The Lunigiana and Serchio Valley

Strabo called them the "mountains of the moon”, but they are commonly known as panie, from the name of a number of the higher peaks, the shapes of which were familiar to sailors on the upper Tyrrhenian Sea. In any case, for those arriving from the north along the valley of the Magra or those travelling along the coastal plain, the Apuan Alps immediately stand out as a feature of the landscape that will continue to be visible for over a hundred kilometres, not only forming the backdrop to the coastal towns and beaches, but also constituting a factor that has had a major influence on the development of the area. In the intensely cultivated plain, the towns of Carrara, Massa, Pietrasanta and Camaiore are aligned parallel to the sea, each with its marina, now crowded seaside resorts. The Apuan Alps, regarded in the past as rugged, inaccessible mountains, are today, both on the Tyrrhenian side and the inland slopes facing the Lunigiana and the Garfagnana, an area of outstanding interest for tourism, not only due to the presence of the quarries and marble works, but also for the numerous opportunities they offer to nature lovers, speleologists and hikers. In addition there are numerous works of art and historic buildings bearing witness to the area's past importance as a borderland controlling the passes on the main routes from the Po Valley to central Italy.

It is sufficient to travel roughly twenty kilometres, from the mouth of the Magra to the Cinquale, to get a very clear idea of the main features of the first stretch of the Tuscan coast. In a strip of land just five or six kilometres wide there's a remarkable variety of landscape between the sea and the first foothills of the Apuan Alps: the wide sandy bea-ches, the sand-dunes and then the pinewoods that once covered the whole of the coastal plain. The bathing concessions now occupy a large part of this splendid shore, but it's still possible to find areas where nature still predominates. In spring the dunes become a spontaneous garden, giving the lie to the belief that nothing grows on sand. The delicate flowers of the sea bindweed and rock rose cover the natural undulations of the beaches. Just a short distance inland, the huge extent of the marble quarries has made a major contribution to the modelling of the landscape, transforming the appearance of the valleys even when they have been worked out or abandoned.