Visit to Sarzana

Ligurian city on the border with Tuscany, it is a few kilometers from the coast of Lerici. Of mostly Renaissance architectural connotation, the village is dominated by the Castle, built by Lorenzo de Medici in 1487 over a Pisan fortress called Fermofede. Completed by the Genoese between 1514 and 1530, both the walls with cylindrical towers and the underground galleries and rooms are open to visitors and the museum. Returning towards the inhabited center in the paved street we arrive at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta from the 1300s with the marble facade of the nearby Carrara and the statues of the three Sarzanesi Popes. Inside there is a reliquary containing, according to the legend linked to the Holy Grail, the blood of Jesus shed on the Cross. Through the streets of the town, among the elegant Renaissance palaces, we are attracted by the scent of the bread from the Forno Antico, famous for its 'farinata'. Testaroli with pesto and Sgabei, the local version of fried gnocchi, await us at the table of one of the typical restaurants. A last walk takes us to Piazza Matteotti, known as della Calcandola, where a plaque commemorates Dante's passage.