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UPPER GARFAGNANA |
  
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| This is another fascinating and characteristic part of Tuscany.
There is no denying that Garfagnana is different and captivating! This land of Tuscany is a real environmental miracle, an "unicum" that springs from a happy coincidence of factors: it looks like a harsh mountain landscape, but it leaves room for broad valleys. It is beautiful in every season and if in winter it is at its most spectacular, with the snow-covered peaks forming a breath-taking sight, in summer it suddenly bursts into bloom. Here we find blue gentians, white jonquils, creamy asphodels and scarlet peonies: every corner is like a naïve art work, a splash of colour enlivening the pastel green of the pastures. Garfagnana still belongs to the time of fairy-tales, because certain villages are still as they were a hundred, even two hundred years ago. The Apuan Alps are the most characteristic element in the territory, being in sharp contrast with the nearby Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. So we find little shelters for shepherds on the high pastures and a nevertiring succession of churches, hermitages, castles and fortresses. All seems to blend with the environment in a perfectly natural way. It is an exciting experience to pursue the myth of the mountain along this slope of the Apuan Alps. This brings us to Campocatino and its sheep pens, against the mighty mass of the Roccandagia . Then to austere, lonely Fornovolasco, overlooked by the Pania della Croce and the Pania Secca. From here, following a narrow gorge, we can admire the Hermitage of Colomini , enclosed by sheer walls: it is a place of prayer and worship, known since the thirteenth century. As we follow the paths that lead to the Valle dell'Acqua Bianca we can "breathe" the marble in the air: the road leads to just below the peak and the mountain has been excavated for thousands of years. Marble hereabouts is still both matter and culture, like at Arni, on the north face of Monte Altissimo, which Michelangelo would have liked to transform into a huge sculpture visible from afar. In winter these mountains attract a large number of skiers. It is certainly exciting to wander through woods and valleys with skis on your feet, watching your tracks grow longer over the untrodden snow. "Ski-capital" is put to good use in traditional ways too, with ski lifts at Passo delle Radici and Casone on the Apennines, while in the Apuan Alps the ski lift goes from Careggine to the Sumbra.
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