I'm Stefano, and I guide people through the Tuscany most tourists never see. Want to hike in Tuscany with me?
Walking Tuscany like a local comes down to timing. The same ridge that’s perfect in May will cook you in August. A road full of marble trucks on a Tuesday is silent on Saturday, and the woods I’d take you to in October have nothing to show in March.
I guide in the north of the region, between Lucca, Pistoia, Prato and Florence, and this is the calendar I keep in my head when someone writes to me with dates. Use it to pick a walk yourself, or send me your dates at the end and I’ll pick it with you.
When It’s Too Hot to Be Outside
On the days Florence goes past 35 degrees, the hill towns and the open countryside are the wrong place to walk. In July and August I take people up into a beech forest in the mountains, where the path is easy, the canopy closes overhead and the air is about ten degrees cooler than in the city you left that morning. Which forest depends on where you’re staying, so that one I’ll tell you when you write.
What I’d avoid in high summer is anything without shade. The Calvana ridge above Prato is open grass from end to end, and the Balze near Arezzo are pale sand that throws the heat back at you, so on both we start early or pick another month.
When the Refuge at the Lake Is Open
Lago Scaffaiolo lies at 1,775 metres on the ridge between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. There’s been a refuge at its edge since 1878, and today’s Rifugio Duca degli Abruzzi is the latest of several rebuilds. On the days it’s open, lunch is a hot plate in a stone refuge with the wind pushing at the windows. I’ve had tagliatelle with porcini there in June, after a morning on the crest path. Before we go I check whether it’s serving. If it isn’t, we eat our own food outside by the water.
Lago Scaffaiolo
Once you’re up, the path runs along a broad, grassy crest to the lake, with Tuscany on one side and Emilia-Romagna on the other.
- About 6 hours
- €240 per group
- Shorter or longer day on request
Medium · 9.5 km (5.9 mi) · 370 m (1,214 ft) ascent
View this hikeWhen the Porcini Are Up
From September to November the woods change their purpose for a lot of people here. On an October Saturday the lay-bys at the edge of the beech woods fill with cars. My mushroom day runs only in those three months. I take you to woods I know and teach you to read the ground and identify what we find, and the places stay between us: none of them is named on this site. Everything about the day, including what we can and can’t touch, is on the mushroom foraging page.
When the Stags Are Calling
The Acquerino reserve above Pistoia is known across Italy for its red deer. In autumn the stags call through the valleys during the rut, and you may hear them from the path long before anything moves among the beeches. Whatever the deer do, you get the forest, the streams crossing the path and the stones of a village abandoned eight centuries ago.
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 hikeWhen the Hawthorn Flowers
In spring the Calvana ridge above Prato turns white. Hawthorn grows all over its high pastures, and a herd of horses lives among it, free, unfenced and unfed. In my experience it’s very unlikely to walk the ridge and not meet them. It’s the closest real climb to Florence. I’d do it in spring, before the summer heat makes an open ridge hard work.
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 hikeWhen It’s a Weekend
The Marmifera del Corchia in the Apuan Alps is a road cut to bring marble down the mountain, and on weekdays the trucks still use it. On Saturdays and Sundays it goes quiet, and you walk past working quarries with Viareggio and the sea below you. If your dates fall on a weekend near the coast or near Lucca, this is the one to grab.
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 hikeWhen It’s Winter
The high ridges are a different proposition in the cold months, with ice on the paths and short days. The walk I’d send you on instead starts ten minutes from Lucca station: the Nottolini aqueduct, about 460 arches running across the plain towards Monte Pisano. In winter the trees are bare, you see the whole line of the arches, and you often have the path to yourself. No car needed, and it works in any month.
Nottolini Aqueduct
The aqueduct doubles as a sundial. Once a day the light runs straight down its corridor of arches, at a time that shifts through the year.
- About 3 hours
- €165 per group
- Reachable by train
- Longer route to a view over Lucca, on request
Easy · 9.1 km (5.7 mi) · 50 m (164 ft) ascent
View this hikeNot Sure Which One Fits Your Dates?
That’s the question I answer most often. Tell me when you’re coming, where you’re staying and how much walking you’re used to, and I’ll suggest the walk that fits that week, including the ones that aren’t on this page. Every walk is private and priced per group, not per person, and each card above shows its price.
If you don’t have a car, tell me when you write and I’ll help you find a solution.
Tell Me Your Dates
Write to me through the contact form or on WhatsApp with your dates, where you’re staying and how many of you are coming, and I’ll suggest the walk that fits your week. Nothing is booked until you’ve seen my reply.