The Valle Benedetta, (i.e. “Benedictine", not "Blessed”), is a hamlet of the municipality of Livorno, located over 300 m. altitude in the midst of the Livorno hills; it is. As well as from Livorno (about 9 kilometers away), you can access it from the village of Gabbro, from the hamlet of Colognole or through a fascinating dirt path through abandoned quarries, ancient mills and shady woods. It is surrounded by a vast, protected natural area (which takes the name of " Foresta della Valle Benedetta") where maritime pine and Mediterranean maquis predominate.
Near this small settlement, in addition to a grocery store, a restaurant and a cemetery there is a military radar, a weather monitoring station and an astronomical observatory.
In ancient times this place was completely wild and inhospitable, inhabited by wolves and brigands, but in the seventeenth century the Vallombrosan monk Colombino Bassi, (native of Livorno), wanted to found here a church dedicated to St Giovanni Gualberto (the founder of their congregation) with the annexed monastery.
The building, completed in 1697, was entrusted to the monks of the Benedictine order, from which the entire valley took its name.
A dirt road still connects it to the nearby hermitage of Sambuca. Today the village is populated by about 150 people and is a destination for excursions by the inhabitants of Livorno.