The furthest north area of the Tuscany region, at the border between Liguria and the Po valley, hides an ancient history that's in the air in the fortified villages and the castles. Already two centuries b.c. there were Roman settlements in the town of the Luni and then there were Byzantines, Longobards and many of the great families that have dominated Italy.

Through this area a part of the Via Francigena unwinds, a road born in the centuries uniting the various parts of Roman roads which then, in the medieval period, became the main connection artery sing the natural corridor passage between the north and the south of Italy: from the pass of the Cisa, passing through the towns of Pontremoli, Aulla until reaching Massa and then continuing through to Lucca and Siena.

And in the Midlle Ages where moving implied days, if not weeks of travelling, reception structures, villages, castles and ecclesiastical settlements were built as well as for logistical, strategic and defensive reasons, to assist the pilgrims and the travellers who journeyed along that way.

A trail disseminated with castles and fortified villages, castled on the slopes of mounts and hills to dominate the valley, built by the families that followed each other throughout the centuries to maintain domination of a heavily trafficked road: Estensi and Malaspina, Medici and Ariberti.

The castle of the Malaspina di Fosdinovo (in the picture), a majestic building erected already before 1200 by Spinetta Malaspina il Grande. Battlements and bays run along the quadrangular perimeter of the imposing castle, only pausing at the bastions. The castle can be visited every day (9-11 and 15-17 in the winter; 12-12 and 16-18 in the summer) except Tuesdays.

Continuing you meet the Villafranca castle, which also belonged to the Malaspina family, of which today imposing remains are left. In the municipality of Aulla, as soon as you pass the border with Liguria you will meet the Village of Caprigliola and the imposing Fortezza della Brunella built around 1500. And to conclude the brief itinerary a pause in Fivizzano, the municipality that gathers in it the culture that is most traditionally Tuscan, that of the family de' Medici, who dominated the Fivizzano area until the cessation of the grand-ducal domain leaving evident signs of renaissance culture.
(Photo taken from the site of the municipality of Fosdinovo)

March.2002

Via Francigena
Municipality Fosdinovo