The Apuan Alps become increasingly rugged the more north one goes. By the time Piazza al Serchio is reached the mountains more than deserve their appellation ‘alp’ as they do not at all look out of place in the Dolomites, such is their rocky jaggedness.

The Pizzo d’Uccello (1,781 m high) stands out among the other peaks of the Apuan Alps above all for its north face, which presents a sheer cliff almost 2,700 feet in height placing it in the same league as the most difficult climbs of the Alps. Indeed, it’s nicknamed the ‘Matterhorn of the Apuans’.

The Pizzo also marks the boundary between the upper Serchio valley (Garfagnana) and the Magra valley (Lunigiana) and, until the first half of the nineteenth century, was on the political border between the Duchy of Lucca and the enclave of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany which included Casola in Lunigiana. Today it marks the border between the provinces of Lucca and Massa and Carrara.

The Pizzo can be accessed by skilled rock climbers via its terrifying north face but it can also be climbed via its gentler south approach from the col known as il Giovetto. In 2005 in the company of two friends and their dog I climbed up from the Serchio valley to the Giovetto and the Foce a Giovo (not to be confused with that other ‘Foce a Giovo’ to the south, described in my post at

https://longoio3.com/2017/10/24/the-grand-dukes-stratospheric-road/).

This is a map of our route. We ascended via paths no 187 and 181 and descended via the purple-coloured track which we had to sometimes share with massive marble bearing lorries.

The day of our ascent was perfect and the footpath, which had some rather dodgy tracts requiring scrambling on all fours, was very pleasant.

The views are absolutely fabulous and, while the Dolomites are of course unbeatable for sheer beauty, these Apuans come up a very close second.

Our descent took us to the Orto di Donna, which should have been once a pleasant valley, but is now somewhat defaced by the excavation of marble.

It’s surrounded by bold peaks including Monte Pisanino (which I’d ascended on a previous occasion), Monte Cavallo, Monte Contrario and Monte Grondilice. I just hope that one day mountain tourism will bring in more money than marble mining, for this whole area is of a surpassing natural beauty and should not be spoilt further.

I’m so glad I did this hike. I was rather fitter than now and I’m not quite sure whether I could manage it again in full. Perhaps I might attempt the ascent from Vinca on the other side of the ridge, a village I’ve described at

https://longoio3.com/2018/01/22/the-flying-mule-track/

Who knows? It would be great to do at least part of this walk sometime for it gives one a truly stupendous stratospheric feeling.