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Village markets are always a highlight of a visit to the Garfagnana. Our local town Piazza al Serchio has a small market on Tuesday mornings and Castlenuovo di Garfagnana has a large one every Thursday; a veritable treasure-trove of delights.
Add a coffee at the bar or a mortadella-filled roll at the Vecchio Molino and you will go home replete.
An old building in Pieve Fosciana, home of one of our favourites, Il Pozzo. Others include The Marquee at Castlenuovo, La Baita at Corfino, and Ai Canipai at San Romano which offers typical Garfagnana cuisine using fresh, local, seasonal produce.
Sasso Rosso, one of the towns you can visit in the hills nearby. Our three-times repeat clients, an ardent group of bushwalkers from Tasmania, have left us with extensive notes of walks, which are outlined in our Information Booklet.
This is an area full of hill towns, each one interesting to visit.
The medieval town of Orzaglia just below our village is a great after-dinner stroll.
Vibbiana our neighbouring village has a small cheese making shop.
San Romano, our local comune town.
Minucciano, another ancient village in the valley.
Barga, the most important town in the area for its artistic value is absolutely worth a visit to see the beautiful marble cathedral on its highest point. Many summer concerts are held here or in its tiny Teatro dei Differenti.
Pontecose and its ancient small bridge.
Food and wine are part of any Tuscan experience and in our valley you are able to purchase the most superb produce almost at the farm door. The Tuscans are most particular with their food and nothing much has changed in their cuisine over the years.
The butcher offers meat that is raised just a stone's throw away: its arrival at the butcher's shop in a tiny three-wheeled Ape testifies to this. Salamis, other sausages, olives, cheeses, honey and many more products are produced locally.
Traditional recipes incorporate the mouth-watering porcini mushrooms that the hills abound with in the springtime and Chestnut flour from the trees, which fill the valley and look so beautiful in their spring flowering.
Ignored by many guidebooks Lucca has the good fortune to be missed by the annual hordes of tourists descending on Italy and is one of the country's least disturbed treasures. The townsfolk go about their business, elegant and well dressed, riding their bicycles through the cobbled streets where cars dare to venture. The ramble of narrow streets will test your sense of directions, the fashion shops will test your credit card and the restaurants will draw you into their fold over the long lunch shut down unless you decide to walk or cycle around the Renaissance walls that embrace the city.
The old Roman amphitheatre, now cafés and shops, off the elegant shopping street of Via Fillungo.
Piazza San Martino, the Cathedral square.
On the outskirts of Lucca there
are half a dozen magnificent villas that offer magical gardens, fountains
and walks. Some are also available to view inside.
The 17th century Limonaia at Villa Grabau.
Centuries-old terracotta statue of Colombina at Villa Reale.
The lake at Villa Reale is home to a pair of white swans.
The highly-decorated facade of Villa Torrigiani.
The hills above Lucca are home to many vineyards where you can visit to purchase oils and wines of the highest quality.
A fishman in his boat at Lerici.
The house is situated about 1.5 hours from the Versilian Coast where you
can enjoy a day at the beach, an inspection of the marble mountains where
Michelangelo worked, the stylish town of Sarzana, the resort at Lerici or
a fabulous meal at Ciccio at Bocca di Magra.
Vernazza and Manarola, two of the five towns of the Cinque Terre which is situated about 1.5 hours north of the villa.
