***  
PONTREMOLI (230 mt a.s.l) was founded 2.000 years ago in the Roman Era, as military and strategic outpost along the way to the Northern Italy, to control the Cisa Pass on Apennine Mountains. The chosen place was at the confluence of two trouts rivers (Verde and Magra), where the road crossed them with two bridges (Pons). After the fall of Roman Empire and up to the Middle Age, the road, named in that period """"Via Francigena"""" (it means that leads to France), conserved its importance as one of the the main Pilgrim's routes to Rome. Of that period, the town conserves its medieval look, some Gates, towers and the panoramic Castle of Piagnaro, built on the hill dominating the town and the yet used medieval bridges. 
 
All the historical centre has a medieval looking, full of characteristic houses, churches and streets, especially the ones that leads to the Castle, but also the baroque period is well represented from imposing nobles palaces, expecially along the main road that crosses all the city from north to south. There are many cheap and good restaurants and you can buy a lot of typical local products: fresh cooked bread, sweets, chestnuts, mushrooms, local meet, ham and sausages, hand made pasta…..The local cuisine is also very interesting, with flat thin """"testaroli"""" pasta, menus made with mushrooms, which grow thick on the ground in the woods of the Lunigiana's region and the chestnut flour which is made into ‘frittelle’, or fritters, while the cheeses and cold cuts made locally go perfectly with the genuine wines of the region. 
 
Due to the low altitude and the nearness to the sea, winter is mild and summer is not too much hot: the nights are always fresh.