Riserva naturale Camaldoli, Nature reserve in Poppi, Tuscany, Italy.

Riserva naturale Camaldoli is a protected mountainous area within Foreste Casentinesi National Park, covering about 1,100 hectares. The reserve features mixed forest types and rocky formations that rise across hills and slopes at varying elevations.

In 1012 the benefactor Maldolo donated a plot at Campo Amabile to Saint Romuald, founder of the Camaldolese order; the monks' first property covered about 160 hectares. In 1866 the Italian state expropriated the forest, hermitage and monastery, and from 1871 the state forestry corps managed a forest of 1,442 hectares, replanting former pasture with white fir.

The monks followed the "consuetudini" of Camaldoli, the community's written customs, which prescribed how their forest was to be cultivated. They gradually replaced the original mixed woodland with pure plantations of silver fir, a species then more prized and whose columnar stands they associated with a sense of mysticism. The name Camaldoli comes from Campo Amabile, the locality of the 1012 donation where Romuald built the first hermitage.

The area is explored on marked trails that lead from entry points into the higher elevations. Wear sturdy hiking boots and weatherproof clothing, especially if you plan longer walks through the forest.

The reserve's forest is one of 149 natural reserves and state forests of the Carabinieri Biodiversity Group, managed by the Pratovecchio Biodiversity Department. Its pure white fir plantations replaced the original mixed woodland, a choice the monks linked to the columnar, severe look of the firs.