The glorious Garfagnana – Northwest Tuscany

Piano di Coreglia, where we have been with good friends Amanda, Fabio, Gill and Cesare (the dog) for the past few days, for some reason reminds me of Captain Correli’s Mandolin. There is no rhyme or reason to it, and it’s not even funny, but there we are. In truth, we spent a fair amount of time in the swimming pool, with some close run jumping competitions, but these are the highlights of our trips out.

We arrived in Lucca from Barcelona via five trains and an uneventful stopover in Turin. Although we weren’t there for any appreciable time, we had a good feeling about Turin and could have stayed there a little longer. Obviously we found time to go to a playpark, and even bought a new football in a handy Decathlon.

Lost marbles

We arrived into glorious Lucca having passed through Carrara – where the marble comes from. It turns out marble is much like Fanta and toilet rolls – much cheaper in bulk cash and carry. Turn up in Carrara and load up if you need some marble for remarkable prices. Sadly for us, travelling around the world with hand baggage only is incompatible with landing a stack of cheap marble so we left empty handed (for now, see later).

Lucca itself is a picturesque walled medieval town which is a fixture on the tourist trail. Although there were plenty of people around it wasn’t crazy busy. We took a stroll about taking in the major sights (walls, piazzas, big churches, tower with trees on top etc) and fitted in a stop for some ananas juice, beers and a couple of loaded bruschetta. The highlight for the kids was perhaps seeing the fish in the stream that runs through the town and arguing over who got to hold the dog’s lead.

A Pisa cake

It appears that the Lucchesi, Pisans and Florentines liked to periodically raid and pillage each other’s towns, hence the walls, battlements and lookout towers on strategic hilltops between the two places. With the local knowledge of Amanda and Fabio we went to Pisa early on a Sunday morning for the obligatory look at the leaning tower. Despite our best efforts it was still pretty busy with crowds stunned by the engineering failure that is the tower. But it was still great to see. Dessa was amused that some of the plastic ‘leaning’ towers on the street stalls weren’t even leaning; surely the most basic of requirements for the cheap tat? After a few comedy photos and an emergency ice-cream, we headed off to the beach at Via Reggio for some lunch and sand.

Riding the Panda

No, not a real panda. We’re not savages. Fabio has a runabout smaller car for navigating the hillside roads and villages for his bespoke woodwork business. It is often more practical than his other car, a large pickup. And the best thing was that he lent it to us for a couple of days. Honestly, we had the most fun just cruising the winding roads with the windows down, with Rafe doing the gear changes from the passenger seat. We had no choice but to set Matt Munro’s “On Days Like These” (first to get that reference in the comments receives no prize save the admiration of us and the readership) at top volume on the phone. I’d recommend hiring a small fun car to tour this area 100%. Fabio’s Panda was the perfect fit for this vibe – of a certain vintage, with no working lock to its name, a boot that didn’t latch at all and yet overall mechanically safe and sound. Glorious for these precarious mountain roads and narrow villages.

Il Grotto Venti

Up one such winding mountain road we came to Il Grotto Venti, the windy cave. Rafe in particular is into geology, fossils and the like due to Helen’s influence. Visiting the caves went really well for all of us in fact. Perhaps helped by the fact that it is a consistent 10.5 degrees inside, offering welcome relief from peak August Tuscan temperatures. They offer 1, 2 and 3 hour tours of the caves and not wishing to push our luck with the kids attention spans we took the one hour option. The longer tours would certainly have delivered good value extra sights, but they would also have added a lot more climbs and descents into the mix. In retrospect we were happy with our choice and were lucky to have stumbled across an English tour starting soon after we arrived. The prehistoric bear skeleton found in the cave was especially impressive. Although parts of cave bear skeletons have been found in the cave, the complete specimen was sourced from Russia and assembled in the cave by palaeontologists, much to Rafe’s distain. There’s also a well stocked mineral and fossil shop at the caves if that’s your thing. Since you asked, the wind is a function of the chimney-like configuration of vents from the caves and the temperature differential inside and out. It can be up to 40mph!

Found marble

Continuing the geological theme, we took a trip to see an abandoned marble quarry previously exploited by the Henraux company. Armed with the location of a tunnel on a road (Galleria del Cipollaio if you’re keen to visit) and instructions to look for an arch in the rocks, we set off in the trusty panda. Exploring the quarry was great fun although we should caution that adults and kids alike need to be careful as there are plenty of steep drops with no safety barriers. To be honest, it’s a private site and entry is prohibited, so there is no blame to apportion for the lack of health and safety. We certainly weren’t the only ones to flout the rules and have a good explore – while we were there another car arrived, and the impressive graffiti attests to other visitors.

Ponte del Diavolo

Is a bridge across the Serchio river near Borgo a Mozzano. Actually called Ponte della Maddalena, the bridge has an interesting lopsided shape with one large and three smaller arches, a very steep incline and is an impressive piece of medieval engineering. The story goes that the bridge was built by Saint Julian who was unable to complete the project and asked the devil for help. (Which, like payday loans is rarely a good idea). In payment for his help, the devil asked for the soul of the first living being who crossed the bridge after completion. Once construction was completed (I presume by the Devil’s lackeys), Saint Julian cleverly threw a piece of bread onto the bridge in order to lure a dog to cross it, and therefore cheating the devil (Poor dog, said Rafe). In truth, it is thought to have been commissioned by Countess Matilda of Tuscany in around 1080-1100.

Oh the food!

You really can’t write about the Garfagnana without commenting on the local food, and it certainly lived up to the reputation for craft and freshness. Freshly made pasta al Fabio was a real treat, as was the local meat (the most massive and good value Fiorentina T-bones on the barbecue, fat local sausages), tomatoes in many forms, Amanda’s own limoncello, wine. Everything fresh, simple and glorious. For reference, the coffee and cake shop Il Gallo Goloso, and the butcher Cavani both in Gallicano were both outstanding value and friendly despite my very broken Italian efforts.