> This itinerary is made up of two loops that intersect in the village of Poggio, where we’ll also find the railway station (Poggio-Careggine-Vagli) and from where we can leve to shorten the path by 15 kilometers.

1 The Apuan Alps are the protagonists of this loop-shaped trail in Garfagnana, along which we will discover the splendid landscapes that characterize this area. From Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, where the Rocca Ariostesca fortress and the Mont’Alfonso Fortress bear witness to the importance of the Este domination in the valley, we take the Strada d’Arni, which is very popular with two-wheels lovers.

1 The path of the Counties of spelt starts from Piazza al Serchio, the most important municipality in Upper Garfagnana. A crossroads of roads entering the valley from the Pradarena Pass and the Carpinelli Pass, the town stands at the confluence of the two arms of the Serchio river, which from the “doglioni di Sala” (the doglioni are volcanic black rocks), with its course, draws the valley as far as Lucca and flows, after 111 kilometers, into the Tyrrhenian Sea at Bocca di Serchio.

1 In Garfagnana, among chestnut forests and mountain landscapes, nature dominates unchallenged. However, hidden among the mountains are also numerous ancient villages: small treasures that characterize the valley and tell of the territory’s medieval past. Along this loop itinerary by bike, we will ride exploring some of these fascinating localities.

1 This is how Giovanni Pascoli defined the Serchio Valley, while in his “bicocca,” his house in Castelvecchio, he wrote poems such as L’ora di Barga, X Agosto, La Cavallina Storna. This is precisely the area covered by our itinerary, a loop-shaped route to explore the so-called “Valle del Bello e del Buono”.

1 We start from the train station, where the bars of the nearby level crossing still seem to mark the obligatory entrance to the lands of Fosciandora. In fact, we are in the locality of Ponte di Ceserana, the only access road to the municipal territory. Beyond the bridge, the road system divides into a network of narrow, winding and little-used municipal roads that reach the small villages, cleverly built, in a defensive position, on top of the hills.

1 Within the drainage basin of the Serchio river there are as many as 12 artificial reservoirs for hydroelectric power generation, small dams and large lakes that characterize the landscape of the valley.

1 The Giro d’Italia passed through San Pellegrino in Alpe as many as four times putting the most famous climbers to the test, and every year the extreme challenge is repeated for hundreds of amateur cyclists.