Pontremoli and surroundings

Italy, ohh Italy… what a wonderful country !

From South to North, from East to West Italy, my Italia, is beautiful in every part of it, each one of its 20 regions has its wonders and particularities. In Italy you can find history and art in abundance, stunning mountains and cristalline sea, a huge variety of delicious food, friendly and funny people and entertaining. Nearly every city would deserve to be visited, at least I suppose so, cause I didn’t visit them all… they’re so many! But let’s start from the beginnings.

I’m Elisa, I’m a 22 Italian girl full of energy, desire to explore our magical world and many other things that you can read in the biography page, so… I decided to open this blog to bring you with me during my trips, holidays, travels, crazy travels, long and one day visit. Hope you’ll enjoy 🙂

My region is Emilia-Romagna, more precisely, I come from Imola, where the Formula 1 runs, yeah (and I saw the races in real life cause my house is just inside the circuit!). Now, this could be enough, but no. Actually I no longer live in Imola, only for a few days sometimes, cause my actual home is now no les than the woderfull Toscana, where the man of my life lives, my loved 50 years old Marcello!

It’s been a few months since I started living in Tuscany and I can say that all I’ve seen up to the present is just amazing. That’s why I wanted to start my blog with a place that lives in my heart: Pontremoli and its surroundings.

So, I’m travelling with my boyfriend, who lives in a small city near Montecatini Terme (a very chic city), and from there we make a stop at the beach in Marina di Vecchiano, but you can go as well at the near Torre del Lago or the more sophisticated Viareggio. From any of these beaches you can see at the same time the sea and the mountains: it’s something I think you don’t see every day… so you should give it a try!

But let’s go to the interesting part of our trip.

Marcello’s parents bought him a beautiful little house in Monti, a little village in the apuan mountains near Pontremoli, at 600m on the sea level. From the beach to Pontremoli the landscapes go from carpet of sunflowers to the all green of the mountains. A really breathtaking view. Then, after about 1 hour, we reach Pontremoli. So, what is so special about Pontremoli?

Pontremoli is a small beautiful city in the province of Massa and Carrara, Tuscany region, central Italy.

Literally translated, Pontremoli means “Trembling Bridge” (from the latin words “pons tremulus”: ponte, pons, “bridge” and tremare, tremulus, “to tremble”), as the commune was named after a prominent bridge across the river Magra. Pontremoli is in the upper valley of the Magra, 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of La Spezia by rail and 90 kilometres (56 mi) south-southwest of Parma.

The city is situated in a keypoint between 3 regions: Tuscany, Emilia and Liguria, and assimilates and summarizes the 3 different places. Pontremoli is full of history, and the visitor can find in August the festival Medievalis, where all the people dress in ancient costumes and go back in time to the medieval period. The medieval Castello del Pignaro is a must see of the city, from whose towers the visitor can have a look on the stunning landscape of Pontremoli and its surroundings. Moreover, inside the castle you can find the “Museo delle statue Stele”, where you can observe the particular statues found over the years in the territory of the Historical Lunigiana, one of the most ancient and mysterious heritage of this land.

This beautiful city surrounded by the nature is famous for its typical torta d’erbi, a salted cake made with wild erbs and testaroli al pesto, a kind of pasta dressed with a pesto sauce made of basilico and garlic. The typical dessert is instead the spongata, a delicious cake full of honey, nuts and candied fruits.

The city is also famous as “la città del libro” (the city of the book) because of the huge number of book sellers and because of the “premio Bancarella”, a prize annually awarded to the best book.

We decide to start our visit with a breakfast at the Caffè degli Svizzeri, and then, not full enough, we finish at the Caffè Letterario. We find a book market just near the last Caffè we went to and we spend at least 1 hour flipping through any kind of book that a grumpy oldie sells for a very good prize. Then we visit the astonishing Castello del Piagnaro and the enchanting Museo delle statue Stele.

For lunch we go back home in Monti, at just 10 minutes by car, but you can find in Pontremoli a lot of interesting restaurants where you can try the specialities of the place. After a little nap we wear the boots and we take a raincoat and we start walking into the woods looking for the Cascate di Farfarà, that we are not able to find, despite all the indications given us by some funny native of those mountains. But at the end we are very satisfied of our trekking and picnic into the wild, even if we encountered a storm and got all wet. After getting dried we go to eat a good pizza at the San Giorgio restaurant in Pontremoli, and when we reach our little house, we remain amazed by the beauty of the luminous sky, a stunning enormous carpet of star like I’ve seen before only in the Egyptian desert.

To crown this relaxing and detoxing day, we see a badger exploring the neighbour’s garden and a curious cat observing it. It has been a perfect day, far away from all the problems and the noises of the city life, without internet, Tv, radio and computer, we regenerated as humane beings with the contact with a fresh city full of culture and history and with the ancestral and natural way of living of the little village in the mountains and its long-living inhabitants, bearers of a language, a culture and a lifestyle that can face any difficulty.

To watch some of the photos of the beautiful landscapes seen during this trip go to: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRI1hJHMjeb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link