Going down along the valley, the Lima stream and other river pools offer beautiful spaces for canoe and rafting lovers, and also for people who like swimming, or just suntanning.

Not by chance, years ago the Lima stream was choosen by whitewater lovers as a favourite destination. It is certainly one of the favourite rivers of canoe lovers of Tuscany, and the most famous (with the Santerno river) of all Tosco-Emiliano Appennine, thanks to rafting and canoe meetings that are organized yearly - on the second week-end of April - by the Polisportiva S.Fedi of Pistoia. The Lima stream was the place of the Italian amateur championship in 1992 and 1993, two editions with a large participation of athletes from all over Italy.

There are 3 main tracks.

The upper track starts in Mammiano, at the conjunction with Limestre, under the “Ponte Sospeso” (suspension bridge), in the municipality of San Marcello Pistoiese. After two artificial jumps (that are worth seeing), there are long wavy rapids (difficulty: WW III°) ending in a river pool, followed by more rapids, that are easier, with small jumps and some treacherous rocks.

The river, at the end of rapids and passages, has always large quiet water areas, where beginners can rest or rescue the equipment. So the Lima stream is perfect for training, and only in high water season it reaches hard difficulty levels. The hardest passage of upper Lima is the longarina, upstream of Giardinetto. It is a narrow passage, and a good stability is needed, according to water levels.The landing area is after a few hundreds metres, under the bridge to Casoli. After the Giardinetto dam, the river flows into a gorge, and fallen rocks create a siphon, that doesn’t allow to go down. But the spectacular “strette di Cocciglia” can be watched, embarking for the middle track, near Cocciglia, and going up to the area under the siphon.

The middle track is viable only with a high water level in its upper and lower part; usually its water level is very low, because the Giardinetto dam keeps it almost dry. When the hydrometer of the Lima stream is at more than 90 (normal level = 50), then embarking is advisable on the middle track. Difficulty levels, here, don’t go beyond III°, but it is always better to go down carefully, because it is less busy, and it is easier to find tree boughs in the midst.

At 500 metres from the start, after a curve to the right, the following rapids flow into a tube on the right, so the passage on the left is better (that is visible from the road, at the conjunction with the Scesta stream). After the bridge (on the road) the river turns to the left, and here begins a track with wavy rapids, amusing and never dangerous. This way takes you near the hydroelectric power plant in Fabbriche di Casabasciana.