Category: Tours

One of my favorite days out Lucca, and sure fire hit with visitors is a trip up the Versilian coast to Lerici.
There can be few more spectacularly beautiful places even in a country with so many. Lerici and its neighbour San Terenzo nestle in two sheltered little bays within the grander Gulf of La Spezia. Across the water lies Portovenere, and the islands of Palmaria and Tino, guarding the entrance to the Cinque Terre.
Although reached by an easy hal-hour drive up the autostrada (freeway) from Lucca, Lerici actually lies over the border from Tuscany in Liguria. The area was the ancient Etruscan region of Lunigiana, and there have been settlements here since three centuries BC. In the best tradition of these parts, Lunigiana was fought over for centuries by Lucca, Genvoa and even Parma. When the Boundaries of modern Italy were drawn, mosto f Lunigiana was included in Tuscany, but Sarzana and Lerici fell within Liguria.
So what is so special about Lerici? The view and setting i have already mentioned. A hint of its dramatic history is supplied by the castle sitting on the promontori, presumably in the past look out for unfriendly arrivals by sea, but nowdays gazing benignly over the fish market and the well- filled yacht marina below.
A large modern car park ( free on week-days) lies on the hillside between Lerici and San Terenzo, in other words perfectly placed for both pre and post lunch walks along the elegant “lungomare” walkway. Both town have narrow sea front buildings painted in beguiling pastel colours, and you’ll even see the “trompe l’oeil” fake windows and cornices painted on the building sto let you know you’re in Liguria.

Piombino town (Livorno) is from where set out the ferryboats to the Island of Elba.
With a distance of 10 km from the continent and a size of 224 qkm Elba is the biggest island of the Tuscan Archipelago and actually the third-biggest of Italy. For many years now big parts of the Elba Island and of the other islands of the Tuscan Archipelago (Pianosa, Capraia, Montecristo, Giglio and Giannutri) are protected in the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago
The climate is always mild with a middle annual temperature of ca. 16°; the medium in the winter is about 10° degrees, 14° in spring, 23° degrees in summer and 17° degree in autumn. The medium water-temperature of April is always about 19° degrees, 20° in May, June about 24°, 26,8° degrees in July, in August 27,3°, September 25,5° degrees and October 23,1° degrees.
The variety of the cost – altogether we have here a costlenght of 147 km – will satisfy every taste You can find wonderful sand- stone- or gravelbeaches, some are also hidden and can be developed only by boat. But even in the high season you will always find places, which are far away from the usual tourism.
There are more than 70 beaches on the coastlines of the island, some very peaceful, others more crowded, but all of them will, without doubt, offer you a splendid sun tan and a refreshing plunge into the blue waters of the ocean.
We have listed some of them, but it will certainly be a lot of fun to discover all the others by yourself.
The Island of Elba is the ideal location for sports enthusiasts and those seeking an active holiday. It offers the perfect combination: nature, sea and sport.

Barga is the most elegant urban centre of the Serchio Valley. The new part is mostly made up of nice villas, often in liberty style.
The  historical centre conserves intact the medieval urban street plan and has some austere renaissance buildings.
The romanesque cathedral on the op of the hill is beautiful and looks into the Serchio Valley.

Monteriggioni was the image of the fortification on the hill-top, a sentinel in the defense of the Republic of Siena, has always inspired travelers.
Because of its beauty and position, it became a natural magnet for tourists nowadays it is visited by some 70,000 people every year.
Actually, Dante can be considered among the very first “tourists” to visit Monteriggioni.
Among those that visited it recently were Ted Kennedy, Tony Blair, and many other VIPs.

The Comune of Montecarlo whose territory gathers around the ancient castle that dominate, with the red of the walls and towers all the countryside around, characterised by vineyards – here , in fact, is the production centre of Montecarlo DOC wine – and rustic farm houses. Montecarlo was fonded in 1333, in the vicinity of ancient fortress of Cerruglio, by the inhabitants of two neighbouring towns – tuscany – that were destroyed during the wars of 1314 and 1331, in hounor of Karl of Bohemia who had aided the Lucchesi against the Florentines.
In the complex of the fortress of Montecarlo are prominent the suggestive Rocca (castle) with its ancient keep of Cerruglio, the central part being the work of Bohemian architects, and the 16th-c part, the two doors that are still intact, and the high walls. To be noted is the elliptically-shaped keep, an architectural typology that was quite common in France but rare in Italy.
Also worthy of note are the Palazzo dei Vicari, decorated with coats of arms, and the restored 18th-c Teatrino dei Rassicurati.
Instead little remains of ancient 14th-c. curch of Montecarlo, after the transformations at the end of the 18th-c.
The fresco of Madonna del Soccorso, the work of a late 14th-c.  artist, perhaps a pupiln of Angelo Puccinelli or of Francesco dell’Anguillara ( who were artistically active in Lucca from 1380 to 1390) has remarne unchanged.