Il paesaggio Lucchese - Lucca - EN 8
CAMMINO – I LUOGHI DI CATARSINI
Lucca is one of the rare cities protected by a continuous wall, accessible via a 4-kilometer suspended walkway. Built during the Renaissance (1513-1650), they are a true urban park: small museums housed in barracks reveal fascinating curiosities about the city’s history, such as the oldest mint in Europe, the crossbowmen who compete in the Palio every year in honor of the patron saint and the Holy Cross, the small but interesting Botanical Garden, and the 19th-century Caffè delle Mura, which ultimately established the walls as an urban park.
Today, they are a favorite spot for Luccans to relax, stroll, and practice sports. For enthusiasts, there’s also a delightful botanical walk among elms, plane trees, tulip trees, the tulip tree, and many others. Poplars, elms, and holm oaks are the native species of this area, found on the oldest bastions or in some areas that have remained unchanged. Lime trees, plane trees, tulip trees, oaks, hackberries, and even some unique plants, including a towering copper beech, a rare South American cypress, a hornbeam grove, a group of holm oaks in a “ragnaia,” catalpa trees (the cigar tree), and a rich collection of magnolias that descend from the Walls to Corso Garibaldi and, in spring, are one of the city’s most anticipated blooms.
Scattered throughout the countryside surrounding Lucca’s city center, you can visit extraordinary villas of noble Italian families and great art patrons, boasting an almost unique architectural style and splendid gardens reminiscent of the much more famous ones at Versailles. These include Villa Reale di Marlia, Villa Olivia-Buonvisi, Villa Grabau, Villa Mansi, Villa Torrigiani, Villa Mazzarosa, Villa Bernardoni, and Villa Garzoni.
THE PARKS
Our route passes several parks, including the three main ones: the Apuan Alps Regional Natural Park to the north, the Migliarino, San Rossore, and Massaciuccoli Regional Parks to the south, and the entire coast overlooking the International Sanctuary for Marine Mammals.
The Apuan Alps Regional Natural Park
Since 2012, it has been part of the UNESCO Global Geoparks network. This protected natural area includes: Garfagnana (territories belonging to the province of Lucca, located on the inland slope of the Apuan Alps), Massa Carrara (territories belonging to the province of the same name), and Versilia (territories of the Province of Lucca on the maritime slope of the Apuan Alps). Four-fifths of the park belong to the province of Lucca. Furthermore, in 2003, the Apuan Alps Regional Natural Park established the Apuan Alps Mining Archaeology Museum System. Of historical interest are testimonies of the Gothic Line, the partisan struggles, and the Second World War, such as the Sant’Anna di Stazzema National Peace Park and the Monte Brugiana Resistance Park. The park also includes the famous marble quarries, where Michelangelo’s favorite white statuary marble is extracted. Versilia boasts a long mountaineering tradition, and excursions are organized in every season. From a hiking, mountaineering, and speleological perspective, the Apuan Alps are a valuable area, rich in paths, via ferratas (the Monte Procinto route, opened in 1893, is the oldest in Italy), climbing routes, and karst caves, often threatened by the quarries. The Antro del Corchia attracts speleologists from around the world. In 2021, the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) proposed establishing an Apuan Cultural Park.
The International Sanctuary for Marine Mammals (Pelagos Sanctuary)
Contrary to popular belief, Versilia faces the Ligurian Sea, not the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the surrounding waters are part of the International Sanctuary for Marine Mammals (Pelagos Sanctuary), as is the Tuscan Archipelago National Park, which is considered the largest marine park in the Mediterranean because it includes seven islands, numerous islets, and rocks that emerge from a large stretch of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The International Marine Mammal Sanctuary (Pelagos Sanctuary) is an international protected area established in 1999 thanks to an agreement between Italy, France and the Principality of Monaco, by which the three signatory countries undertake to protect marine mammals and their habitat, protecting them from the direct or indirect negative impacts of human activities. It is a 96,000 km2 quadrilateral marine area north of the Tyrrhenian Sea, which extends around the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago and is bordered by Provence (Giens Peninsula in France), Punta Falcone in northwestern Sardinia, Capo Ferro in northeastern Sardinia and Fosso Chiarone in Tuscany. Due to the richness of plankton and pelagic life, during the summer months there is an extraordinary presence of cetaceans of all species frequenting the Mediterranean. In 2012, Viareggio was the second Italian signatory of the Partnership.