The mysterious stone figures of the Lunigiana
Pontremoli, at the northern tip of Tuscany, is the main town of the Lunigiana, a green valley of castles on the old pilgrim routes between the Apennines and the sea. Its long old town lies between two rivers, crossed by medieval bridges and dominated by the Castello del Piagnaro.
Inside the castle, the Museum of the Stele Statues displays one of the most enigmatic collections in Italy: dozens of anthropomorphic stone slabs carved between the Copper Age and the Iron Age, with stylised faces, arms, daggers and breasts, found in the fields of the Lunigiana. Nobody knows exactly what they represented, gods, ancestors or warriors.
Tip: taste the testaroli, an ancient pasta cooked in cast-iron testi and served with pesto, and the amor, a typical Pontremoli cake. The town also gives its name to a famous booksellers' literary prize.
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