Tuscany is preparing to celebrate the Carnival with many amusing events organized in next weeks in the main cities as well in the tiny villages of the region.
From the great and famous Carnival parades in Viareggio to the events in smaller towns, such as the Carnival at Mugello in Dicomano or San Gimignano, there are a lot of funny and colorful appointments for both adults and children.

Viareggio and its famous allegoric floats

Viareggio offers one of the most famous Carnival parade in Italy. Its allegorical floats in paper mache animate every year the seaside avenues of the city, well known as “La Passeggiata”.
On Saturday 19 a cerimony will officially open this Viareggio Carnival 2011. The real parades will take place around 3 pm on Sunday 20 and 27 of February, March 6 (Sunday) and Thursday 8. The final parade on March 13 will start at 5pm. The events required entry tickets.The Viareggio Carnival is really a funny (a bit crowded) event, enjoy a short video of one of its past masked parade.

Carnival in the Mugello Area

During next weekends in the beautiful area of Mugello, not far from Florence, several fun events will animate the characteristic villages of Dicomano, Vicchio (on February 26), Borgo San Lorenzo and San Piero a Sieve (on February 26). In Dicomano and Borgo San Lorenzo the appointment with the colorful masks and floats is on 20 and 27 of February and 6 and 8 of March.

Other events in Tuscany:

Carnival will celebrate in San Mauro a Signa, close to Florence, on 20 and 27 of February and in the historical center of San Casciano Val di Pesa on the February 20. The medieval San Gimignano, with its famous ancient tower-houses, will host a Carnival parade on 20 and 27 of February and on 6 of March.

In Foiano della Chiana (not far from Arezzo) is organized one of the most ancient italian Carnival parade. This year the shows will take place on 20, 27 of February and on 6 and 13 of March. Entrance fee.

Carnival confetti, masks and fancy costumes will fill up the historical center of Castelnuovo Garfagnana on 26,27 of February and 6 of March.

These are only few of all the Carnival events you can join in visiting Tuscany in next weeks, you’ ll certainly find one close to you! It’s time to dress up and have fun: enjoy the Tuscan Carnival!

Lunigiana is the Land of Castles: this is the Castle of Malgrate

Even if we’ve been exploring Tuscany for years now, both for work and pleasure (overall for pleasure ), we still had never visited the area called Lunigiana at the very far northwestern edge of Tuscany.
We set out to change this last week, taking a week’s vacation and staying near Aulla at the Convivium Pow Wow Lunae farmhouse.

We are organizing our photos and notes about the trip to be able to tell you more about what we saw but in the meantime I wanted to share our first impressions.

The Lunigiana is the furthest corner of Tuscany, in the northwest almost in the Liguria region: a Tuscan can right away hear the regional accent giving way to the closer coastal area’s way of speech
Even if it isn’t the most popular in terms of visitors, Lunigiana has a bit of everything: the splendid Apuan Alps shared with the Garfagnana valley; the sea, from the Versilia to the Cinque Terre; over 100 castles with their villages sitting atop the hills; excellent local food products and a richness from the historical point of view that surprised us.

We had started off with the idea of spending several days outdoors and visiting the main towns. We weren’t disappointed in what we saw. We were able to do three beautiful outdoor hikes, one starting at Passo del Cerreto, another from Campo Cecina and the longest and most beautiful from Equi Terme to the spectacular Valle di Vinca which offered breathtaking views of the mountains below the Pizzo d’Uccello.

The Pizzo d'Uccello Peak, above the valley around the town of Vinca

At Equi Terme, the caves offer a suggestive, interesting environment and surely merit a visit, as well as its small museum. Within the caves, numerous remains of Neanderthal men were found as well as over 800 skeletons of giant cave bears. Observing the impressive 3 meter tall bear reproduction one tries to imagine how difficult those times must have been. The day after, within the silence of the woods on the way to Vinca, we were surprised by the unexpected grunting of a large wild boar just a few meters away from us along the trail. Guaranteed shivers followed the initial fleeting thought of having encountered the last of the cave bears in the area.
All of Lunigiana is a paradise for anyone who loves spending time outdoors, and next time we plan to take our mountain bikes along.

Among the towns we visited, we particularly liked and recommend Fivizzano and Pontremoli. Fivizzano for its Museo della Stampa or Museum on Printing and for its central role in the history of printing and diffusion of books. Pontremoli is likely the most charming town in Lunigiana, the most organized to welcome tourists and with the only castle we truly managed to visit, the Castle of the Piagnaro, seat of the very interesting Museum of the Statue Stele.

The famous and magical "Statue Stele"

Let’s not forget the “food” aspect of the area, always an important, pleasureable part of any vacation… Among the typical products of the area is the famous bread from Vinca which together with local cold cuts and cheeses provided energetic support during our hikes. The honey from Lunigiana is also well-known for its purity and several jars made the trip back home with us. From pizza to pasta, we managed to have great meals in the area.

Something we didn’t really like at all? The Marble quarries above Carrara. They might be considered a suggestive scene to witness, much like the black oil waves of the Gulf of Mexico might be since the oil spill this past April. The truth is that the mountains are being eaten away at an unsustainable pace, not even for its great blocks of marble but for the production of calcium carbonate for industrial use! With an irreparable destruction of one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. If it is true that the quarries give work to so many people, it is also true that sooner or later it will end and an exploitation of the area from a “tourism” standpoint would be much more sustainable for the future of the Apuan Alps rather than its short-sighted destruction.

A week was not enough to get to know this area, rich in history, natural parks, and wilderness – we’ll surely return soon!

Marble Quarries of Carrara

Greetings! Today we are in Garfagnana, a wonderful green area in northern Tuscany near Lucca that we were planning to visit for some time now. Our plan is to stay three-four days and do some hiking (Garfagnana is one of the best places in Tuscany if you like to walk up mountains!) and visit some of its small towns. We are staying in Gallicano, at the Bed and Breakfast Eliseo which is a very nice family-run small hotel right in the center of the town. We didn’t have a chance yet to visit Gallicano properly, today is the town’s yearly festival celebrating the patron saint of San Jacopo and everyone was busy with bringing together last minute details and preparing the parade floats, and the streets were closed to cars. We spent the afternoon visiting the Grotta del Vento (Wind Cave) a really interesting carsic cave not far from Gallicano, about 11 km. The cave is covered by extraordinary formations like stalactites and stalagmites, and you can admire underground streams and huge caverns. The calcaric formations are elaborate and grand, standing in the first part of the cave you have the impression of being in a natural cathedral. The managers of the cave were very kind in giving us a lot of printed informational guides, so will certainly write about it as we learn more as well as returning to visit again soon!

We had a very good dinner at Eliseo’s restaurant (we had tagliattelle al cinghiale or boar sauce and tortelli al ragu, yum!) and then we watched the parade that is part of the Gallicano Festival. In the Palio di San Jacopo, the three areas of the city compete against each other in the creation of the best parade floats and costumes and performances. We were really impressed with the complexity and beauty of the costumes, as well as the choreographed dances of the participants. We definitely have to learn more about this palio and we’ll let you know what we find out! Here are a few pics from tonight and off we go to bed…