Arrive independently in Lucca and check into your pre-booked 4-star hotel, the Hotel Ilaria, located just inside the city walls, in the very center of Lucca. Meet your guide and the rest of the group at 3:30 pm in the hotel lobby to depart for an hour-and-a-half guided visit of fascinating Lucca with a specialist city guide. Lucca was an important city in Roman times and later became one of the great city-states of Medieval Tuscany. Reconvene at 18:30 for an aperitivo and then dinner together.  Overnight Lucca at the four-star Hotel Ilaria. The Hike: Urban walking through Lucca. Duration 2.5 hrs.  Hotel, welcome aperitif, and dinner included.

After breakfast, we have a short van ride to the enchanting Villa Reale di Marlia. Considered one of the most important historical properties in Italy, the Villa Reale in fact consists of two Palaces, a 15th-century Italian Renaissance villa and a 17th-century villa with an iconic clock tower. The 30-acre estate features glorious gardens and parkland that were created in the second half of the sixteen hundreds and are  marked by  Italian Renaissance and Baroque  gardens. Once owned and lived in by Napoleon’s sister, and the Bourbon Royal family, this is both a beautiful and fascinating visit. We exit the villa on foot and begin our warm-up hike through olive groves and vineyards to stop at a farm for a wine and olive oil tasting during a light lunch. We return to Lucca in the early afternoon, so you  will have time to relax at the hotel or explore Lucca’s Medieval streets, alleyways, and piazzas before a fun and instructive cooking class with a professional chef. You will want to pay attention because your dinner will be what you cook! The Hike: Villa visit and loop hike. Aproximately 8 km / 5 mls. Elevation gain/loss 141 m / 462ft, Duration: 4 ½  hours; Difficulty: easy. Overnight Lucca. Breakfast, farm lunch, and dinner included.

After breakfast, we have a 09:00 a.m. transfer to the mountains. We stop on the way to admire the medieval Ponte del Diavolo, which has been gracefully spanning the river for 800 years. We continue to the National Park of Orecchiella and start our hike above the tree line.  We have a sustained climb to the top of Pania di Corfino, which, at 1,610m (5,250 ft), is one of the highest mountains of the Apuan Alps. You will be rewarded with wonderful views across the Apennines and as far as Versilia on the Mediterranean coast. We descend a track to Campaiana, a high pasture where, for centuries, shepherds have brought their animals for summer grazing. We have lunch in a small osteria. If it is the mushroom season, the menu features delicious pasta with mushrooms picked that morning from the adjacent forest. We finish our walk at about 4 p.m and transfer to the evocative medieval village of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana. Dating back to the 8th century, Castelnuovo di Garfagnana developed into an important market town during the early medieval period. Most buildings you will see in the historic center date from the 12th and 13th centuries. You will stay at the Hotel Villa Bertagni, a gracious 18th-century country house on the outskirts of town. We will take you for dinner at a cozy local trattoria in the village. The Hike: 12.5 km / 7,8 mls, elevation gain/loss 1000 m / 3280ft, maximum altitude 1.610m / 5.216 ft Duration: 4 ½ to 5 hours; Difficulty: middle-challenging. Overnight Castelnuovo Garfagnana. Breakfast, dinner, and hotel included.

Today, we summit!  After a 35-minute drive, we arrive at a small isolated hamlet whose stone houses and barns are nestled amongst a forest of magnificent old chestnut trees. As you hike through the woods, you will pass a number of metati, small huts where chestnuts were stored and dried before being milled to make the once-local staple of chestnut flour. The trail soon steepens, and you will climb above the treeline towards the barren, rocky summit of Mount Sumbra (1,754 m/5,800 ft), an imposing and spectacular peak. From its summit, you will have a breathtaking view of most of the surrounding mountains of the “Apuan Alps.” We return along the same path but with a different view, of course! We have a picnic lunch today. In ideal conditions, you will savor it from the summit of Monte Sumbra, or perhaps in a more sheltered location off the mountain.  After this challenging and rewarding hike, you will be happy to return to the comfort of the Villa Bertagni where you might even chill out by the pool before dinner in the village.  The Hike: 13 km/8 mls; elevation gain: 1660 m/5,446 ft; Duration: approx. 5  to 6 hours. Difficulty: challenging. Overnight Castelnuovo Garfagnana. Breakfast, picnic lunch, dinner, and hotel included.

A scenic thirty-minute drive brings us to an altitude of 1,525 m/4,880 ft and the village of San Pellegrino in Alpe, the highest village in the Apennines. Formerly a stronghold of the region’s defenses, it is the starting point for today's hike. We follow an ancient mule track through the village and up to the cross of Saint Pelligrino, where the Saint reputedly resisted the devil’s temptations. To this day, pilgrims come here as a sign of devotion and penance. You can atone for your sins by carrying a stone to the site. However, the stone must also reflect the size of your sin! More importantly, the view is wonderful, and the path continues to reward us as we loop back to the village. We have lunch in a rifugio, or back in the village, depending on timing and weather conditions. Before dinner, you will have some free time to explore Castelnuovo. The Hike: 14,20 km/8.85 mls; elevation gain/loss 530m/1.738 ft - maximum altitude 1.715m/5.626ft; Duration: approx. 4 ½ hrs; Difficulty: easy/moderate, hard packed terrain, some in the bush, some on a dirt road. The Challenging Hike option. If the conditions are good, and operationally we can do it (I.e, we have two guides and two vans or everyone in the group wants to do it) then we can offer you the challenging “Via Vandelli” route to the summit of Monte Tambura. The Via Vandelli is a historic commercial and military road built in the 18th century. It is an out-and-back hike.  Distance: 11.80 km / 7.35 mls, max altitude: 6205 ft (1891m), elevation gain/loss: 1033 m/3390 ft Physically challenging with some technical ridge hiking which require good balance and foot placement. Overnight Castelnuovo Garfagnana. Hotel, breakfast, and dinner included.

Today, we take you to Monte Forato peak, “the Pierced Mountain”. This hike is one of the most popular destinations in the Apuan Alps, so we might actually see some other hikers today. This is a beautiful trail that starts from the ancient village of Fornovolasco. You will hike through the village and climb up through the forest, then pastures to get to the natural rock arch that unites two peaks. The “Pierced” mountain is visible from miles around. We will picnic here so you will have time to gaze through the arch at the vast panorama below you. After this rewarding hike, we have a 30-minute drive to our next hotel, an Art Nouveau villa transformed into a small boutique hotel. Original frescoes and furnishings give the villa a special and unique style all its own. The hotel is in the delightful town of Barga. A 10-minute walk will take you into the Old Quarter, where you can explore the medieval walls or enjoy a drink in the piazza. We meet up for dinner in the village. The Hike:  Loop hike - 10 km/6.21 mls; elevation gain/loss 800m/2624 ft – Duration:  approx. 4 to 5 hours hiking; Difficulty: challenging. Overnight Barga. Hotel, breakfast, picnic lunch, and dinner included.

One last fabulous hike awaits us! Follow your guides as they lead you to the summit of Pania della Croce, (1,859 m/ 6,100 ft) for epic views that stretch out across the spine of the Apennines to Versilia on the Mediterranean coast. The trail leads us to a charming mountain Rifugio (hut) that sits in a sunny meadow just above the beech forest. We have lunch here before  descending a section of the famous “Vallone dell’inferno” - “the Hell’s Valley” that can indeed become an inferno during the torrid months of July and August. Worry not; we don’t hike in those months here, and we will soon enter the cool embrace of the beech forest to return to our vans. A short drive brings us back to our comfy hotel for a little downtime before our final aperitif. Our last dinner is at a lovely, family-run restaurant in the center of historic Barga. The menu features an array of tasty traditional dishes complimented by a wine list of excellent local producers. We raise a glass to toast a week of fulfilling hikes, unforgettable vistas, and the camaraderie born of mutual achievement. The Hike:13.5 km/8.40 mls, elevation gain/loss 1.073 m/ 3.380 ft, Duration: approx 4 ½ to 5 hours hiking. Difficulty: challenging. Overnight Barga. Hotel, breakfast, farewell aperitif and dinner included.

The tour finishes after breakfast with one group transfer to the Lucca train station that will arrive in time for ten o’clock trains to other destinations. Travel time to Florence's main train station is 80 minutes. From there you can catch a taxi or a convenient tram to Florence airport. Travel time to Pisa airport from Lucca train station is 50 minutes. If you need an earlier transfer to Florence or Pisa airports, we can make those arrangements for you. Breakfast and one group transfer are included.

Please note: Some details of the itinerary may change according to the departure date of your tour. Whenever we run a tour we make new discoveries. Sometimes they are good discoveries, like a wonderful new trattoria, and sometimes they are bad, like a trail has been washed away. The result is that we sometimes change our itinerary to improve it by adding new wonderful elements to the tour or by removing something that does not work anymore. Rest assured, our goal is to always provide you with the best possible experience. We will advise you of any changes to the original itinerary prior to departure.  

The hikes are quite mountainous, with a fair amount of elevation gain and loss on hiking trails. These are challenging hikes and are not appropriate for first time hikers. We have designed the trip so that there is always some free time in the late afternoon so you can relax, read, or enjoy the towns where we stay. Breakfast is included every day, and dinners reflect the excellent traditional food of the region. Daily distance between 8 and 14 kms.