There’s a place that’s rarely shown on travel guides, tucked away as it is between the rugged Ligurian Levante and the Tosco-Emilian Apennines, more a crossing point on the way to somewhere else than a destination in itself. 

Lunigiana has always been a liminal place, a land straddling multiple identities and histories. Its strategic importance as a gateway to Europe was understood as early as 177 BC when the Romans founded the city of Luni, then a military outpost on the river Magra. During the Middle Ages and through the Renaissance, it was the preferred route for millions of pilgrims traveling along the Via Francigena to Rome.