Garfagnana
Garfagnana is a broad territorial area of northern Tuscany, in the province of Lucca, enclosed between the Apuan Alps and the Tusc...
Updated 20 July 2026
Garfagnana
Towns in the area
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The story
The story of Garfagnana
Geography and Location in Tuscany
Garfagnana occupies the northern part of the province of Lucca, in a long, narrow valley carved by the Serchio river, which rises in the Apennines and flows down toward the plain of Lucca. To the west rise the Apuan Alps, a chain of limestone mountains famous for marble and for deep karst caves; to the east and north the territory borders the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, on the edge of Emilia-Romagna. This position between two mountain ranges has made Garfagnana, for centuries, a land of passage between Tuscany, the Lunigiana and the Po plain, crossed by ancient routes of communication and trade.
History and Identity
A borderland fought over by the Republic of Lucca, the Duchy of Modena and Florence, Garfagnana was long contested and fortified: castles and fortresses still mark its towns, such as the Rocca Ariostesca in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, home in the sixteenth century to the poet Ludovico Ariosto, sent there as governor by the Duke of Ferrara, where he also worked on the Orlando Furioso. Bagni di Lucca instead developed its own identity linked to thermal bathing, becoming in the nineteenth century one of Europe's most fashionable spa towns, favoured by English and European aristocracy. Barga, historically tied to Lucca, kept cultural links with Scotland due to the strong emigration of its people in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Landscape and Nature
Much of Garfagnana lies within the Apuan Alps Regional Park and the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines National Park, two protected areas that preserve very different landscapes: the dolomite-like peaks and karst caves of the Apuan Alps, including the famous Grotta del Vento near Fornovolasco, and the grassy ridges, beech woods and peat bogs of the Apennines, as in the Orecchiella reserve. The Serchio river runs through the whole valley, also feeding the artificial lakes of Vagli and Isola Santa, while chestnut woods, once essential to the local diet, still cover wide stretches of the slopes. It is a wild landscape, popular with hikers, porcini mushroom pickers and trekkers following its many marked trails.
Villages and Places to See
Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, with its Rocca Ariostesca and a historic centre gathered around the Fortezza di Mont'Alfonso, is the valley's main administrative and commercial hub. Barga, perched on a hill, preserves the fine Romanesque Duomo of San Cristoforo and one of the area's most evocative medieval centres. Bagni di Lucca retains the atmosphere of its nineteenth-century spa, the Ponte delle Catene chain bridge and period villas along the Serchio. Gallicano is the gateway to the Grotta del Vento, while Camporgiano is dominated by its fortified rocca, and Piazza al Serchio, in the upper valley, is a starting point toward the Apennine passes and the sanctuary of San Pellegrino in Alpe.
Food, Wine and Traditions
Garfagnana's cuisine grew out of a poor but flavour-rich mountain economy: farro della Garfagnana IGP, grown on small terraced plots, is the base ingredient of traditional soups and broths. Chestnuts, dried in stone huts called metati, become neccio flour for necci, thin wafers cooked between two hot discs, still prepared at village festivals. Porcini mushrooms, chestnut honey, cured meats such as biroldo, and cheeses from small local dairies complete the table. Autumn festivals dedicated to chestnuts, mushrooms and farro punctuate the calendar of the villages, while old transhumance paths tell of a bond between the community and its mountain land that is still very much alive.
Not to be missed
- Grotta del Vento cave near Fornovolasco, in the municipality of Gallicano, one of Italy's most spectacular show caves
- Rocca Ariostesca in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, once home to the poet Ludovico Ariosto
- Duomo di San Cristoforo in Barga, a Romanesque gem overlooking the valley
- The Ponte delle Catene chain bridge and the historic 19th-century spa of Bagni di Lucca
- The sanctuary and ethnographic museum of San Pellegrino in Alpe, on the border with Emilia-Romagna
To see
What to see in Garfagnana
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Routes in Garfagnana
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