Someone has called the green island of Tuscany and in fact this valley, but close to important historical towns such as Lucca, Pisa, Florence and the flamboyant and fashionable Versilia, was closed in itself, living its own history and building a strong identity that still retains.
The Apuan Alps, which divide to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Apennine Mountains to the east, enclosing the valley like a casket and even the historic streets that cross it, as the eighteenth century or the Via Clodia Vandelli, who led from Modena to Massa boldly crossing the Pass of the Apuan Tambura, have helped to reduce this isolation. Garfagnana, literally Great Forest, so this valley seemed to its first visitors and even today you will be astonished in front of the extension of its lush forests.
Man-planted, cared for and cultivated the chestnut up to 1000 meters above sea level, wild, intricate, finally the beech which go up, over 1700 meters and, year after year, trying to regain the heights of mountains nude.
In this immense mass of green appear, almost suddenly, perched on a hill, perched on the high plains that slope towards the river, overhanging on vertiginous cliffs, the many small towns that characterize the Valley.
Ruts in the narrow streets, inside the medieval defensive walls, time passes slowly, the rhythms are those of the past, the games of boys the same for centuries, the “workshops” have an antique perfume.
