.
This stops for a few moments that feeling of safety and control that is predominant during the driving. Surely the adoption of dual-clutch gearbox would have been more appropriate for this car. The other “issues” that I found are all marginal, perhaps the only one that deserves mention is the fact that, having a 5.5-inch smartphone, I have not found a place to put my cell phone that was not the armrest or the side pocket of the door.
Overall we had the opportunity to drive an impressive car, for many reasons that we have tried to tell you. One thing is sure; the real lucky ones will be not so much who will buy one but anyone who will bring this car to its full potential without being scared of driving off-road with a 130 000 euro car. This Cayenne GTS is a true off-road car. Solutions such as the adoption of a dry sump to increase the angle of front climb or the ability to lock all the 3 differentials make this SUV very difficult to stop, lucky the owners that will have the courage to test it seriously!
With these thoughs our itinerary comes to an end. We discovered the Casentino, a not so much known part of Tuscany that surely can give different scenarios and places all with unique beauty.
By: Edoardo Mascalchi
Photos: Edoardo Mascalchi, Marco Dellisanti
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