The Camaldolese monastic communities have been uninterruptedly present in Italy from the early eleventh century to the present: ten centuries of rooting-vital and dialogic down to the present.

The first reremitical establishments came to be in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the Appennine mountains of Tuscany, the Marches and Umbria.

After this rooting and spreading phase, there followed a period of statsis, followed by another expansive phase, even in urban areas during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a picture of Camaldolese presence in Italy spreading from north to south-in all, about one hundred sites as hermitages and monasteries: in the Veneto, Piedmont, Latium and Sardinia.

An expansive phase of the Camaldolese community occurred in the seventeenth century following the Rule of the Monte Corona Congregation, characterized b;y an accentuation of the centrality of the eremtical profile in monastic life.

In the nineteenth century, with the suppression of the religious orders and the confiscation of their land, buildings, art, libraries and archives by the State, the Camaldolese community dispersed until regathering at the end of the 1800s to regain possession of the monastery of Fontebuona and the Hermitage of Camaldoli.

The first female Camaldolese community was added to the male eremitical communites at the end of the 11th century, when Rudolf, fourth prior of the Camaldoli Hermitage added St. Peter di Luco in Mugello (Tuscany).
The female communites have been studied less than the male counterparts: in Italy, the oldest (and still active ) is the monastery of St. John the Evangelist in Pratovecchio (Arezzo) whose foundation dates to the 12th century, with funds donated by the Guidi (Counts).
The Camaldolese presence in Europe outside Italy was found in these areas: France, Poland, Hungary and Ausria. Today, the Camaldolese communities outside Europe are in: USA, India, Tanzanie and Brazil.