Castiglione di Garfagnana is one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. As soon as we arrived there we understood why it was included in this prestigious classification.
When you arrive from the bottom of the valley, you find it in front of you on the hill with all its elegance, its fortified walls and towers, make it an open-air postcard.
We park a little outside the village and start the visit in its interior.
This is what its walls look like from the outside, mammoth walls that must have protected and guarded great treasures in the past.
In its interior, the narrow streets remind us of the villages of our ancestors, where at every corner grew small stores of artisans. Even today a few small traces remain.
We decide to follow our own ideological path that allows us to discover every glimpse of this small village, passing through the Rocca, the Chiesa della Corba and through the external gates of the village, to remind us how, for defensive reasons, access was limited.
What was it like to live in defense of the Rock in the past? We have asked ourselves this question, but the answers could be many and everyone could have their own vision, so we like to imagine ours and let you make your own idea too.
At the moment, the tower of the Rocca is not accessible to the public but the sure view would be unique. We try to discover it and show it to you from below.
To get to the Corba Church you have to exit from the Porta degli Inferi, a very evocative name, and walk downhill for a few minutes.
In a state of abandonment, a pity, but when it was still active it must have been really beautiful inside. From here departed safe processions to the village.
But Castiglione is not only this! There is also an alley dedicated entirely to opera, where some of the most famous pieces in the world are remembered.
And that’s not all, because Castiglione was also the birthplace of the first man who began to fly in the skies.
Think that in the ‘700 Leonardi flew to England with the balloon he designed, a genius of other times.
We still haven’t convinced you to come for a ride? The whole valley deserves a ride, a taste or simply a moment in which to stop and listen to what places like this have to tell us.
Trail Type: asphalt
Water: two fountains at the entrance to the village
