Lucca and the Garfagnana

Leaving Lunigiana we headed over the Apennine mountain range to the Garfagnana valley. The landscape is very different, a bit darker, more enclosed being in a valley. The views are amazing though, with tall multi coloured houses built steeply up the hillsides.

Apennine mountains from Barga

Typical valley houses in the Garfagnana 

Barga was our base - a beautiful town in the valley, complete with imposing duomo, and an interesting connection with Scotland - in fact it is referred to as the most Scottish town in italy - as many Italians emigrated to Scotland in the early 20th century to find work, with a reverse migration having occurred in recent years as many Scottish people have moved back to live in the town of their ancestors, drawn by a desire to reconnect with their heritage.Approximately 40% of people in Barga are either Scottish or have Scottish connection. 

True to its reputation, on our arrival, again hesitating about which hairpin bend to try and navigate,  a car pulled up at the side of us and asked if we were looking for the camping - a Scottish man!  He very kindly led us there 🤣

La Cantina del Vino was our base - a wine house set in the most beautiful of grounds. Francesca, our host, extremely welcoming and friendly, soon had us parked up, and all for 20 euros a night. The views were amazing.

La Cantina Del Vino

We soon became intrigued by the number of local cars that pulled up to the house, in a steady stream - but on heading up to the shop ourselves we could see why - huge tanks of wine, sold for 2.5 euros a litre - everyone bringing their empty wine bottles to fill 🤣 It wasn’t all wine from the tank though - and we made a note to book onto one of the wine tasting sessions later in our stay 😃

Interesting Cantina shop

The ever so popular vats of wine 🍷 

Exploring Barga at night we couldn’t help but smile at the UK red telephone box, donated by a Scottish man, in front of the old bridge (and interestingly turned into a book exchange just like at home 🤣), and even the “Barga Tweed” on display in the Tourist Information window.

British connections 🤣

Aperitifs in old castle cafe

We hadn’t expected it to be so hot, temperatures between 28-30, so activity was unfortunately limited to a couple of hours early morning, then a lot of lounging around reading, sleeping, and swimming in the river with Rubes, until things cooled down again in the evening. But we did manage to get out and about - exploring the surrounding area, and ended up in Sommocolonia, a village perched high on the mountain above Barga, and famous for the WWII battle of Garfagnana, a devastating battle between the allied US forces and the Austrians. We did reflect that it’s often been said that those days could not happen again, but can’t help but note the increasing rise of nationalism throughout Europe, and how worrying that is Wandering around the beautiful village there are many signs of this history, as well as an imposing castle and tower perched on the top. Amidst the ruins we were thrilled to see a small electric stairlift up the final flight of crumbling steps to the tower at the top - so incongruous with the surroundings 🤣 walking through mainly chestnut groves, the views were stunning 🤩 

Help up the final leg!

Chestnuts - which the locals lived on during WWII until the US forces arrived with other supplies 

Barga in the valley below

Heading back down through terraced landscapes

Walking with Jesus - Religious icons prevalent everywhere 

Street name on entering Sommocolonia

Dave explored further on his Bike, and I wandered around the old town of Barga - Ruby stayed in bed 🤣 Barga is beautiful, full of quaint streets and historic buildings, with the imposing cathedral of San Cristoforo at the top. 

Quaint streets

Interesting marble sculpture exhibition outside the cathedral 

All a bit too hot for Rubes - relaxing with the portable fan 👍

MStaying at this Cantina, we couldn’t miss the opportunity for some wine tasting 🍷 Francesca was a wonderful host, yet again. We joined a Scottish couple and an Austrian/ German couple, and had the most wonderful evening. Not knowing what to expect, nor the price, we kept an open mind and embraced it fully 😃 We started off with their own Prosecco, followed by another sparkling white, a deep red / dry rose, a light red wine, and finally a full bodied red - servings were not small either, so everyone relaxed pretty quickly 🤣 Each wine was also accompanied by tasty food - their own olive oil and bread, crostini, tomato bruschetta, pesto farro, sa.ami and crackers, and a wonderful plate of local cheeses and balsamic vinegar. By the end we were quite sloshed, and also not in need of any dinner that evening- and turns out, all for 18 euros each - totally amazing. The wines were good too - we ended up buying a case of the Rose (5 euros a bottle) 👍 It was good fun chatting together too, sharing travel tips and generally having a laugh.

Our wine tasting group

The Rose - a favourite 👍

Fresh tomato bruschetta 

Melon, Parma ham & olives - very Italian 

Pesto farro - delicious 

A beautiful sunset to finish off the evening 

Further down the valley we stopped to explore the “Devil’s Bridge” at Borge a Mozzano - described as the most beautiful bridge in the Lucca province. Legend has it that the bridge, built by Saint Julian, on not being able to complete it, asked the devil for help - promising the soul of the first living being to cross it once finished. What happed though was that once completed, Saint Julian lured a dog onto the bridge by throwing a piece of bread, thus cheating the devil 🤣

The Devil’s Bridge

Before arriving in Barga we stopped off in Lucca for a couple of days - a beautiful walled city, with an extremely wide 3km route around the walls, ideal for cycling or walking. In fact it seemed to be where most locals took their exercise each day, with people much older than us lapping us on the bikes, more than once! A good opportunity to explore, stock up on supplies, and find a bike shop to get the seat cable replaces on one of the bikes 😃

Famous for marble

Wide city walls for walking and cycling

Lucca streets

Typical Lucca tall buildings

The bike was fixed - hooray!

Onwards south towards central Tuscany- Arrivederci