Tiglio, Seggio and Loppia

Tiglio is a small hilltop community of two villages, Tiglio Basso, and higher up Tiglio Alto. Seggio is in the valley below and the ancient church and village of Loppia are on the roman road from Lucca to Barga. The walk makes an excellent circuit taking about 5-6 hours. Alternatively you can walk to Tiglio and simply retrace the path back to Fornacetta and Barga, which takes about 2 to 2½ hours.

Leaving Casa Fontana go eastwards along via di Mezzo. To your right is a small garden enclosed by a thorn hedge. A majestic pine tree over 30m high, stood here until the winter of 2004 when it had to be felled after a storm brought down a huge limb damaging the surrounding houses. The stump remains, and a small section of the tree has been hung in the cantina.

At Porta Macchiaia continue straight ahead down into the village of Fornacetta. The Palazzo on the crest to the left is the Villa Angeli, built by the Marchese Francesco Angeli in the early 17^thC. It was acquired by the Comune after WW2 and was until recently used as a school for the hospitality industry. It is currently empty pending necessary anti-earthquake strenghthening. The large Liberty style villa below you on the left, "Villa Buenos Aires", now flatted, was built in the 1920's by Ferruccio Togneri, who had emigrated to Argentina in the 19^thC.

In the centre of Fornacetta the road forks in front of the church of Santa Maria Assunta, which was reconstructed in the mid 18^thC by Giuseppe Bonaccorsi, a famous musician with the Teatro Giglio in Lucca, who retired to his Fornacetta birthplace and extended the church and restored the historic organ.

At the church the road forks, the right hand lane leading down to the terraced farmland of Bugliano. We will take the left hand road, which continues up through Fornacetta until it again forks. The right hand lane is the mule track which winds its way up to Tiglio and the ancient Giuncheto Jasper quarries. Follow this track till you meet the public road and follow it for 200m or so until the road, signposted to Giuncheto and Serra, drops off to the right. Take this road and continue on the public road to Giunchetto where it peters out in a farmyard. Here go left following the marked path (sign for horse/mountain bike and foot path) which continues as an unmade track down through woodland. Look out for the red and white markers of the Club Alpino Italiano (CAI) who maintain many of the tracks. Cross the bridge at the mill and the track starts to wind up through the woods again. You will catch sight of the houses of Tiglio Basso up ahead.

On the left is a small chapel and opposite it a rock known locally as "il salto del diabolo" (the Devil's leap) and you should be able to make out his hoof prints in the surface of the rock. Cross the bridge and the road winds up through the chestnut woods.

Finally you will arrive in the small piazza in front of the Bar Fragole. Stop here for a beer or caffe before setting off towards Tiglio Alto. From the piazza there is a dramatic view to Barga and the Serchio valley beyond.

Leaving the bar, turn right and follow the street up to the car park at the "main" road. Ahead you will see a marked track which leads up to the enclosing wall of Tiglio Alto, which was once a fortress. There is now only the church and a handful of houses around the piazza. There is a bar but it only opens for Festas. From Tiglio Alto you will get a magnificent panorama across the valley to the village of Coreglia Antiminelli.

Retrace your track to Tiglio Basso and in the piazza in front of the Bar Fragole you have a choice: either to go back down the track to Barga or alternatively, you may continue up through the village (towards the south west this time) and follow the road down to Seggio and Loppia. The final leg of this walk from Loppia back to Barga is tricky as it involves a scramble up a sheep track!

From Tiglio to Loppia

The road from Tiglio is tarmacked and narrow but very quiet. The road winds down through chestnut woods past a roadside alms chapel (Elemosine) and finally down into the village of Seggio, past a roadside chapel (on your left).

Seggio is a small agricultural village straggling along the road, and here we continue to the end of the village and take the old cobbled mule track which leads steeply down to the right (It is marked with the red and white of CAI ). There is a covered wash-house which was once typical of rural villages in this area, and now makes a cool shady place to stop.

Further down this well maintained track we reach the stone built bridge which once carried the main traffic from Lucca to Barga, probably since Roman times, and we enter Loppia. To the right is the walled cemetery and straight ahead the romanesque church dating from the 8-9^thC. In the 14^thC, as a result of the series of wars between Lucca and Florence, Loppia was totally depopulated, the church fell into ruin and its parish was absorbed by Barga. The church was restored in the 16^thC, The track here continues around the north side of the church and joins the modern road to Barga. However we wll continue around the church, past the cemetery, containing the impressive tombs of the local families, and take the track back to the stone bridge.

Loppia to Barga

Instead of crossing the stone bridge, take the path to the left, following the Loppora stream. There is a sign with a telephone symbol (why?) which says no entry, but you can safely ignore it, and cross the concrete bridge. Follow the vehicle road till you see a corrugated iron shed at the left hand side of the road (there are usually beehives in the grass clearing), then shortly after take the grassy track off to the left. This track curves round till it reaches a stream which you can easily ford and cross over to a long grassy clearing, with a bamboo grove up the right hand side. Continue across the clearing and onto the path, which again crosses the stream. There is a fence on your left side and soon you will cross a surfaced road. Continue across the road along the bottom of a grassy sloping field (you should see a stonebuilt hay barn up to your right) Keep to the left and cross the stream again beside a stone built weir.

The track continues through the woods and you will see an old army truck abandoned in the woods to the right. Do not turn off here but shortly afterwards an overhead electric line crosses the track. From here you will get a view up to the duomo of Barga. Turn right here and join the well surfaced vehicle track, turning left. Continue along this track until you cross another concrete bridge and then turn right into a grassy meadow (usually full of wildflowers) at the far end of which you should see the remains of a brick shed. Continue onto the track here and you will come to a crossroads which is currently churned up by forestry works. Do not turn off but continue for a short distance looking out for a narrow path leading up to the left (it has been marked with red tape but that may not remain!) Follow this path up through the woods. It is used by the shepherd to move his flock from pasture to pasture, and is quite steep and obstructed by fallen trees which you must clamber over, under or around. The path continues up through the forest till you get to a wooden handrail. here turn right and continue along the path which has been marked with tape at some time. parts are overgrown and there are a number of sections of wooden handrail.

This path curves round beneath the conglomerate rock (pebbles in soft matrix) outcrop on which the duomo was built. Part of the outcrop has been butressed with brick arches to support the duomo, and the path then leads up, beneath a concrete terrace, onto via della Fornacetta, right outside the Porta Macciaia. Turn left, enter the gate and you are back on via di Mezzo only a short walk back to Casa Fontana.