With spring in the air we can get the feeling for having a walk and enjoy the weather. It does not matter, maybe it rains,but the days start to get longer and warmer. Nature is ready to pop up and we can hear the birds sing.

Fucecchio, a quaint town is 31km, southeast of Lucca by the famous Via Francigena and has about 20.000 inhabitants. The town is part of the province of Florence and not of great tourist significance, but because of its central position between cities like Lucca, Pistoia, Prato, Pisa and San Miniato, it is a good place to make our base camp. Here we can rent very nice villas and apartments or stay in a B&B and join the guided excursion, organized by the centro start in the Padule of Fucecchio.

The Padule is the nearby swamp, which was formed in ancient times by the stagnation of the waters coming down from the mountains of Valdinievole, which were stopped by the warping streams of the river Arno.

The marshes are about 1800 hectares and nowhere deeper than about 3 meters. Already since the middle Ages man has been influencing the natural development of these marshes. This interaction created a piece of nature, which is almost incomparable in the world.

The Padule has a kind of microclimate, in this case a combination of a cold and a warm climate. We find here a lot of different kind of sedges, which grow like small islands and already been used in the middle ages for household purposes, like chairs etc. Also we can think about the flasks used for the Chianti wine and to be found in many restaurants. Everywhere we see water lilies and duckweed, alternated with humid meadows and woods with pine trees and oaks.

The Padule is not only of ecological and botanical significance, but also of historical. Lovers of industrial archaeology will find here all kind of remains, once build under the directions of the Medici and Lorena families.

The itinerary will visit places and buildings related to the local history. It starts at the “Ponte di Cappiano”, which was built under Cosimo I in 1550 and just recently restored. From here it will go through Massarella to the “Porto di Salanova”, the harbour were we can see the “barchini”, boats without or with a small keel, for easy manoeuvring in the marshes. In Ponte Buggianese we will visit 19th century tobacco kilns, once used for the slow drying of tobacco, grown in the marshes. After visiting these kilns the walk will bring us back to “Ponte di Cappiano”.

For more information visit

• Comune Fucecchio