Raticosa pass

The Raticosa pass (Passo della Raticosa) is a mountain pass in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines with an elevation of 968 m (3, 176 ft) above sea level. It is located close to the small town of Pietramala in the municipality of Firenzuola, which forms part of the Metropolitan City of Florence (Tuscany). Surrounding peaks include the Canda hill (901 m), Mount Canda (1158 m), Mount Beni (1264 m), and Mount Oggioli (1290 m), the source of the Idice, a river that runs into Emilia-Romagna where it feeds the Reno. The Raticosa is traversed by the strada statale (SS) 65 at a point about 12 km north of the Futa pass. Before the advent of the Autostrada del Sole in 1964, the strada della Futa – as the road is commonly known in Italian – was for two centuries the main thoroughfare connecting Florence and Bologna. Fully viable from 1762, it was a key component of a major road-building project initiated and overseen by the new Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, following his investiture in 1739. Until it opened, the ascent to the Raticosa had been prohibitively steep, and the two cities had been poorly connected by the Giogo pass (heading in the direction of Imola). The new road, which was capable of carrying wheeled vehicles, cut the journey time by horseback or mule from 2–3 days to a single day. Although the economic benefits for Tuscany turned out to be less fa

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