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Cinque Terre and Tuscany cooking Tour (3
nights)
Tuscany Cooking & Touring Tour
(5 nights)
Tuscany Cooking break (3 nights)
Tuscany Truffles Autumn Cooking & Touring
long week-end (2 nights)
Cinque Terre
The Cinque Terre
5 Terre the villages
5 Terre Marine Park
Trekking 5 Terre
Trek Riviera Levante
La Spezia - Deiva
The Romans
Levanto
Gastronomy 5 Terre
Cinque Terre wine
The Poet's Gulf
Poets' Gulf
La Spezia
La Spezia - the Gulf
La Val di Magra
La Val di Vara
La Via Francigena
Lerici
Lerici itineraries
Luni archeological site
Portovenere
Gastron. Golfo Poeti
Riviera di Levante
Camogli
Levanto
Portofino
San Fruttuoso
Santa Margherita
Sestri Levante
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Val di Vara - Photo (c)
foto©Aleyakke
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La Val di Vara - Vara Valley
A walk from La Spezia through the Vara valley to Varese Ligure
evokes the charms of bygone days. In the lower valley you will come
across busy little towns such as Ceparana and also see charming
Calice al Cornoviglio and its impressive castle.
The
middle and upper Vara Valley is a verdant oasis dotted with fields
and villas, mediaeval villages and hamlets and wonderfully tranquil
scenery. The River Vara traces out the course of the itinerary.
Leaving La Spezia along the Via Aurelia, you will come to Riccò del
Golfo and a series of villages on the surrounding hillsides. Soon
after this, you will come to a side road leading off the Via
Aurelia.
This takes you through Pignone (a town with some very
ancient remains) and up to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Soviore
and then on to Levanto and Monterosso. When you are back on the Via
Aurelia, you will come to Padivarma and then Borghetto Vara.
Continuing in the direction of Passo del Bracco, you reach Carrodano
and Mattarana after Borghetto Vara. An inland road takes you to
Carro, where you can enjoy the beauty and peacefulness of the lush
natural landscape. Leaving the Via Aurelia again, the road out of
Borghetto takes you to Brugnato (once an Episcopal see), where you
can visit the ancient twin-aisled cathedral which houses important
memories.
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The Diocesan Museum inside the Episcopal Palace contains
an archaeological section and still preserves part of the bishop's
former residence. The museum contains a collection of votary
objects, ancient missals and liturgical vestments.
The road out of
Varese takes you to some charming spots in the Upper Vara Valley:
Cassego, Valletti and Comuneglia safeguard some very ancient
traditions - suffice it to mention the public uses to which
collective properties have been put. In this area, the numerous
monasteries hold works of art and religious objects that testify to
the creativity of popular devotion. You can leave from Brugnato to
reach Rocchetta Vara and then go up towards Veppo and take another
road to Suvero, a village with a remarkable Malaspina castle.
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It is now one of the popular summer spots in the area on the Passo
dei Casoni side facing Mulazzo and the Massa side of the Luni
region. Just after Rocchetta, another road leads you to the green
valley area of Zignago, which is dotted with charming little
villages. Another itinerary leaving from Brugnato takes you to Sesta
Godano. The archaeological site in the Lagorara Valley is very
interesting and one of the most important in the whole of Liguria:
it has a massive outcrop of red jasper that was used by prehistoric
man to produce tools.
Leaving Sesta Godano, you will come to Varese
Ligure, where you really must see the restored Fieschi castle, the
parish church and its paintings and the extremely original "Borgo
Rotondo" (round district). From here the roads lead off towards
Emilia through the Passo di Cento Croci and the Passo del Bocco. If
you leave San Pietro Vara in the direction of Passo di Velva (with
its eighteenth-century sanctuary) you will eventually come to Sestri
Levante. While the Vara Valley offers plenty of hotel accommodation,
it also offers you the opportunity to have a very pleasant farm
holiday.
The upper valley in particular is full of woods and country
paths that are also suitable for horse-riding. Among the sports practised in the area are horse-riding, fishing, hunting, canoeing
and mountain-biking. The restaurants throughout the valley serve
genuine food made from healthy local produce, including meat, cheese
and mushrooms -all of which can, of course, be accompanied by
Brugnato, Sesta Godano and Varese white wines.
Text courtesy of
APT Cinque Terre
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Alta Val Vara, Zignago
Photo (c)
Mr.Pitone
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(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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