Lake Massaciuccoli, from Torre del Lago

Getting there

Torre del Lago and the LIPU Oasis are on opposite shores of the lake: by water you cross by boat, by road you go round by way of Massarosa and down to the little harbour of Massaciuccoli. The last streets of the village are narrow.

• To the LIPU Oasis with a motorhome: the visitor centre is at via del Porto 154, at the bottom of the village, next to the little harbour. The car park in front is small, with a few spaces marked for vehicles up to 5.5 metres long, and the road down to it is narrow: someone who came in 2024 with a motorhome longer than six metres advises against it. Leave the motorhome at the free car park in via Pietra a Padule, on the road into Massaciuccoli, about twenty shady spaces next to a sports ground, about ten minutes' walk from the oasis; according to people who were there in 2026, a seven metre motorhome fits too and the night is quiet. There is no water or emptying point there
• To the Belvedere of Torre del Lago: the boat jetty is on the piazzale Belvedere Puccini, in front of the Maestro's villa, and it is the closest point to the lake for anyone with the motorhome parked at Torre del Lago; you get there on foot or by bicycle. You can also get there on bus 31 from Viareggio. The little harbour with the sailing and canoe clubs is a little further on, in via delle Torbiere
• By bicycle around the lake: from Viareggio station the Tuscan tourist board suggests Tra le pinete e il lago, "between the pine woods and the lake", a 48 kilometre loop, easy to ride and of medium effort, for gravel or mountain bikes: the pine wood of the Lecciona, Marina di Vecchiano, a few hundred metres pushing the bike over the sand at the mouth of the Serchio, then Vecchiano, Nodica and Filettole, the lakeshore on a dirt track and on a boardwalk near Massaciuccoli, Massarosa and a stretch of the Sarzanese provincial road. From Lucca, the Ciclopedonale Puccini, the Puccini cycle and footpath, follows the Serchio from Ponte a Moriano to the lake, about thirty almost flat kilometres

Practical information

The oasis trail does not need booking: you arrive, leave a donation in the box at the start of the boardwalk if you wish, and walk. The marsh boat outings, the canoes and the lake boat must be booked.

Contacts

Where it is

Oasi LIPU di Massaciuccoli, Massarosa · Toscana

You set off from

Notes

• The Chiarone boardwalk: from the visitor centre you enter the Chiarone reserve, the part of the oasis on the lake. The wooden walkway on stilts, about eight hundred metres long, runs through the middle of the reed beds, with short branches to the four hides, small wooden huts: two look over the open lake, two over the chiari. Then the boardwalk becomes a flat path through a damp wood, with a raised hide and a butterfly garden, and from there you turn back or carry on along the northern embankment as far as the Brilla. According to the oasis the trail is open every day from dawn to sunset, free for people coming on their own; groups with their own guide agree a date and pay for a ticket
• The visitor centre and the museum on the ecology of the marsh, at via del Porto 154, are open every day from 9:00 to 18:00, with free admission. The museum has three rooms without display cases: the world above the water, with the reed beds, the chiari and the lake and life-size birds, plus a model of the whole basin; the underwater world, from bacteria to fish, with enlarged algae and mosquito larvae; and a room with microscopes for looking at the tiny creatures of the water. There is also a small bookshop. The oasis phone is answered Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 18:00
• The marsh boat: the oasis has three marsh boats with electric motors, which take four or five people besides the guide through the channels of the marsh and on the lake. The outings run every day by booking and last an hour and a quarter. The oasis does not publish the price: you ask when booking
• The canoes: at the visitor centre you can hire single and double kayaks and two or three seater Canadian canoes to go along the channels on your own, with directions and a map of the routes; for families with small children there is, on request, a rowing boat. Here too you ask the oasis for the price
• The boat from Torre del Lago: it is run by NaviLago, with the motor vessel Airone, from the jetty of the Belvedere Puccini: an hour on the lake and the channels, at 10 euros for adults and 5 euros for children, with at least ten adults for each departure. At the end of October 2026 its website gives only the September and October timetable, on Sundays every hour from 15:00 to 18:00, without giving the year: for the summer, phone 338 9029465. The vessel can also be hired whole, with an apericena, an aperitif dinner, on board. On the outings of the environmental guides the boat goes from Torre del Lago to the little harbour of Massaciuccoli: the Verde Salmastro one on 12 April 2026, with the walk in the oasis and the Roman villa, cost 35 euros, of which 15 for the return boat trip, 10 euros for young people up to 17, and was not suitable for children under eight
• By canoe and dragon boat from Torre del Lago: Canoa Kayak Versilia is based at the little harbour in via delle Torbiere, and takes people out on the lake in dragon boats, the long canoes paddled by a big crew, and in kayaks; telephone 338 5913119 or 328 0713172. On the Freedome platform, meeting at the same little harbour, the two-hour kayak trip with an instructor starts from 50 euros, from the age of ten up, and the private dragon boat, for five to twenty people, from 100 euros; the prices do not give the year
• The birds of summer: at the end of March the purple heron arrives from Africa, at the beginning of April the reed warblers, the great reed warblers and the Savi's warblers, which sing hidden in the reeds, and from May to September the little bittern, the smallest of the herons. The marsh harrier circles over the reed beds all year, and in the chiari, in spring, the black-winged stilt nests, with its long red legs. Little egrets, grey herons and great white egrets can be seen in every season. The good hours are the first after dawn and the last before sunset, which in summer are also the coolest
• The birds of winter: on the open waters of the lake ducks, grebes, cormorants and gulls gather, and in the chiari the coots; more marsh harriers arrive from northern Europe, and in winter it is easier to see the bittern, the brown heron that blends in among the reeds and that here had the most important population in Italy. During the migrations, in spring and autumn, terns, marsh terns and waders pass through the chiari
• In the water: pike, carp and tench, and from the sea come eels, sand smelt and grey mullet; there are also species introduced from elsewhere, such as the wels catfish and the red swamp crayfish, which here has become a problem. The lake has suffered for years from eutrophication: the fosso della Barra, a drainage ditch, brings in the water from the reclaimed fields to the south, full of nutrients, with serious consequences, the oasis writes, for the whole ecosystem
• The oasis calendar: every season has its outings with dates, booked by phone or by email. On Sunday 13 December 2026 there is I colori dell'inverno, the colours of winter, at 9:30, by boat on the lake and in the marsh to see the birds arrived from the north, then on foot along the last stretch of the Serchio to the mouth and the sea. In spring there is the Festa delle Oasi LIPU, the feast of the LIPU oases, which in 2026 was on 9 and 10 May with the marsh boat at dawn and breakfast on the lake; in summer the evenings at sunset and under the stars, which in 2026 were on 6 June and 10 and 11 August; in autumn Eurobirdwatch, in 2026 on 3 and 4 October, with guided observations and games for children in the hides. The oasis also organises summer camps for children and young people
• On foot beyond the boardwalk: the oasis suggests three walks from the village. The easiest, a loop, takes about three quarters of an hour: it climbs to the church of Massaciuccoli, on the knoll with the view over the lake, and passes the Roman baths. The one through the Caprile reclamation, an hour, runs between the marsh and the reclaimed fields watching the birds in the chiari. The one to Compignano, on Monte Quiesa, is a hiking trail of about four hours, poorly marked in places, among villas and gardens, and comes back by way of Quiesa and the Brilla
• The Brilla, about seven hundred metres from Quiesa, was the mill where the rice from the paddy fields around the lake was processed, the fields of the mondine, the women rice weeders; today it is another visitor centre of the oasis, with a hostel and a restaurant
• The Roman villa of the Venulei, in the archaeological area of Massaciuccoli Romana, in via Pietra a Padule, on the hill above the little harbour: you see the baths of the villa, with a mosaic floor of pale marble and obsidian, and in the Guglielmo Lera pavilion a mosaic with sea creatures and the objects from the excavations; from above you look over the lake and the coast of the Versilia. According to the museum network of the Province of Lucca, which does not give the year, from March to June it is open on Wednesday and Thursday from 9:30 to 12:00, on Friday from 9:30 to 14:30, and on Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 to 18:00; in July and August Thursday to Sunday from 9:30 to 12:30, and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday also from 17:30 to 21:30; in September and October on Thursday and Friday from 11:00 to 15:00 and on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00; from November to February on Thursday and Friday from 10:00 to 15:00 and at the weekend from 10:00 to 17:00. The ticket is 2 euros, 1 euro from 7 to 18 years, free up to 6 years and from 65; the guided tour 6 euros. Telephone 0584 979296
• Puccini and the lake: Puccini lived and composed at Torre del Lago, and the lake was where he went shooting; the villa on the Belvedere, now a museum, is on the Torre del Lago page, and the Puccini Festival, which in summer is held in the open-air theatre right on the shore, has its own experience

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