Collesalvetti is a town in the province of Livorno, set in the low Valdarno valley, and mentioned for the first time in an official document dated back to 1272, as “Collis Salvecti”. It rises on an are inhabited since the Etruscan-Roman period, as the remain of a I century Roman “mansio” testify.
During the Middle Ages the locality started to depopulate because of the progressive spreading of the marshy areas caused by the periodical floods of the Arno river. The period of the Pisan domination lasted up to the XIV century when the territorial expansion of the powerful city of Florence started and in 1554 it conquered the whole Pisan property, of which Collesalvetti was part. The Medici's Grand Dukes, came to the power of Florence, extended their influence to the village of Collesalvetti that, thanks to the Grand Ducal interventions for the reclamation of the marshy lands, quickly started to repopulate.
We suggest a visit to the Leopol’s Aqueduct, which crosses the territory with its 18km in length, the Church of Santi Pietro and Paolo, in which it is still possible to admire an XVI cerntury organ, probably the oldest positive organ in Tuscany, and the Eremo della Sambuca, known since 1238.