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From Lunigiana to Parmense

The westernmost section of Appennino Tosco-Emiliano National Park faces four valleys: Val di Magra and Val di Taro towards Tuscany, Valle del Parma and Valle dell'Enza towards Emilia Romagna.
The three routes by car we suggest give the opportunity to admire an extremely varied landscape: from Magra valley bottom, you will cross the olive groves and vineyards characterizing the Mediterranean climate, and then pass to the coppice mixed forest alternating with pastures. You will climb then to the ridge, among surviving fruit chestnut forests and high beech forests. On the Emilia slope, where the climate is prominently continental, the landscape is marked by the presence of artificially planted fir forests and high beech forests, where it is also possible to find residual populations of autochthonous conifers.
Despite the human settlements in the Apennines are interested by a significant loss in population, it is not unusual to meet the last witnesses of the traditional breeding and agricultural activities.
If you are interested in history, you will find both on the slopes of Emilia and Tuscany interesting evidences of the past: above all, the evidences left by the two noble families, Malaspina in Tuscany and Vallisneri in the so-called "Valleys of the Knights" - Enza and Cedra Valleys - who shaped the destiny of the valleys and passes of the Apennines until the threshold of modernity.
If you want to discover the territory, you can carry out tours along the marked trails crossing the National Park or Cento Laghi Regional Park, on foot, by mountain bike, and on horseback.

• From Terrarossa to Riana
• From Miscoso to Mt. Ventasso
• From Sillara Pass to Filattiera - partly along a dirt road

From Bismantova to Garfagnana

The pivot of this route is Cerreto Pass, watershed between Valle del Secchia, which springs from the north-eastern slope of Mt. Alto, and Valle del Rosaro, springing from the Tuscan slope of the same mountain.
You will touch the three most densely populated urban centers of their respective valleys, important gateways to Appennino Tosco-Emiliano National Park: Castelnovo ne' Monti, Fivizzano, and Castelnuovo di Garfagnana.
Crossing very diversified natural environments going from the famous Pietra di Bismantova to the beech forests, from the moorlands to the high-mountain wetlands, the route partly follows an ancient medieval pilgrimage route leading from Valle del Magra to Garfagnana and Lucca.
If there are only a few evidences left by the Countess Matilde from Canossa, whose properties included Castelnovo ne' Monti, the Renaissance period dominated by Medici and Este has left tangible evidences in the urban planning of Fivizzano and Castelnuovo di Garfagnana.

• From Castelnovo ne' Monti to Fivizzano
• From Fivizzano to Castelnuovo in Garfagnana

From Garfagnana to the Lands of Matilde from Canossa

The following routes develop between Pradarena Pass and Radici Pass, where the highest summits of Appennino Tosco-Emiliano National Park lie: Mt. Prado and above all Mt. Cusna, delimiting a large uncontaminated natural area.
Astride Serchio valley and Secchia valley, you will cross a series of landscapes, from forests to grasslands, from pastures to the steep rocky slopes of the "schiocchi" dug by the streams.
In this extremely natural context, the presence of man and his activities has never been marginal: the three main passes - Pradarena Pass, Fòrbici Pass, and Radici Pass - were crossed in the past by real roads with shelters and watchtowers since the early Middle Ages. The properties of the Countess Matilde from Canossa extended in these lands and her most beloved castles were situated in the hills of Reggio, in Canossa and Carpineti. Besides all this, the history of the poor: shepherds, farmers, woodsmen, knife grinders, labourers, and many others.

• From Castelnuovo in Garfagnana to Castelnovo ne' Monti
• From Castelnovo ne' Monti to Abetina Reale

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