Last Sunday, seeing that the weather was
awful on the Emilian side of the Apennines, but on the Tuscan side it was a
sunny autumn afternoon, I decided to return to a fascinating footpath that
starts at Sassalbo, MS.
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| Sassalbo MS |
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| Sassalbo MS |
Sassalbo is just below the Cerreto Pass,
isolated in the Valley below the main modern SS63 road that runs down to Aula. Sassalbo
was once an important staging post on the most ancient of the roads that cross
the Cerreto Pass. It was a stretch of this road called the Via Modenese which I
decided to follow.
A small anonymous alley between a row of
houses, after a few hundred meters, soon becomes a fascinating trip back into
the past, when this was the main road between the Lunigiana and Reggio Emilia.
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| Via dei Modenesi, Sassalbo, MS |
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| Via dei Modenesi, Sassalbo, MS |
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| Via dei Modenesi, Sassalbo, MS |
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| Via dei Modenesi, Sassalbo, MS |
Dry stone walls border the road paved with
large flagstones, as you pass through the sweet chestnut woods, once a vital
source of sustenance for the local population.
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| Sassalbo,MS |
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| Sassalbo, MS |
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| Sassalbo MS |
As the path rises above the woods the flagstone
gradually disappears and the path becomes a narrow footpath. Another forest
trail takes us to Lago Padule a large lake hidden away in the woods.
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| Lago Padule, MS |
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| Lago Padule, MS |
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| Lago Padule, MS |
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| Lago Padule, MS |
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| Lago Padule, MS |
I retraced my steps as the sun was sinking
bathing the ancient road through the woods with a golden light.
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| Via dei Modenese, Sassalbo,MS |
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| Via dei Modenesi, Sassalbo,MS |
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| Via dei Modenesi, Sassalbo, MS |
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| Via dei Modenesi, Sassalbo,MS |
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| Via dei Modenesi, Sassalbo,MS |
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| Via dei Modenesi, Sassalbo,MS |
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| Via dei Modenesi, Sassalbo, MS |
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| Via dei Modenesi, Sassalbo,MS |
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| Sassalbo, MS |
I also brought back a nice bag of
chestnuts.
