Qualità Lunigiana 1 HISTORY, NATURE, FOOD and WINE
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Qualità Lunigiana 1 HISTORY, NATURE, FOOD AND WINE Qualità Lunigiana 2007-2008 Edition IN THE VALLEY OF A HUNDRED CASTLES C.C.I.A.A. COMUNITÀ Massa Carrara MONTANA 2 Qualità Lunigiana Lunigiana: the ancient land of the moon, with its castles and mysterious stone idols The valleys of the Magra and its tri- butaries, abounding in fish, are at the heart of the historical region called Lunigiana, once the dominion of the Roman city of Luni and one of the oldest and most powerful dioceses in Christendom. In this land, gently-sloping valleys ope- ning in the folds of the Appennine bar- rier created a grid of roads used since prehistoric times by different peoples, first of all the shepherds, then the mer- chants, and then armies and pilgrims. The visitor who descends from the Cisa pass after crossing the narrow gorges of the Parmesan Appennines finds himself immersed in a great na- tural amphitheater, in spring and sum- mer a luxuriant green and in the autu- mn dressed in the thousand colors of the vast woodlands. In winter, the marble peaks of the Apuan Alps and the white of the Appennine snows become a single pearly crown. In a tiny span of land, Nature offers an unsuspected variety of landscapes: the high meadows with their blueberry moors and the pastures of the prized sheep of Zeri; the olive groves and the vineyards of the hills dominated by the high, severe profiles of a hundred and more castles, walled hamlets, and Romanesque parish churches. At the valley bottom, the Magra river winds – in the words of Mario Tobino – like an silver eel seeking the sea, abounding in fish, and still pure enough for swimming. Lunigiana, a land with an ancient heart and a land of great itineraries of the faith. In the Middle Ages, the Way of Saint James of Compostela and the Via Francigena, with its detour to the Sacro Volto of Lucca, saw the passage of a multitude of devotees; today, these roads are again beaten by an ever-growing number of modern pilgrims. In these valleys, nestled in the harsh mountain terrain, the Romans fought at length before finally conquering the Ligurian-Apuan populations who had made the valley a great open-air sanctuary populated by scores of stone idols guarding roads and pa- stures: fully-armed warriors and full-busted female figures, today on display at the Piagnaro Castle in Pontremoli. During the last world war, the ancient mule tracks through the woods of these moun- tains were the theater of horrific acts of war and reprisals but also witnessed the heroic deeds of the mountain folk who fed and housed thousands of evacuees. Hospitality is sacred in Lunigiana: Dante was a guest at the court of the Malaspinas, a great noble house that left its mark on the architecture of the area and in particular on the castles in the myriad small feuds that surrounded the elegant cities of Pontre- Qualità Lunigiana 3 moli and Fivizzano. The Wine Road of the Candia and The land you are Lunigiana Hills crossing is generous with its products: its HistoriansHistorians wwouldould nnotot aagreegree wwithith tthehe ddefinitionefinition bbyy aromatic wines, so whichwhich LunigianaLunigiana isis a “scrap“scrap ofof hillyhilly landland extendingextending pleasing to the palate, fromfrom AullaAulla toto tthehe CCisaisa ppass”ass” bbecause,ecause, hhistorically,istorically, from a great variety of thethe termterm LunigianaLunigiana ttookook iinn tthehe mmuchuch llargerarger rregionegion vines, were celebrated ofof thethe grand,grand, powerfulpowerful diocesediocese ofof Luni,Luni, whichwhich fromfrom even in ancient times. thethe CinqueCinque TerreTerre eextendedxtended southsouth ttoo tthehe bbordersorders ooff the Versilia region, to the north beyond the Cisa The chestnut woods pass, and to the east touched on Garfagnana. yield precious flour, And it is also true that the region’s wines have still ground in water- little respect for modern administrative borders. They stray driven mills; the woods between Liguria and Tuscany with the Colli di Luni DOC de- abound in mushrooms nomination that unites the production of the Ligurian hills in the of all varieties. Sarzana area with that of the vineyards of Fosdinovo, Aulla, and The olive, which here Podenzana in Tuscany. finds difficult growth The Candia dei Colli Apuani DOC wines are produced in the conditions, yields an Tuscan towns of Carrara, Massa, and Montignoso. oil that centuries ago In the mid and upper Magra valley, these wines have won IGT delighted Francesco recognition, while the entire provincial territory is included in the Petrarca. IGT Toscana zone. In the pages that fol- The food and wine tourism itinerary along this wine road cuts low we will be telling through an extraordinary variety of landscapes looking out on the some of the stories of sea or up to the marble peaks of the Apuans and that decline into this land: an outline gentle hills. for a journey that asks The roads that wind through the vineyards are the same trave- the traveler only to al- led in the Middle Ages by merchants’ caravans, bellicose armies, low himself to be gui- worshipful pilgrims, and highwaymen. Climbing the Candia hills ded by the scenarios toward Fosdinovo, to later descend to Ceserano, San Terenzo of a historic landsca- Monti, Fivizzano, Aulla, and then up again, toward Pontremoli, it pe, by encounters with is impossible not to appreciate the long procession of towers and the local people, by ta- castles that reminds us of how the Magra valley was split into small feudal holdings under the Malaspinas. ste treats and a simple Every slope has its own special richness of vegetation, as fields slip but inviting cuisine, by into vineyards and the vineyards come up short against the che- a wealth of monumen- stnut groves. Even the climate is highly variable, changing from ts and museums that one low ridge to the next: so much so, in fact, that the climate of narrate thousands of the territory is often defined as an agglomerate of microclimates. years of history. This may be one of the reasons why the Wine Road reserves such Of one thing we are a surprising variety of vines, some autochthonous, others impor- certain: wherever you ted, but all well adapted to their niches. stop, you will realize Pollera, Albarola, Lanaiolo, Sangiovese, Ciliegiolo, Vermentino, the wisdom of an old Malvasia, Durella, and Merlot are the most common varieties. saying: the soul of a The vine-growers/wine-makers who have joined the Wine Road people is expressed in initiative have proved capable of uniting skills from ancient tra- the flavors, colors, and dition with the most up-to-date vinification methods - and this is aromas of its cooking. another reason for the excellence of the Lunigiana wines. 4 Qualità Lunigiana The Wine Road Wine Producers The Candia Area Wineries Il Tino, via Castagnata, 29 – Massa tel. 0585/831558 Podere Scurtarola, via dell’Uva,3 - Massa tel. 0585/833662 Cesare della Tommasina, via Aurelia Ovest - Massa - tel. 0585/830513 Eva Vernazza, via dell’Uva, 12 - Massa tel. 0585/833264 Montegreco, via Forma Alta, 23 - Bonascola-Carrara tel. 0585/846658 Sabina Piastra Maria Luisa, via Candia, 70 - Massa - tel. 0585/830113 Vin.Ca, via Candia Bassa, 27 bis - Carrara - Avenza tel. 0585/834217 A.L.E.S.T.E. srl, via Provinciale, 180 - Carrara – Avenza tel. 0585/8589387 Nanni Barbero, via Fravizzola, 17- Fosdinovo La Caloma, via Fabbrica, 5 - Capanne di Montignoso tel. 0187/68410 - tel.0585/348110 Il Feudo, via Palatina, 47- Capanne di Montignoso The I.G.P. Val di Magra Wineries tel. 330/277154 Azienda Agricola Calevro, via Romagnano Fattoria di Ceserano del Conte Picedi - Massa - tel. 0585/830291 Benettini, loc. Ceserano, tel.0187/625147 Azienda Agricola Cima, via del Fagiano, 1 Agricola Lunigiana S. Chiara, loc. S. Chiara- tel. 0585/830835 Gassano - tel. 0585/99359 S.I.I. srl, via del Cavatore, 10/A - Carrara Fattoria Ruschi Noceti, piazza Repubblica 1, loc. tel.0585/54963 S. Giustina - Pontremoli, tel. 0187/832466 Della Tommasina Renza, via dell’Uva, 5 - Massa Podere Benelli, loc. Oppilo-Pontremoli tel. 0585/832430 tel. 338/9104330 Giovanni Giusti, via Candia Bassa, 16 - Carrara Azienda Il Posticcio, loc. Lusuolo-Mulazzo tel. 0585/830336 tel. 0187/494567 Milani Elvira, via Elisa, 4 - Carrara, tel. 0585/72273 Podere I Cerri, via Montebarelli, Bigliolo-Aulla Il Pozzo, via del Fagiano,1- Massa, tel. 0585/830835 tel. 0187/420155 Castagnini Roberto, viale XX settembre - Carrara tel. 0585/843829 The Wine Road initiative is also supported by area FARM HOLIDAYS centers, wineries, hotels, and restaurants. The Colli di Luni Wineries Podere Lavandaro, via Rocca, 1- Fosdinovo For information: tel. 338-8853067 tel. 0187/68202 [email protected] Terenzuola, via Vercalda, 14- Fosdinovo www.stradadelvino.ms.it tel. 0187/680030 Biologica Boriassi, via Pini, 19-Fosdinovo For information on events and initiatives: tel. 0187/629981 [email protected] Qualità Lunigiana 5 Lunigiana DOP Chestnut Flour In the 15th century, Giovanni Antonio da Faye, a spice-seller from Bagnone, wrote that chestnu- ts were “two-thirds of bread” in Lunigiana, but the same could have been said as late as the mid- 20th century, when—during World War II—che- stnut flour sustained the thousands of evacuees to the mountain towns. Even in 1388, a centu- ry before da Faye, the chestnut was a staple on the Christmas Eve table in Pulica di Fosdinovo: “We last had pizzatelle of chestnuts, most coming from the Rupignano woods, or harvested el- sewhere . “ For the inhabitants of Lunigiana, owning a chestnut grove was a necessi- ty: Marchese Anton Giulio Brignole Sale knew this when, in the second half of the 18th century, he asked the famous cartographer Matteo Vinzo- ni to organize the farmlands of his holdings at Groppoli and to be sure to always assign each farm a portion of the chestnut wood.