Montignoso

Castello Aghinolfi

Castle · paid entry · 44.00916, 10.16701

the fortress on the limestone hill between the hamlets and the sea, on the panoramic road that runs from Montignoso to Strettoia. The oldest part is the octagonal keep, which Alfredo d'Andrade in the nineteenth century considered one of the most interesting Lombard military monuments in Italy and which recent dating places between the eleventh and the twelfth century, on top of the remains of an older tower. You enter the first courtyard, where the inhabitants' refuge houses stood, and climb a ramp cut into the rock to the parade ground and the keep, joined to the San Paolino bastion, with its spiral staircase and the remains of the battlements. Inside the octagon is the museum: the phases of the castle, a virtual reconstruction in the restored keep and a glass floor over the layers of the ancient floors, with some finds. The Comune restored it and reopened it on 1 April 2001, after decades in the woods. From the terrace you see the coast from Tuscany to Liguria, and Wikipedia writes that on clear days you can see as far as the Maritime Alps. In summer it is visited in the evening, with the refreshment point serving aperitifs at sunset with local wines and products. The rooms, the Istituto writes, are difficult for people with a disability

Opening hours according to the Istituto Valorizzazione Castelli, in 2026 until 13 September Tuesday to Sunday 18:00-23:00, from 14 September to 31 October Sunday 10:00-18:00 · according to the Istituto Valorizzazione Castelli, in 2026, 5 euros, reduced 3 euros from 7 to 15 years, free up to 6 years; the guided tour is included · 0585 816245 · istitutovalorizzazionecastelli.it

Church of Santi Vito e Modesto

Church · free entry · 44.01801, 10.17563

via Fondaccio, 54038 Montignoso (MS)

the parish church of the hamlet of Piazza, on the square in via Fondaccio, a few steps from the town hall. It holds the triptych by Michele Ciampanti, a painter from Lucca, with the Madonna and Child among Saints John the Baptist, Vitus, Modestus and Peter, painted between 1482 and 1483 for the old parish church of Montignoso, which no longer exists: nothing is left of the original frame, and the long, slender saints have what Wikipedia calls a "rustic Botticellism". Nobody publishes the church's opening hours

Villa Schiff Giorgini and the Gothic Line Documentation Centre

Museum · 44.01813, 10.17650

via Fondaccio 11, 54038 Montignoso (MS)

the villa of the Giorgini, the family who with the Sforza and the Bertagnini were the political and cultured nobility of Montignoso over the last two centuries; today it is the town hall. The garden goes down in terraces with short flights of steps to the nymphaeum, with music-playing cherubs and a small fountain, and in the park there are giant magnolias, a camphor tree, pines and palms, some among the first exotic species brought to Italy. On the ground floor is the Gothic Line Documentation Centre: helmets, uniforms, ammunition, documents and the filmed accounts of people who survived the war on the Apuan and Versilia front. The Comune does not publish the Centre's opening hours

0585 82711 · comune.montignoso.ms.it

Church of Sant'Eustachio

Church · free entry · 44.02412, 10.17916

frazione Sant'Eustachio, 54038 Montignoso (MS)

the church of the upper hamlet of Sant'Eustachio, the old medieval settlement called Villa di Mezzo, built at the end of the thirteenth century: a single hall with two side altars of the seventeenth century. Inside there are two things to look for: a wooden Madonna and Child from the very first years of the fourteenth century, which Wikipedia attributes to the circle of Giovanni Pisano and Visit Tuscany to Tino di Camaino, and the altarpiece by Vincenzo Frediani of 1495, still in its Renaissance frame, with the Madonna among Saints Eustace, John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene and Vitus and the stories of Saint Eustace in the predella. Nobody publishes the church's opening hours

The Pasquilio and the chiesina dei Partigiani

Viewpoint · free entry · 44.03137, 10.19246

the spot at an altitude of about 800 metres, above the village, among chestnut and fir woods, where the road climbing up from Cerreto ends. From here you see the Apuan and Versilia coast from Viareggio to the headland of Monte Marcello and the island of Palmaria, and on clear days the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago and Corsica; behind are the peaks of the Apuan Alps from the Altissimo to the Sagro. The little church of Santa Maria Regina della Pace, the partisans' chapel, was begun by the Resistance on 1 April 1944, and the building work served to hide the comings and goings of men and vehicles of the Patrioti Apuani, the Apuan Patriots; it was finished after the war. Just before the Pasquilio is the monument to the Patrioti Apuani, where the trails to the Folgorito and the Carchio start. There is a drinking fountain

Monte Folgorito and the Gothic Line positions

Trail · free entry · 44.01955, 10.20184

the 912 metre mountain where on 5 April 1945 the Japanese American soldiers of the 442nd Regiment, together with the Apuan partisans, launched a surprise attack at dawn and in little more than half an hour broke through the Gothic Line. You climb from the monument to the Patrioti Apuani, below the Pasquilio, on CAI trail 140: you cross a ravaneto, the debris slope of a quarry, and after about 1500 metres you reach a clearing below the summit, where the Gothic Line monument stands. Between the Carchio and the Folgorito you can still see five German fortifications and dozens of holes, trenches and caves: at the top of the Folgorito a cave where the soldiers rested and a trench more than thirty metres long that goes down to an observation post. The summit cross is the largest in the Apuan Alps, and from up there on clear days you can see from Elba to the French border. The boundary with Seravezza runs across the summit

Monte Carchio and the via di lizza

Trail · free entry · 44.03503, 10.20168

the 1082 metre mountain that closes the valley of Montignoso, the highest point of the municipality. On its slopes are the disused marble quarries and the via di lizza del Carchio, the steep track down which the marble came on the lizza, the wooden sledge held back with ropes. It was one of the objectives of the April 1945 offensive, with the Folgorito and the Belvedere. You climb from the Pasquilio, on the trails that pass by the Gothic Line positions

Oasi del Lago di Porta

Park · free entry · 43.99454, 10.16782

the marsh with its lake between the Aurelia and the sea, halfway between the village and the Cinquale: the last coastal wetland in Tuscany going north, which escaped the land reclamation. It is a protected area divided between Montignoso and Pietrasanta, 159 hectares, with a single set of rules that allows free visits. The water comes from springs at the foot of the cliffs of Porta, one near the Medici tower at about 17 degrees all year round. Almost all of it is reed bed, with little open water, young groves of alders, willows and poplars and a few wet meadows. Grey herons, coots, moorhens and water rails live here, the marsh harrier and the little bittern nest, and you may see the bittern, a heron that is rare all over Europe; in the wet meadows flies the Lycaena dispar, the large copper, an endangered butterfly. At the beginning of autumn the swallows gather on the banks before leaving. From the Cinquale you get there by bicycle: Visit Tuscany describes an easy loop of about 11 km that starts from the mouth of the Versilia and runs on the river embankments and along the shores. In front of the lake, on the Aurelia but already in the municipality of Pietrasanta, is the torre del Salto della Cervia, or tower of Porta Beltrame, which the Medici built between 1568 and 1588 at the point where the via Francigena passed the customs post: today it is abandoned and is seen from outside

The mouth of the Versilia and the little harbour of the Cinquale

Point of interest · free entry · 43.97705, 10.14074

the river Versilia reaches the sea at the Cinquale, and it is the boundary with Forte dei Marmi: on the north bank is Montignoso, on the south bank Vittoria Apuana. Along the river is the harbour of the Cinquale, with its jetties and almost 240 berths for boats up to 30 feet, the harbour light, and depths of 1.5 to 2 metres which make getting in and out difficult when the libeccio and the west wind bring rough seas. On the north bank, near the mouth, a memorial stone and a statue remember the Gothic Line, which began right here; further back stood the Forte Leopoldo, the Medici tower enlarged in 1750, demolished by the Germans. It is the point where the bicycles set off for the Lago di Porta

Green Beach and the lungomare di Levante

Beach · free entry · 43.98006, 10.13844

viale IV Novembre, 54038 Cinquale, Montignoso (MS)

the Comune's free beach, on the lungomare di Levante next to the Comune's beach establishments: it is free of charge and equipped for people with reduced mobility, with reserved parking, a walkway to the sea, two job chairs, beach wheelchairs for getting into the water, tents with platforms, a mobile chair and lifeguards who help people who have difficulty moving; in summer there is also the Punto InfoGreen. The rest of Montignoso's coast is short, and is made up of beach establishments; beyond it Poveromo begins, which is Massa

Massa, the Castello Malaspina

Castle · 44.03231, 10.14631

viale Giacomo Puccini 2, 54100 Massa (MS)

the fortress on the hill above Massa, three kilometres from Montignoso: the seat of the lords of Massa, first the Malaspina and then the Cybo-Malaspina. On the core built by the Obertenghi, in the fourteenth century Castruccio Castracani rebuilt the keep and the towers; at the end of the fifteenth century Jacopo Malaspina and his wife Taddea built the Renaissance palace, with its "umbrella" vaulted rooms, its small loggias and its frescoes. From the end of the nineteenth century to 1946 it was a prison. You see the walls with the bastions and the walkways, the residence around the courtyard and the keep, and from the top the town and the sea. In October 2026 Visit Tuscany lists it as closed for restoration work, with no reopening date: the work, funded by the PNRR, the national recovery plan, is to make it a venue of the Uffizi Diffusi, the Uffizi's network of satellite sites

Istitutovalorizzazionecastelli.it

Massa, the Duomo

Church · free entry · 44.03800, 10.14413

the cathedral of Saints Peter and Francis, born as the church of the convent of San Francesco and a cathedral since 1822, when the diocese of Massa was created. The Cybo rebuilt almost all of it in the second half of the seventeenth century, and behind the right altar of the transept is the Cybo-Malaspina chapel, the family mausoleum. The marble façade dates from 1936, designed by Cesario Fellini. It is a national monument, a stone's throw from the Palazzo Ducale and piazza Aranci

Pietrasanta

Village · 43.95720, 10.23170

piazza del Duomo, 55045 Pietrasanta (LU)

the town of marble and sculptors, eight kilometres away: it was founded in 1255 by Guiscardo da Pietrasanta, podestà of Lucca, at the foot of the Lombard fortress, and in the sixteenth century Michelangelo came here looking for marble. Everything turns around piazza del Duomo: the collegiate church of San Martino, Romanesque Gothic, which holds the icon of the Madonna del Sole; Sant'Agostino, from the fourteenth century, no longer consecrated, with the cloister that houses the Museo dei Bozzetti, the plaster models of the sculptors who have worked in the town, Botero included; the archaeological museum in Palazzo Moroni. In piazza Matteotti is Botero's Warrior, in piazzetta del Centauro Mitoraj's Centaur. From the square a path climbs along the walls to the Rocca di Sala, from where you see the plain from Viareggio to Forte dei Marmi

Seravezza, the Palazzo Mediceo

Monument · 43.99387, 10.23201

viale Leonetto Amadei 230, 55047 Seravezza (LU)

the villa that Cosimo I de' Medici had built between 1560 and 1564 where the Serra and the Vezza meet, to hold the border and keep a close eye on the marble quarries and the silver mines he had brought back into use; the architect is not known, some say Ammannati and some the young Buontalenti. It has the corners and arrow slits of a fortress, Bianca Cappello and Christina of Lorraine stayed here, then it was a prison and the town hall until 1966. Since 2013 it has been a UNESCO World Heritage site with the Medici villas and gardens of Tuscany. Inside is the Museo del Lavoro e delle Tradizioni Popolari della Versilia Storica, the museum of the work and folk traditions of the historic Versilia, opened in 1996, with the tools, machines and models of the quarrying and working of the marble of the Altissimo; in 2026 it turns thirty. Exhibitions and concerts are held in the stables

Opening hours according to the Fondazione Terre Medicee, from 1 September 2026, Monday to Friday 9:00-13:00 · 0584 757443 · terremedicee.it

Sant'Anna di Stazzema and the National Park of Peace

Museum · free entry · 43.97359, 10.27334

via Coletti 22, 55040 Sant'Anna di Stazzema (LU)

the village in the hills above Pietrasanta where on 12 August 1944 the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division killed more than five hundred civilians, about a hundred and thirty of them children. Since 2000 it has been the Parco Nazionale della Pace, the National Park of Peace, and since 2024 it has held the European Heritage Label. The Museo Storico della Resistenza, the historical museum of the Resistance, is in the old primary school, near the church square: it was opened by President Pertini in 1982, the displays date from 2007, and on the façade there is a reproduction of part of Guernica and Calamandrei's epigraph to Kesselring. It is open all year and admission is free. There is only one road up, narrow for ten kilometres: the museum writes that vehicles longer than ten metres cannot get through and advises not to follow the satnav. On foot you climb from Valdicastello on CAI trail 4

0584 772025 · santannadistazzema.org