The history of the Serre is strongly linked to the Peccioli Farm, which from the 15th century onwards, thanks to the investments of the noble Florentine families, underwent strong development. The earliest evidence is a document that registers the farm as one of the properties of the de’ Medici family in 1547, giving the farms the names we still know today. The Serre remained the property of the Grand Duke of Tuscany until 1775 when they were sold to the wealthy Berte family, merchants from Livorno.
The Serre have always been an important place for the inhabitants of Peccioli, who worked, lived and celebrated religious festivities and holidays here. There were many cottages inhabited by sharecroppers, a school, a kiln, a three-bladed mill on the Era river and the Church of San Michele, later renamed the Church of the Madonna delle Serre. The earliest documents attesting to the presence of the church date back to a chronicle of 1618 in which an Oratory of San Michele alle Formiche on the Serre estate was described, and even then, a painting depicting ‘The Madonna and Child surrounded by Saints’ was mentioned. The painting is back inside the church after being restored in the workshop of the Museum of Palazzo Pretorio.
The main crops were grapes, olives, wheat, barley, oats and sugar beet. In addition to livestock, silkworm breeding was also present, and the entire area was the site of hare, pheasant and partridge hunting. The Serre estate, 900 hectares of greenery that begin near the Fonte Mazzola Amphitheatre, offers walkers and cyclists a safe and quiet nature walk along which there are also five pitches equipped with tables, chairs and gazebos. There are two nature trails: the Bosco di Ortaglia and the Anello della Strada Bianca that encircles the valley, 3 km and 7 km long respectively, along which there are five equipped rest stops and picnic areas.