Barga scozzese

Given that a meeting was cancelled we headed north and east from Pisa airport rather than south to Florence. Probably ill-advised given our early departure at 3am from the house in Kent. But we'd never seen the Garfagnana - an area between the spectacular Alpi Apuane (source of all that Carrara marble) and the Appenines.

Barga claims to be the most Scottish town in Italy and Saltires were hanging from the palazzi in the old town. We had a most delicious pasta dish made with fresh porcini mushrooms that were just coming into season.  Hanging on the wall behind me was a John Bellany watercolour  - he loved Barga and the town is twinned with East Lothian.

After our pasta and an explanation from the waiter that the porcini season had started higher up the valley but not in the Bargan hills - which have a climate 'abbastanza particolare' - (all of its own) - we drove up a road that got narrower and narrower as it approached the sheer wall of the Appenine giant of Monte Giove (1991m). The tiny village of Renaio felt more alpine than Tuscan.

The drive back down the valley to Lucca and the motorway put us off the Garfagnana, spectacular though it is.

The photo is a view looking north over Barga from the Renaio road to one of the Alpi Appuane. The sun shone all day and when we arrived at our hotel we'd been given the best room in the house. Old friends and all that.