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The Holy Hermitage and Monastery of Camaldoli are situated in a thousand year-old forest of Casentino National Park. A scene of extraordinary beauty that instils quiet and expands the spirit, it is an image of Camaldoli's history and spiritual identity.

Founded between 1024 and 1025 by St. Romuald, a Benedictine monk (+1027), it sank its roots into the ancient monastic tradition of the East and in the West found in St. Benedict (5th and 6th centuries).

Camaldoli joined the communal and solitary dimensions of monastic life, as seen in the Holy Hermitage and the Monastery that form one community. The traditional emblem, formed by two doves drinking from the same chalice, expresses symbolically this communion within diversity, nourished by a relationship with God.
Broadening this communion, the Monastery of St. Gregory al Celio in Rome is also today an integral part of the community of Camaldoli.

Through its genuine vocation, Camdloli has developed and presently is working out its function as a bridge between the eastern and western monastic traditions. With vatican Council II, it returned to being a privileged place for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.