Trekking in the Apennines - A Trekker's Guide

The Grande Escursione Appenninica – the Great Appenines Trek or GEA – described in this guidebook is a 400km trek through the central-north section of Italy’s Apennine chain. Stunning scenery and picturesque villages enhance this beautiful, but little-known walking route along Italy’s 'spine'.

Trekking in the Apennines

The GEA – The Grande Excursione Appenninica

Author

Gillian Price

Cover

Paperback - Laminated

Edition

First

ISBN_13

9781852844165

Availability

Published

Price

£12.00

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Front Cover (1)
Location Map (1)
Overview Maps (2)
Sample Routes (1)

Seasons

Anytime from April to October is possible and recommended, although there may be snow early in the year. July-August are finest but also busiest.

Centres

Access via the main towns of Northern Italy. Start is Bocca Trabaria, north end is Montelungo. Good accommodation in huts and inns, but few large towns along the route.

Difficulty

Surprisingly rugged, 400km long and between 400m and 2000m in height; not for softies, this is a fairly tough 3 week trek.

Must See

Perhaps Italy’s best-kept secret, wonderful walking, wildlife, flowers – the scene for Eric Newby’s 'Love and War in the Appenines'

View Sample Route Map

Stage 12 - Montepiano to Rifugio Pacini

Time: 5hr 15min
Distance: 16.6 km/10.3 miles
Ascent/descent: 760m/460m
Grade: 2
Maps: Selca ‘Alto Appennino Bolognese’ 1:50,000 sheet 6 (except very start on sheet 7)

A divine stage leading through a wonderful neverending sea of herringbone crests cloaked in thick woodland ‘infested’ with deer and dotted with evocative wayside shrines and thirst-quenching springs. You’re miles away from it all, circling high above the Bisenzio valley that runs down to the textile town of Prato.

Note: Should Rifugio Pacini be closed, consider either pressing on to Cascina di Spedaletto in the following day’s stage (having first ascertained whether or not that is open!), otherwise leave the ridge temporarily for the hamlet of Cantagallo and nearby accommodation. Details are given at Passo del Treppio in Stage 13.

Leave the village of Montepiano due W on the Badia road, a divine avenue past a small lake and bar/pizzeria. A watercourse is crossed then, in the company of toads, it’s up to the tranquil hamlet of Badia (10min, phone box, drinking water), which boasts a 12th-century monastery with an exquisite Romanesque portal. The road quickly becomes a lane winding through lovely old beech wood. Bright blue derelict buildings immediately precede a path junction where you fork R (NW) on n.23. The wood thins as you climb to a ridge through clearings covered in orchids and flowering thyme, not to mention the inevitable hunters’ hides. A welcome spring, Fonte del Canapale (950m), precedes a hut then a broad white dirt track L. This is the Alpe di Caverzano (1008m, 1hr 20min), the summer quarters for dwellers of the eponymous lower village. Well-tended veggie gardens are very much in evidence.

At an attractive shrine and waymark column, the GEA/00 breaks off NW via a lane then path for more ascent to another evocative tabernacle in wood. The edge of the Parco Regionale Laghi di Suviana e Brasimone is followed in the company of old stone markers, to a fork L up to a great lookout. A narrow slightly exposed but brief stretch leads to a saddle on Monte delle Scalette (1186m) where you’re hard put to pinpoint a settlement in the endless sea of green.

Ahead a further scenic corner dominates the village of Fossato gathered on a narrow ridge, then you plunge S to the minor road pass of

3hr – Tabernacolo (968m) and a huge shrine-cum-chapel. Some thoughtful soul has fitted it out with armchairs to the delight of footsore walkers!

An inevitable stiff but shady climb takes you S to the 1139m mark on Poggio La Zucca, but before you have time to enjoy it, the path descends past several path junctions. Further on at Passo delle Pescine, with a moving shrine bearing a colourful ceramic madonna, work of a grateful family in 1948, the GEA does an abrupt swerve R (SW). Minutes after the moss-ridden Fonte di Pluto you cross a surfaced road and follow signs back into the wood for the remaining 15min to a superb clearing housing beautifully modernised

2hr 15min – Rifugio Pacini (1001m) at Pian della Rasa, tel: 0574 956030, CAI, sleeps 25, open July to Aug and often weekends. Emergency room always open but no beds. For information contact CAI Prato tel: 0574 22004 (weekdays after 9pm).