Casoli, the graffiti village above Camaiore. Direct trail access into the Alpi Apuane from the door. Beach and promenade at Lido di Camaiore in around 30 minutes by car from the village parking area. In the middle of nature, with sea and mountain views.
Book nowCasa Colletti is a holiday house in Casoli, in the commune of Camaiore, set at 500m above the Versilia coast. The house is roughly 300 years old. We have done it up so it is comfortable to stay in, but we kept its character: the old stone walls, the simple rooms, the slower pace. Casoli is not a museum village either, but a real one where people still live.
It measures 140 square metres across two floors, with three bedrooms, eight beds and two bathrooms. One is en-suite off a bedroom, with toilet and bidet; the other has a shower and a bathtub. There is a gas stove and a fireplace, and the terrace looks out unobstructed in both directions: west to the sea and east to the Alpi Apuane.
The WiFi is stable enough for video calls, and the house is secluded enough to concentrate without distraction. It suits a focused workation, a small team off-site or retreat, a group cooking and walking together, or simply a detox from the fast, always-on world. Work in the morning, walk into the mountains in the afternoon.
Casoli is the small hill village that Casa Colletti sits at the top of, gathered on a slope at 500m above the Versilia coast. It is known across the area as the paese dei graffiti, the village of graffiti, though the works are not painted onto the walls but carved into them.
A sgraffito is made by scratching a design into fresh plaster to reveal a darker layer beneath, an old craft closer to a mason than to spray paint. In Casoli the carved images run across the house fronts through the whole village, showing rural life, old trades, myths and local legends, and each year the festival called Sgraffiti a Casoli adds new work to the old. It is a village full of art, with a story on almost every wall, and walking the lanes you can feel how much life has been carved into the plaster.
Casa Colletti is the last house, where the lanes give out and the trail climbs on into the Alpi Apuane. The village has a fine bar with a terrace over the valley and a view to the sea, with a small alimentari shop in the same place. A ristorante sits above the village, about 20 minutes on foot; an agriturismo and the Il Fondaccio home restaurant in Metato are each around an hour and a half away on foot.
The Alpi Apuane are a marble mountain range that rises directly behind the Versilia coast, with peaks above 1800m, and together they form a regional natural park. Michelangelo sourced his marble here, and yet most visitors to the Versilia beaches have no idea the range even exists.
Trail access begins directly at the front door of Casa Colletti, so there is no car, transfer or bus between you and the mountains. The principal CAI routes are marked, although some connecting paths and route variants are unmarked or easy to miss. From Casoli, routes lead towards Monte Matanna and deeper into the Alpi Apuane park, while the coast is around 30 minutes by car from the village parking area.
The house is made for walkers who want a base rather than a programme, which is to say there are no guides, no transfers and no scheduled activities, only the trail and the time to follow it.
A selection of route ideas from Casoli. Times and elevation are indicative; verify the exact GPX from the house before setting out.
| Route | Time & climb | What you find |
|---|---|---|
| Grotta all'Onda | approx. 3 to 4 h, ~400 m ascent | A prehistoric cave at 710m, used by Neanderthal hunters and later prehistoric communities, with small waterfalls at the entrance. Reached via CAI path 106. |
| Casoli–Alto Matanna loop | approx. 5 h, ~700 m ascent | A demanding loop of roughly 13km, passing Grotta all'Onda and reaching Rifugio Alto Matanna (1040m), with views towards the sea, Lake Massaciuccoli and Viareggio. Check the refuge's current opening hours. |
| Cascate di Candalla | approx. 1.5 to 1.75 h, ~160 m ascent | Waterfalls and natural pools along the Rio Lombricese, surrounded by the remains of historic mills, oil mills, forges and workshops. An easy but occasionally slippery walk; suitable for sure-footed children under close supervision and in suitable conditions. |
| Monte Matanna, 1317m | approx. 6 h return | A full mountain day towards the summit, with wide views from the Versilia coast deep into the Apuane. Duration depends on the chosen route and conditions; reliable navigation and proper hiking equipment are required. |
| Casoli to Metato | approx. 1 to 1.5 h each way | An old mule track with some steep sections and views towards the sea and the Tuscan islands. In Metato, Il Fondaccio home restaurant and Bar Elo may be open; check current days and reserve before walking. |
Walking times are indicative and exclude breaks. Conditions and access can change. Carry an offline map or a verified GPX track, check current CAI trail notices and the mountain weather forecast, and wear suitable hiking footwear. Some connecting paths and route variants are unmarked or easy to miss.
Casoli sits in the middle of what climbers call il Camaiorese, one of Italy's major sport-climbing areas, with more than fifty crags and over 1000 routes across the valley. The rock is limestone, vertical to overhanging in places. The area has been developed since the 1980s through the work of local climbers and organisations including Magicandalla.
Several crags can be approached on foot from Casoli in around 20 to 25 minutes, depending on the sector and starting point. The Cannelot wall at Casoli basso has 19 routes; the Pilastro di Setriana above the village was re-bolted by Magicandalla and runs from 5+ to 8b+ on vertical walls with boulder-problem starts; San Rocchino and Mongololificio are also nearby. Check current access information and route topos before setting out.
For the high mountains, Monte Procinto carries the Via Aristide Bruni, opened in 1893 and regarded as the first via ferrata in Italy.
Route topos and current conditions: versanteapuano.it
The white in the Apuane is marble. The range has been quarried for more than 2000 years, and Michelangelo came to the area to select marble. Carrara and its marble landscape can be visited in approximately one hour by car from the village parking area, depending on the quarry, museum or visitor centre chosen.
Down on the plain, Lucca sits behind intact Renaissance walls around 40 minutes by car from the village parking area and is the birthplace of Giacomo Puccini, whose operas are celebrated at the summer festival in Torre del Lago. Pisa is around 50 minutes away. Camaiore itself has a medieval abbey and a weekly market.
And in the village itself, the sgraffiti carved into the house fronts are a small open-air museum of their own, renewed each year at the Sgraffiti a Casoli festival.
Casa Colletti is in Casoli, a village in the comune of Camaiore, in the Versilia region of Tuscany. The house sits at 500m above sea level as the last building in the village, open on three sides, with the sea to the west and the Alpi Apuane to the east.
Driving times are measured from the village parking area because cars cannot reach the house. Lido di Camaiore is around 30 minutes away, Forte dei Marmi and Viareggio around 40 minutes, Lucca around 40 minutes and Pisa around 50 minutes. Camaiore town, with its weekly market and supermarkets, is approximately 15 minutes down the hill.
The supermarkets in Camaiore, approximately 15 minutes by car from the village parking area, are where most guests stop on arrival before carrying their shopping up to the house.
There is no car access to the front door. The nearest parking is about 350m away in Casoli village, and from there it is 160 steps uphill through the lanes, which means luggage and groceries are carried up by hand. That rules the house out for anyone with limited mobility, or for anyone who wants a car waiting outside the door, and in the same breath it makes the house ideal for people who are looking for silence, no traffic, and a base from which they can walk straight up into the mountains.
Lorenzo is from Florence, Stefanie from Frankfurt, and today we live together in Berlin. Italy connects us in very different ways: for Lorenzo it is home; for Stefanie, over the years, it has become a very special place close to her heart. Again and again, we are drawn south, to the warmth, the landscape and that unmistakable Italian way of life.
In 2024 we found our own retreat in the Tuscan mountains: an old house in Casoli, 500 metres above the coast, with views of the sea. Casa Colletti is our counterbalance to city life, the pace of everyday routines and the feeling that we always need to be available.
As soon as we arrive in Casoli, everything becomes quieter. We put our phones aside, take a breath and rediscover time for ourselves and for the things that often get lost in everyday life. By now, we can hardly imagine our lives without this special place.
Because the house would otherwise stand empty for much of the year, we decided to share it with people who long for exactly this feeling: days without appointments or traffic, surrounded by peace and nature, and the luxury of simply not having to get anything done.
We hope you experience Casa Colletti as more than a holiday home, as a place where you can arrive, let go and recharge, just as we do every time we come here.
You book directly with us and stay in personal contact with us throughout your stay. We usually reply within a day and are happy to share our recommendations for the trails, the village, the coast and our favourite places nearby.
Stefanie & Lorenzo
Casoli, Camaiore, Tuscany. 500m elevation. 3 bedrooms, 8 beds, max 8 guests. No car access. A trail into the Alpi Apuane from the front door. Minimum stay 2 nights. Get in touch with your dates.
Minimum stay 2 nights. Availability is updated manually and confirmed by email.