Minucciano

At the north end of Tuscany, you’ll enter a mist-shrouded land of high peaks and deep valleys. This is the Apuan Alps. It’s hardly how you imagine the region, with deep forests of chestnut and oak and hornbeam cascading down from summits of gnarled marble. High up, along hair-pinning bends, little Minucciano crowns one peak. It took its name from a Roman consul and has a roundhouse castle turret at its center. Keep driving into the next valley and there’s Lago di Gramolazzo, perfect for a pizza and wild swim. Next up is Gorfigliano. It sits on the cusp of the Apuan Alps Park where you can hike on untrodden trails to lookouts over Carrara marble quarries and even the Ligurian Sea!