Walking Tours in italy

Apuane Alps

*  Remote Unsophisticated Tuscany

*  Hike on Limestone Summits

*  Marble Mountains and the ‘Grotta del Vento’

This remote area of northern Tuscany has an old world charm of it’s own. It is a world away from the towns and rolling hills of the south. The Apuane Alps are covered by a web of trails providing routes from hamlet to hilltop and beyond. You will experience a mountain wilderness, superb scenery and tranquillity. This trek has many attractive ingredients, from wide mountain vistas, to remote hamlets surrounded by forest and mountain scenery. There are few other walkers and the villagers make you feel truly welcome.

From the small unassuming town of Fornaci di Barga we enter the Apuane forests, climbing up through chestnut woods and dropping down through vineyards to the ancient village of Verni. Here we enter an impressive series of limestone massifs that rise up to 2000m within a few kms of the sea, the Apuanes are famous for their scenery of white marble towers, abysses and the largest cave system in Italy. En route to Trassilico (732m) we stumble across remote chapels, and abandoned farms. We climb Monte Forato (1223m) visit the ‘Grotta del Vento’ with its subterranean lakes and ‘living’ stalagmites and stalactites. From Fornovolasco there is a long day to make the optional ascent of Pania della Croce (1860m), the view from the summit is quite magnificent. Before dropping down to the old hermitage at Calomini and back to Fornaci.

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