Grand Tour

Up until the era of the Restoration, taking the route from Genoa to Lucca and Pisa (and more rarely directly to Pisa) and from there to Florence was a fairly arduous choice. It was not until 1823 that the treacherous path, a mule track that was steep even for mules, was transformed into an easy road suitable for carriages from which it was possible to enjoy a marvelous panorama to the full. The villages of Rapallo, Chiavari and Sestri were pleasant stops, with their painted houses, gardens and pebble beaches. Once past the village of Bracco, however, the scenery grew ever more severe as the road climbed higher, at least as far as Borghetto, where the agricultural landscape of chestnuts, olives, figs and vines cheered travelers until they reached the gulf of La Spezia and the comfortable rooms of the Hotel de Londres at Sarzana, on the other side of the often rapid current of the Magra River. From that point just two more stages (Massa and then Lucca or Pisa) and you were in Florence.

Despite the prohibitive conditions of the previous century, there were a number of travelers who chose this route to make their way into Tuscany after their arrival in Italy. Montesquieu took it in 1728 and almost forty years later, in 1765, so did Tobias Smollett . Going from Genoa to Lerici and crossing the Magra, they reached Sarzana and from there, passing through the territories of the duchy of Massa and Carrara ruled by the duke of Modena, arrived in Lucca. Smollett recalled the journey as follows: «After entering the dominions of Tuscany, we travelled through a noble forest of oak-trees of a considerable extent, which would have appeared much more agreeable, had we not been benighted and apprehensive of robbers. The last post but one in this day's journey, is at the little town of Viareggio, a kind of sea-port on the Mediterranean, belonging to Lucia. The roads are indifferent, and the accommodation is execrable».