From pistoia, the mountains on the eastern side

 

If you take the SS64 road you are travelling in the direction of Bologna; this area has the historic Ferrovia Porrettana which was the first rail link across the Apennines between Tuscany and Emilia Romagna. Inaugurated in 1864 by King Vittorio Emanuele II, in its day it was considered a work of impressive engineering with its 47 tunnels and 35 bridges and viaducts for a total length of 99 kilometres.

For anyone who prefers doing the journey by car, there are beautiful landscapes and places to stop off in en route. The ancient Via Francesca della Sambuca is in this area, a Tuscan-Emilian offshoot of the main Via Francigena route (in Collina town, after the tunnel, you can see parts of this ancient road).
If you want to vary your route, after Pavana/Ponte alla Venturina, rather than continuing on to Porretta Terme you can follow the Reno river on SS 632 on your left. You’ll go through some villages which are as characteristic as their names (Molin del Pallone, Lagacci, Frassignoni). The SS 632 road joins the SS Pistoia road after Pracchia station.
You are in the Val d’Orsigna area, one of the very few closed valleys in Italy, where journalist and writer Tiziano Terzani passed the last period of his life.

The inhabited village of Orsigna itself is one of the most interesting in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines from an environmental and landscape point of view. Its isolation has enabled it to safeguard its unique character. The Orsigna valley is, in fact, a GEA trekking destination (375 km itinerary subdivided into 28 stages running along the whole Apennines from Tuscany to Emilia Romagna).

< Comeback to the article list
This website, or the third parties tools it employs, uses cookies, necessary for a correct operation and useful to the purposes shown in the cookie policy. If you want to know further details or to deny the agreement for all or some cookies, please consult the cookie policy.
Closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking on a link or proceeding navigation in any manner, you agree the cookie employment.