The Japanese have a word for it: shinrin-yoku,literally “forest bathing.” Not exercise, not hiking, not even walking in the traditional sense. Something slower. Something that asks you to receive rather than achieve, to let the forest work on you rather than moving through it towards a destination.

I discovered this practice by accident in the Garfagnana, that wild valley tucked between the Apuan Alps and the Apennines in northern Tuscany. I’d gone to hike. What I found was something else entirely,a way of being in nature that changed how I understand both stillness and healing.

The Science of Trees

Before dismissing forest bathing as another wellness trend, consider what science has established. Trees release volatile organic compounds called phytoncides,aromatic chemicals that form part of their immune system. When we breathe these compounds, our bodies respond. Studies show measurable decreases in cortisol, reduced blood pressure, increased natural killer cell activity, improved mood and concentration.

The Japanese began researching these effects in the 1980s, and the evidence has only grown stronger. Two hours of slow, attentive time in a forest produces benefits that last for days. This isn’t poetry,it’s physiology. Our nervous systems evolved among trees. They still remember.

What Tuscany offers is a particular quality of forest. The Garfagnana’s chestnut and beech woodlands have grown for centuries with minimal interference. The air carries something different here,a density of green, a particular humidity, layers of decomposing leaves that release their own chemistry. Walking slowly through these woods, you breathe something ancient.

A Different Kind of Attention

My first guided forest bathing session began with an invitation that felt almost absurd: walk one hundred metres in thirty minutes. My hiking brain rebelled. What was the point of covering so little ground?

But the guide wasn’t interested in distance. She asked us to notice the texture of bark beneath our fingertips. To close our eyes and identify sounds at different distances. To taste the air and detect how it changed between clearings and deep shade. To sit with our backs against trees and simply receive whatever arose.

Something happened in that slowness. The usual background hum of planning and evaluating quieted. Attention expanded sideways, taking in periphery rather than focusing on a goal. I became aware of my own breathing as part of a larger respiration,the forest exhaling what I needed to inhale, absorbing what I released.

This is the connection to yoga that I didn’t expect. Forest bathing cultivates the same quality of awareness that years of meditation practice develop,presence without agenda, receptivity without grasping. The forest becomes both teacher and environment, offering what the Zen tradition calls “just sitting” for those who find cushions and closed eyes difficult.

The Garfagnana Setting

The valley stretches between Lucca and the mountain passes into Emilia-Romagna, dotted with medieval villages and small farms that still produce chestnuts, honey, and farro. The forests here feel different from the cultivated landscapes of Chianti or the Val d’Orcia,wilder, more vertical, thick with the smell of decay and growth.

Several certified forest therapy guides now offer sessions in the area, often combining walks with mindfulness practices, breathwork, or simply extended periods of supported silence. Retreats typically last three to five days, allowing enough time for the effects to accumulate.

But you don’t need a guide to begin. Any forest offers the essential ingredients. The practice is simple: slow down radically. Engage your senses deliberately. Stay present to whatever arises in the body. Let two hours pass without covering more than a kilometre or two.

Near Barga, ancient mule trails wind through chestnut groves where the canopy blocks all but filtered light. Above Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, beech forests climb towards mountain meadows. The paths around Isola Santa,that village beside a dreamlike lake,offer water and forest together, mist rising through trees on autumn mornings.

What the Forest Teaches

After several days of daily forest bathing during a retreat last autumn, I noticed changes that surprised me. Sleep deepened. The familiar tightness in my shoulders released without bodywork. A low-grade anxiety I’d been carrying,so familiar I’d stopped noticing it,simply lifted.

But what stayed longest was subtler: a recalibration of pace. I walked more slowly for weeks afterwards. I noticed trees in the city, sought them out, stood beneath them. The practice had changed not just how I felt but how I moved through the world.

This is what the forest offers those who give it proper time,not just relaxation but recalibration. A reminder of the rhythm we evolved for, still available in landscapes we’ve nearly forgotten how to enter.

Finding a Guide

If you’d like to experience forest bathing with a certified guide in Tuscany, several options exist:

Forest Bathing Tuscany,dedicated nature therapy experiences in the region
Universe Mindfulness,multi-day forest bathing retreats in the Garfagnana with certified guides
Forest Therapy Hub,searchable map of certified forest therapy guides worldwide
The Parco Regionale della Maremma also offers guided forest bathing sessions through the park