Around San Marcello there are ironworks, ice houses, mills and botanical gardens to visit, most of them less than half an hour away. And a network of easy valley trails, with works of art along the way.
The Ecomuseum is not one building but a network of places, each telling part of the mountains' story: iron, ice, nature, everyday life, sacred art. In summer, from late June to early September, almost everything is open; the rest of the year many sites can be visited by appointment, and some keep regular winter hours.
Gavinana · 10 min by car
The Ecomuseum's information point, in an 18th-century palazzo: exhibitions on mountain history, workshops for adults and children, an archive of folk songs. Until 10 January 2027: the exhibition "L'Ingegno della Montagna".
July to September: Thursday to Sunday, 10am-1pm and 3.30-6.30pm
April to June and October to December: Thursday to Sunday, 10am-1pm and 3-6pm
Other days and periods: by appointment
Official website →
Gavinana · 10 min by car
Animals, rocks, minerals and fossils of the Apennines. An Apennine wolf greets you at the entrance, and the visit ends with a surprise: the skeleton of a 20,000-year-old cave bear.
Summer: Friday to Sunday, 10am-1pm
Rest of the year: tailor-made visits, booking on 800 974102
Official website →
Maresca · 15 min by car
One of the oldest ironworks in Tuscany, recorded as early as 1388, with its original water-powered machinery. A local blacksmith lets visitors try their hand at the forge.
Summer: Friday to Sunday, 3.30-6.30pm
Rest of the year: tailor-made visits, booking on 800 974102
Official website →
Pontepetri · 15 min by car
Tools from the old ironworks and, in the garden, two full-size wooden water wheels that really turn: one drives a millstone, the other a trip hammer. The easy 600-metre Ferriera trail starts here, along the stream, with a picnic area.
Summer: Friday to Sunday, 10am-1pm
Rest of the year: tailor-made visits, booking on 800 974102
Ferriera trail: always open
Official website →
Le Piastre · 25 min by car
Before refrigerators, ice was made here from the Reno river and the winter cold, and stored in this cone-shaped building with a thatched roof. Guided visits.
Summer: Friday to Sunday, 3.30-6.30pm, closed in bad weather
Rest of the year: tailor-made visits, booking on 800 974102
Official website →
Abetone · 30 min by car
A high-altitude garden along the Sestaione stream: mountain flowers, carnivorous and medicinal plants, and Norway spruce left behind by the last ice age. Guided tours at set times.
Summer: Tuesday to Sunday, 9.30am-12.30pm and 3-6pm
Rest of the year: tailor-made visits, booking on 800 974102
Official website →
Rivoreta · 30 min by car
How people lived and worked in the mountains, told through objects, sounds and stories. Children build traditional toys in the Toy Workshop, and an old chestnut-drying house holds a large loom. In late July the village celebrates the Living Museum day.
Summer: Friday to Sunday, 3.30-6.30pm
Rest of the year: tailor-made visits, booking on 800 974102
Official website →
Orsigna · 30 min by car
A woodland walk: the house where chestnuts are dried, two little wooden bridges, a mill set running for visitors and the charcoal burner's hut. Nearby, Tiziano Terzani's path leads to the "tree with eyes".
Summer: Friday to Sunday, 3-6pm, meet at the info point
Late October to early December: chestnut picking, drying and milling
Rest of the year: tailor-made visits, booking on 800 974102
Official website →
Popiglio · 10 min by car
Popiglio's Romanesque parish church holds Baroque paintings and silverware sent from Rome as gifts, and a 17th-century organ. Open only on some summer weekends.
July and August: selected weekends (dates on the website)
Rest of the year: tailor-made visits, booking on 800 974102
Official website →
Pianosinatico · 25 min by car
A museum created by village volunteers: German, American, Italian and partisan rooms, with objects found locally. Outside, marked trails lead to the remains of the bunkers, from a short 1.5 km loop to longer routes, plus the memorial to the victims of the massacre.
July and August: daily, 10am-12pm and 3-5pm
13-30 June and 1-13 September: Monday to Friday 10am-12pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am-12pm and 3-5pm
May to mid-June and mid-September to mid-October: Saturday and Sunday, 10am-12pm and 3-5pm
Mid-October to April: Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, 10am-12pm and 2-4pm
Christmas holidays (21 December-7 January): daily, 10am-12pm and 2-4pm, closed on the 25th
Admission €5
Official website →
Abetone · 30 min by car
The story of skiing at Abetone: vintage skis and boots, the old lifts, ski fashion, a silk scarf by Emilio Pucci. And the champions of the Abetone Ski Club, from Zeno Colò, Olympic gold in 1952, to Celina Seghi.
July and August: afternoons, 5-7pm. Free admission
Rest of the year: openings announced on the museum's Facebook page
Official website →
Opening times above are those published for 2026; the summer 2027 times are published at the start of summer. To check or book, call the Ecomuseum's free number, open every day: 800 974102 (from Italy). In summer they also run free children's workshops, walks and events: see ecomuseopt.it.
The WWF-affiliated Oasi Dynamo covers over a thousand hectares of woods and pastures right above San Marcello. Walk with the guides, discover contemporary art among the trees, and lunch at a restaurant you can only reach on foot.
Croce di Piteglio · 30 min by car, then a 30-minute walk
A half-hour walk through the woods leads to an open-air trail of works created for the reserve by architects and artists such as Kengo Kuma, Alejandro Aravena, Michele De Lucchi and Matteo Thun, and to a gallery with a temporary exhibition: until 1 November, "I'm a Gardener" by Arne Quinze.
Late April to early November: Thursday to Sunday, 10am-5pm. Free exhibition; the art trail is visited with a guide
Official website →
Oasi Dynamo reserve
A WWF-affiliated reserve of over a thousand hectares of beech woods, pastures and ridges. Guides lead family walks, night hikes, wolf and red deer tracking, and experiences on request: a night in a suspended tent, horse riding, photo safaris, cheese making.
Scheduled walks: dates on our Events page
All year: walks on request, for groups or individuals
Official website →
Oasi Dynamo reserve
A week in nature at over a thousand metres for children aged 6 to 14: hiking, orienteering, tree climbing, zip line, rope bridges, canoeing and nature workshops.
Summer: weekly sessions, booking on the Oasi website
Official website →
Oasi visitor centre · on foot from the OCA car park
Tuscan and local mountain cooking with zero-mile produce, some grown in the reserve, and a view over the whole Oasi. You can only get there on foot, which is half the charm.
May to October: lunch Thursday to Sunday, 12.30-2.30pm; café 10am-5pm
November to April: closed
Bookings: +39 0573 1716197
Official website →
Limestre · 5 min by car
Dynamo Camp, inside the Oasi, is Italy's first Recreational Therapy camp, hosting children with serious or chronic illnesses and their families free of charge. One Sunday a year it opens to everyone, with an outdoor lunch and activities for children: climbing, archery, a mini farm, horses, circus.
One Sunday in autumn: see the date on our Events page
Official website →
Segnavie is a network of about 70 km of valley trails linking the villages around San Marcello and joining the high-mountain CAI paths. It is made for walking at an easy pace, through woods, hamlets and viewpoints.
The name recalls the red-and-white marks that guide hikers on every trail in Italy: the rules for painting them were signed right here, in Maresca, in 1950.
Along the main ridge, about 35 km long, eight giant red letters spell SEGNAVIE at the best viewpoints. You can sit on them, lean out, take pictures: for children it becomes a summer-long treasure hunt to find them all.
The Teso Forest, with beech, chestnut and fir; the WWF-affiliated Dynamo Oasis, with pastures and panoramic ridges; Macchia Antonini, an ancient wood on the way to Calamecca; the farmland between Piteglio and Popiglio, with country churches and chestnut groves; and the upper Pescia valley.
Segnavie has brought contemporary artists to the mountains. The first one is a short walk from the flat.
On the walls of the former Maeba building in San Marcello: legends, woods, factories and the Suspension Bridge reshuffled like a fairy tale.
At La Lima, next to the ruins of the old bridge: a woman's figure that seems to emerge from the wall.
On the meadow beneath the Suspension Bridge, a constellation painted on the ground that glows in the dark and only shows at night.
In Maresca, a tribute to the water and fire of the old ironworks.
Information from the official websites: Pistoia Mountains Ecomuseum, Segnavie, Gothic Line Museum, Visit Pistoia, Oasi Dynamo, Dynamo Camp. Approximate driving times from the flat.