Wanted to get in a longer ride today, so headed out early. Had a great ride, with some adventures…
Rode over a nearby hill and found an abandoned road with several runners and dogs with their owners. Followed it down into town.
Piazza dei Aranci: Oranges Square. The central piazza in Massa is surrounded by oranges. Apparently they aren’t very sweet, but they certainly are ripe and gorgeous.
Decided to finally go to the castle above Massa that I’ve been looking at all these years but avoided because it’s way up high. I didn’t figure out how to get there, so took a very narrow steep road uphill. Up and over and then it dead-ended in some houses, but I could see more narrow steep pathway so I walked it. Fortunately there were no steps… I kept going around the hill and eventually there was a sign to Castello Malaspina.
Castle Malaspina overlooks Massa. It became a prison under the Germans and when they were about to lose the Gothic Line, which runs through this area, they took out all the prisoners and, yes, shot them. Sigh…
Took a ride up the valley to see what was there. A set of snow-capped mountains and some terrific trails.
