Lunigiana Travel Guide

A journey through Lunigiana The valley of the river Magra, heart of the historic region called Lunigiana, appears - to the traveller who descends from the Cisa - as a big amphitheatre that in spring and summer is richly ornamented in green whilst in autumn it adorns itself with the many colours of its immense woods. In winter the candid marble tops of the Apuane mountains mix themeselves with the white snow covered Appennines. In a few square kilometres mother nature presents herself in an unexpected and surprising variety of landscapes, high prairies with blackcurrant moors and the pastures where the esteemed Zeri sheep lives; the hills with the olive-groves, the vineyards and a trail of villages dominated by the strict outlines of a hundred and more castles: the bottom of the Magra valley that - as Mario Tobino wrote - winds itself like a silver eel, with waters rich in fish and where it is still possible to bathe. This is an ancient land, and covered by the great ancient routes: Sigerico passed this way in 994, travelling along the Francigena, a road that in the river Magra valley coincided with the road for Saint James of Compostela and from which also started off the road of the Volto Santo that lead to Lucca. Here, amongst the harshness of the mountains, the Romans had to put up a hard fight before defeating the Ligure-apuane people that had erected their stone idols (warriors, and large bossomed women today on show in the Pontremoli museum) to guard the roads and the pastures. Here during Second World War, the ancient roads and woods saw the horrors of the war, the heroic acts of the partisans, the generous hospitality of country people, towards those escaping from the city.
Hospitality in Lunigiana is sacred: Dante experienced it, hosted by the Malaspina family, a famous feudal family, who left their sign in numerous small feudal properties that surrounded the towns of Pontremoli and Fivizzano.
A generous land with its products, its pleasant wines, were famous already in the past for its delicate aromas which derived from a vast variety of vines.
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