A route suitable for gravel bikes in the truest and wildest Garfagnana, among abandoned villages, lakes, and beech forests so shady they make you shiver with cold even in summer!
Garfagnana is a geographical area north of the province of Lucca and lies between the Apennines and the Apuan Alps, with an enormous variety of landscapes, flora and fauna.
It is an area rich in forests, streams and lakes and characterized by an extensive network of dirt roads, secondary roads and trails. The perfect place for an overnight gravel ride!
Our post-lockdown fitness is poor, and we wanted a nice trail with scenic dirt trails without overdoing the distance and elevation gain.
We’ve included a few lakes and streams, so those who want to do some bike fishing can have fun pulling out salmonids like it’s raining (respecting, of course, the various regional and individual area rules if you’re fishing in a specific regulation area).
You go from beech forests so dense and high you need a shirt, to sunny valleys perfect for riding at sunset, bathed in postcard-perfect golden light.
And because we are not race riders, but rather like to enjoy all the pleasures the area has to offer, there are a variety of tasty restaurants and stores along the way.
We recommend the polenta with mushrooms or with wild boar at the Lamastrone Oasis, where we stayed overnight, and again in Sillano, before we take the climb to the oasis there is an excellent pork butchery that makes knockout sausages and 0-kilometer cheeses!
In short, an overnight not at all frugal indeed: DELUXE!
Ah, the golden eagles we really saw, but we were so stunned that we couldn’t photograph them, unfortunately.
