Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WORTH A TRIP
PARCO NAZIONALE DELL'APPENNINO TOSCO-EMILIANO
In the late 1980s Italy had half a dozen national parks. Today it has 24. One of the newest additions is
Parco Nazionale dell'Appennino Tosco-Emiliano
(
www.appenninoreggiano.it
) , a 260-sq-km parcel
of land that straddles the border between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. Running along the spine of
the Apennine mountains, the park is notable for its hiking potential, extensive beech forests and small
population of wolves.
Of its many majestic peaks, the highest is 2121m
Monte Cusna
, easily scalable from the village of
Civago, near the Tuscan border, on a path (
sentiero
No 605) that passes the region's best mountain
hut, the
Rifugio Cesare Battisti
( 0522 89 74 97;
www.rifugio-battisti.it
) . The
rifugio
sits along-
side one of Italy's great long-distance walking trails: the three-week, 375km-long
Grande Escursione
Appennenica (GEA)
, which bisects the park in five stages from Passo della Forbici (near the Rifugio
Cesare Battisti) up to its termination point just outside the park's northwest corner in Montelungo.
Sections of the GEA can be done as day walks.
Trekking in the Apennines
by Gillian Price (published
by Cicerone) provides an excellent detailed guide of the whole route.
One of the best gateways to the park is the village of
Castelnovo ne' Monti
, about 40km south of
Reggio Emilia along the winding SS63 on a delightfully scenic ACT bus route. The large village has
an ultrahelpful
tourist office
(
www.reappennino.com
;
Via Roma 15b; 9am-1pm & 3-6pm Mon-
Sat) that stocks bags of free information and sells cheap maps of the region for hikers, cyclists and
equestrians.
If you've arrived by bus, you can walk 3km from the village centre up to one of the national park's
defining landmarks, the surreal
Pietra di Bismantova
(1047m), a stark limestone outcrop visible for
kilometres around that's popular with climbers and weekend walkers. In its shadow lies the
Rifugio
della Pietra
, open for food and drinks in summer, and the tiny
Eremo di Bismantova
monastery,
which dates from 1400. From here various paths fan out to the rock's summit (25 minutes). You can
also circumnavigate the rock on the lovely 5km
Anella delle Pietra
or even tackle it on a difficult
via
ferrata
(trail with permanent cables and ladders) with the proper equipment.
Castelnovo ne' Monti offers a variety of overnight accommodation, including
Albergo Residence
Tre Re
( 0522 61 13 73;
www.residencetrere.it
;
Via Roma 17; studio/2-bed apt €65/80) . Satiate
your posthike appetite at
Trattoria da Geremia
( 0522 81 11 94; Via Franceschini 10; meals
€20-25; noon-2.30pm Fri-Wed, 7.30-10.30pm Fri-Tue) .
Getting to the park on public transport is possible by bus with
ACT
(
www.actre.it
) from Reggio
Emilia or
TEP
(
www.tep.pr.it
) from Parma. Several buses run every day.
Parma
POP 187,000
If reincarnation ever becomes an option, pray you come back as a Parmesan. Where else
do you get to cycle to work through traffic-light free, cobbled streets in uncrinkled Prada,
lunch on fresh-from-the-attic prosciutto and aged
parmigiano reggiano
cheese, quaff full-
