Castelnuovo Di Garfagnana

La Collina del Sole is located in North West Tuscany overlooking the Carrara mountains where Michael Angelo personally chose each marble block to create all of his statues including the David located in Florence (2 hours by car or train). The national park is dotted with small villages and inexpensive restaurants serving exceptional food. There are great walks offering easy rambles or challenging climbs.

The nearby market town of Castelnuovo Di Garfagnana is a bustling town of 6,000 people that hosts a traditional market on Thursday mornings and is full of family owned shops selling fresh produce. From June through to late October there are a series of exhibitions and festivals celebrating the local culture and artisanal production. The castellated city of Barga with its Romanesque cathedral, the walled city of Lucca with its towers and Forte di Marmi a luxury resort town on the Mediterranean sea are all within one hour’s drive. Torre del Lago, 15 minutes West of Lucca and just North of Pisa, has an open air theatre overlooking Lake Massaciuccoli devoted to the performance of the works of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini whose operas include La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot.

The Garfagnana region was part of the Gothic Line in World War II, a scene of fierce fighting, mainly due to the terrain, between the Allies and Germans from October 1944 until April 1945.

Transport

• Pisa and Pisa airport are 1.5 hours drive away, in part on the autostrada, or by train.
• Main station Castlenuovo di Garfagnana, local station Fosciandora (Pisa to Aulla line)