Alpi Apuani
On Tuesday I took a day off to explore some places in the Garfagnana and Alpi Apuani, in Tuscany. The mountains are famous for their marble quarries.
To try and escape the hot summer we are having, I climbed up to Campocatino an old summer camp for sheep farmers in the days when transhumance was practised.
It is now being restored and the huts are becoming holiday lets, but some of the atmosphere remains. After a good lunch, it was back down into the valley for my usual subjects.
I stopped off to photograph this church strangely embedded into the mountain. A Buongiorno to one of the residents , got me a little guided tour. The paleochristian carving is pretty cool. The guy gave me the names of another two little hamlets to visit, which had some interesting things to see.
Pieve San Lorenzo was on the list for my Romanesque project.
Monzone is just another tatty mountain village in the Apuani.
Borsigliana was one of the places that was suggested. It was was on my way home and I was already behind schedule. So I will return here and try and see the inside too. The door lintel was carved in the 14th century. But is still in a more primitive style.