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Cinque Terre and Tuscany cooking Tour (3
nights)
Tuscany Cooking & Touring Tour
(5 nights)
Tuscany Cooking break (3 nights)
Tuscany Truffles Autumn Cooking & Touring
long week-end (2 nights)
Cinque Terre
The Cinque Terre
5 Terre the villages
5 Terre Marine Park
Trekking 5 Terre
Trek Riviera Levante
La Spezia - Deiva
The Romans
Levanto
Gastronomy 5 Terre
Cinque Terre wine
The Poet's Gulf
Poets' Gulf
La Spezia
La Spezia - the Gulf
La Val di Magra
La Val di Vara
La Via Francigena
Lerici
Lerici itineraries
Luni archeological site
Portovenere
Gastron. Golfo Poeti
Riviera di Levante
Camogli
Levanto
Portofino
San Fruttuoso
Santa Margherita
Sestri Levante
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Madonetta S. Bartolomeo di S. Stefano
Photo (c)
Hermann Werner
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La Val di Magra - Magra Valley
A number of itineraries of varied nature lead out of La Spezia into the Magra
Valley.
If you leave La Spezia by way of Salita di Buonviaggio, you will be
pleasantly surprised by the hillside villages that you encounter - such as
Valeriano and, above all, Vezzano Ligure, an ancient town of illustrious
tradition that was once a seat of noble families.
It slopes down towards the River Magra and Bolano, which stands on a solitary
hill and looks out towards the Lunigiana area.
As you continue along the Buonviaggio road, you cross the river and come to Santo Stefano Magra, which has
a seventeenth-century church.
You then join the Strada della Cisa (the ancient
Pilgrims Way) and eventually come to Sarzana.
The many towns on the opposite
side of the river look onto the valley. Just outside La Spezia stands Arcola
with its turreted castle (now the municipal building) and five-sided tower.
Next
comes Trebiano, a former Episcopal see.
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The Magra begins to widen out as it
approaches its estuary and you will see a series of villas, camp sites and
houses along the riverside. Bocca di Magra lies at the mouth of the river and
stretches down towards the sea along the Caprione promontory.
Fiumaretta lies on
the opposite side of the river and stretches along a golden sandy beach towards
the open sea and Tuscany. Castelnuovo Magra, on the border with Carrara, is
truly picturesque.
Here you can admire the remains of the Malaspina castle where
Dante, as official representative of the Malaspina family, signed the peace
treaty with the Bishop of Luni, Antonio da Camilla, in 1306.
The fine parish church preserves Brueghel's Road to the Cross. The impressive
eighteenth century town hall houses the foremost Vintage Wine Museum of Liguria
and the Lunigiana area.
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Bocca di Magra - Photo (c)
bianca
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Here you can still see the ancient "oil basins" carved
out of white Carrara marble. Also worth mentioning are Ortonovo, with its narrow
mediaeval streets, and Nicola, a very ancient town built on the crest of a hill.
Nearby is the Sanctuary of Mirteto, a favorite destination of pilgrims. The
most important artistic and historic remains are to be found in Luni itself,
with its Roman Amphitheatre, the Basilica, the ruins of the ancient city and the
Archaeology Museum, which was refurbished in 1988.
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Arcola - Photo (c)
Stefano Muzio
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A number of exhibition spaces
have been set aside in the nearby rustic dwellings lying inside the perimeter of
the Roman town, where excavations are still in progress. The section dedicated
to religious architecture has already been completed. Sarzana also has many
artistic and historic remains. This very charming town has a cathedral that
constitutes a veritable artistic mosaic (Romanesque portal, Gothic fronton and
Baroque altars and vault). It preserves priceless paintings by Fiasella, known
as "Il Sarzana" (1600), paintings by Solimena, two ambons by Riccomanno, a "San
Gerolamo" by Andrea della Robbia and a "Crucifixion" from the Lucca school by
Mastro Guitelmo (1138), which is the world's oldest Crucifixion painted on wood.
It is well worth taking your time to visit Sarzana so that you can also take in
its other churches: Sant'Andrea (where recent excavations have brought to light
the ruins of an older church), San Francesco and its remarkable sculptures and
the Church of the Capuchins.
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Then there are the palazzi (Palazzo Picedi has a
splendid wrought iron gate), the castles, the Firmafede fortress and the
fortress of Sarzanello (built by Castruccio Castracani) and the castle keeps.
The town is also famous for its numerous antiques and restoration workshops. In
the month of August the town hosts the National Antiques Exhibition and the "Soffitta
nella Strada", which is an exhibition of antiques laid out along the streets of
the town. There are good accommodation facilities in the Magra Valley,
especially in Sarzana and Marinella. Besides hotels and camp sites, there are
holiday farms, where you can relax and enjoy genuine food in the countryside
just a short distance from the sea.
The numerous beaches are spacious and have plenty of facilities. Water sports
are practiced everywhere and there are many places providing entertainment at
night. Among the many typical dishes of the Magra Valley is "panissa" (a sort of
polenta made from chick-pea flour), herb pies and a dessert called "spongata".
And of course there are plenty of seafood and fish dishes in the restaurants
along the coast. Full of olive groves and vineyards, the valley produces "Colli
di Luni" DOC superior wines: Vermentino, white and rosé wines from the hills of
Castelnuovo Magra and Ortonovo, white and red wines from Bolano, Aleatico from
Sarticola (Castelnuovo Magra), as well as the white wines from Arcola and
Vezzano and Tocai from Arcola. The Magra Valley marks the border between Liguria
and Tuscany and precisely because of its position it is well served by road and
rail transport. There is also a well equipped tourist airport in Luni.
Text courtesy of
APT Cinque Terre
Visite guidate sono disponibili da Laura, guida
ambientale escursionistica genovese - disponibile nelle provincie
di La Spezia, Savona e Genova.
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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