I'm Stefano, and I guide people through the Tuscany most tourists never see. Want to hike in Tuscany with me?
Ask Google for the most beautiful places in Tuscany and it sends you to the towns, Siena and San Gimignano and the cypress roads of the Val d’Orcia, which have earned every photo taken of them.
The five below are the landscapes I’d put next to them, and you reach every one of them on foot. They’re all in the north of the region, between the marble mountains above the coast and the Apennine ridge on the border with Emilia-Romagna, within reach of Lucca, Pistoia, Prato and Florence, and I’ve put them in order of effort, from a forest walk with streams crossing the path to a summit at 1,814 metres. Three more, the Lucca aqueduct, the Balze and Lago Scaffaiolo, are in my list of walks most visitors miss.
1. The Acquerino Forest, above Pistoia
The gentlest of the five is a forest. In the Acquerino reserve, in the mountains above Pistoia, the beech canopy closes over the path and the streams keep crossing it; the name comes from acqua, water, and you hear it long before you see it. The reserve is known across Italy for its red deer, and in autumn you may hear the stags calling through the valleys. There’s a stand of Douglas firs planted from 1928 for their seed, and in the woods the stones of Glozano, a village people lived in between the 10th and 12th centuries.
My usual route is a full day with one steady climb, for children who are used to walking. With younger children I keep it easy, down to toddlers carried by a parent, and anyone can ask for a shorter day in the same forest. The card below has the length, the time and the price, and there’s more on the reserve in my guide to the Acquerino.
All gallery images are original photographs taken by me.
Riserva Acquerino
The reserve is famous across Italy for its red deer, and in autumn you may hear the stags calling through the valleys.
- About 6 hours
- €240 per group
- Shorter or longer day on request
Medium-Easy · 10.9 km (6.8 mi) · 375 m (1,230 ft) ascent
View this hike2. The Marble Road of Monte Corchia, Apuan Alps
The Apuan Alps rise straight up behind the Versilia coast, and from the beaches their white quarry faces are easy to mistake for snow. It’s marble. The same range gave Michelangelo the stone for his David, and the quarrying that started under the Romans has never stopped.
The Marmifera del Corchia is one of the roads cut to bring the blocks down. On weekdays the trucks use it, so I walk it on Saturdays and Sundays only, when it goes quiet. You climb past working quarries, which you see from the road and can’t enter. On a clear day you look down on Viareggio and Forte dei Marmi, sometimes as far as Corsica. It’s a short day, but the whole climb comes in the first half. The start is in the mountains inland from Viareggio. I’ve written up the whole day in the marble quarry hike.
All gallery images are original photographs taken by me.
Marmifera del Corchia
The road climbs past active quarries with Viareggio and Forte dei Marmi below you. On clear days you can pick out Corsica.
- About 3.5 hours
- €210 per group
- Saturdays and Sundays only
Medium-Easy · 7 km (4.3 mi) · 420 m (1,378 ft) ascent
View this hike3. The Calvana Ridge and Its Wild Horses, above Prato
The closest of the five to Florence is a grassy ridge rising right behind Prato. A herd of horses lives on top of it. Nobody fences them in and nobody feeds them. I can’t promise you a wild animal, but in my experience it’s very unlikely to walk the Calvana and not meet them. We keep our distance and let them graze. Hawthorn grows all over the high pastures and flowers white in spring. Once you’re above the trees you stay in the open for most of the day, and from Monte Maggiore, at 916 metres, you look down on Prato and across to Florence.
The work is the climb, nearly all of it at the start, and after that the walking along the top is easy, out and back on the same path. The ridge has no shade, so in summer we start early. There’s room for one car at the start, so the whole group, children included, has to fit in it. The horses have their own post, wild horses on the Calvana.
All gallery images are original photographs taken by me.
The Calvana
Hawthorn bushes dot the high pastures where the wild horses graze, and in spring they flower white. Almost nowhere else in Tuscany looks like this.
- About 5.5 hours
- €290 per group
Medium · 9.9 km (6.2 mi) · 560 m (1,837 ft) ascent
View this hike4. Lago Nero, under the Apennine Ridge
Lago Nero lies at 1,730 metres in a basin a glacier carved out under the ridge above Abetone, between the Alpe delle Tre Potenze and Monte Gomito. Nero means black. From most angles the water looks it, and on a still day the surface gives you the peaks back upside down. You get there through beech woods and then open slopes, and a small CAI bivouac stands by the shore.
It’s out and back with a sustained climb, a steady effort for experienced walkers and fit teenagers, and it starts in a small mountain village above Pistoia. I compare it with the other mountain lakes in lakes near Lucca.
All gallery images are original photographs taken by me.
Lago Nero
Nero means black. From most angles the water looks it, and on a still day the surface mirrors the peaks around the basin.
- About 5 hours
- €240 per group
- Longer day on request
Medium · 8 km (5 mi) · 450 m (1,476 ft) ascent
View this hike5. Monte Gennaio, on the Tuscan Border
The hardest of the five is a summit. Monte Gennaio rises to 1,814 metres on the border between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, and the last stretch climbs steeply across open ground. Nothing technical, no ropes and no scrambling, just legs and lungs. From the top you see all the way round, with Corno alle Scale across the gap. Below you lies the Orsigna valley, where the writer Tiziano Terzani went back to spend the last months of his life.
It’s a full mountain day for experienced walkers and fit teenagers, starting from a village high above Pistoia. The same ridge holds Lago Scaffaiolo, and I’ve described a full day up there in hiking in the Apennines.
All gallery images are original photographs taken by me.
Monte Gennaio
From the summit you look down into the Orsigna valley, where the writer Tiziano Terzani spent the last months of his life.
- About 6 hours
- €255 per group
Medium-Hard · 9.5 km (5.9 mi) · 500 m (1,640 ft) ascent
View this hikeWhich One Fits Your Trip
- From Florence or Prato, the Calvana is the closest, for a group that fits in one car.
- From Lucca, Pisa or the Versilia coast, take the marble road, on a Saturday or a Sunday.
- From Pistoia or Montecatini, any of the other three: the Acquerino is the gentlest, Monte Gennaio the hardest.
- With younger children, the Acquerino on its easy version.
- For the widest view, Monte Gennaio. For a lake to sit beside with your lunch, Lago Nero.
None of the five starts has practical public transport. A driver booked through your hotel can take you, and if you don’t have a car, tell me when you write and I’ll help you find a solution.
Prices are per group, not per person, and each card above shows the current one. It covers one to three walkers, and each walker from the fourth adds €5, up to 12 with me alone (on the Calvana, one carload). It’s your group only. On the way I’ll tell you about the land and what grows on it, and help with your photos if you want it.
Frequently asked questions
Walk One of Them with Me
Each of these is a private day for your group only. Write to me through the contact form or on WhatsApp with your dates, where you’re staying, how many of you there are and how much walking you’re used to, and I’ll suggest the one that fits.