Italy Trip - Day 8: Barga to Garfagnana

It was a tough day. In the morning, we started cycling around 9 AM after a hotel breakfast. The ride was hilly and slow going (well, at least for me). The main benefit of these hilly rides are the views, and they did not disappoint.

Soon we reached a small town where we took a break and had some coffee and chocolates at a historic chocolate-maker shop in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana. I can't say that this was the best coffee and cookies I have ever tried, but after a long ride, sugar was what I needed

The town itself was really old too. In fact, its first mention dates back to the 8th century. Indeed, it was another of those cobblestone towns with small shops and almost non-existing streets.

I could not resist another gelato, which did not disappoint. We continued our journey to our picnic, and shortly were at another small village where the tour guide had our picnic ready. After a brief lunch, I had a little time to explore the village, probably the oldest I have ever seen! For some reason, I did not take any pictures of the village, but you can see it on the video below.

I thought that we didn't have much distance left till we get to the hotel. And that was true, we checked in in the middle of the day, and then headed uphill to see the castle. A lot of people in the group decided to take the assistance vehicle provided by the tour, but I decided I wanted to cycle uphill. This was hard, really hard.

At the top of the hill, we visited Verrucole Fortress, quite impressive on the outside, but unfortunately closed. The views were probably the best of the whole trip.

The ride back (and downhill) was exhilarating! There is something to say about accomplishing difficult things, you feel so much about rest afterwards. Our hotel had a restaurant, probably the only one in the area, so we decided to have dinner there. It was ok, nothing too special. Below are the day's stats.